Ask Buffer: What is the Ideal TikTok Length?

In early 2013, the internet was captivated by six-second clips they’d come to know as Vines. While these videos were fleeting, they told an entire story and entertained audiences in a few seconds. Today, Vine is no more, and TikTok dominates the short-term video space.

But whereas Vines had a fixed length – six and a half seconds to be exact – there’s much more wiggle room when it comes to TikTok lengths, which can be confusing when trying to figure out the optimal length for your videos.

Recently, while filming a TikTok video for one of our Buffer articles, I wondered about the ideal length. Should I be quick and snappy or go into detail and make the TikTok a bit longer? This led me to the idea for this article, where I’ll tackle the question of the right length for a TikTok. Let’s get started!

How to find the right TikTok length

To figure out the best length for your TikTok, you need to consider a few things, including the app’s algorithm, understanding user preferences, and factoring in the type of content you’re creating.

What video lengths perform the best on TikTok?

TikTok has never publicly come out about which video lengths perform the best. However, we can make a reasonably accurate guess based on data and research.

In mid-2021, internal data from TikTok that was given to creators said the optimal TikTok length was 11 to 17 seconds. However, by the end of that year, that number had increased to 24 to 31 seconds. According to Wired, a TikTok survey also found that users felt videos longer than one minute were stressful. All of this indicates that shorter videos perform best with the TikTok community, however, the platform has recently been pushing for longer videos for different reasons.

The reality is, while user attention spans are shorter now, TikTok wants longer videos to help sell more advertising revenue (this is partially why Vine shut down – it couldn’t sustain its business model) hence their recent move to allow up to 10 minute-long TikToks in early 2022. So over the years, TikTok video lengths have increased: from 7 seconds → 15 seconds → 3 minutes → 10 minutes.

With this being said, the consensus is still that shorter videos perform better on TikTok. Not only is the platform still known for short-form content, but you don’t want people to be scrolling past your videos without finishing them, meaning it is probably best to stick to shorter TikToks.

Social media is constantly changing, however. And because there is a financial incentive for TikTok to venture into long-form content, there is a realistic chance that the app’s algorithm may prefer longer videos in the near future – so stay flexible.

What video length suits your TikTok content the best?

We’ve already established that shorter videos perform best on TikTok – but this doesn’t necessarily mean that longer videos don’t have a place on the app. The length of your TikTok will depend on the message …read more

Source:: Buffer Blog