How long should a video be on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn?

Why there's no single right length

When clients ask us how long their reel should be, the honest answer is: depends what you're showing. A trades business demonstrating a tile sitting perfectly flush doesn't need 30 seconds for that. An interview where someone explains a decision needs more than a minute, or the point gets lost. Length follows content, not the other way round. Still, almost every client asks this question first, usually before any filming has happened, because length shapes how the shoot day gets planned: knowing whether a reel or a LinkedIn video is the target lets you frame shots more deliberately than deciding in the edit what the footage can support. What we can still offer are rules of thumb per platform and placement that we've used in the edit for years. For a broader look at where video fits into your strategy, see the social media strategy cluster.

Rules of thumb per platform and placement

The table below is Öykü's rule of thumb from years of editing, not a study and not a platform statistic. It shows a sensible order of magnitude per placement, not a hard limit. Where your audience behaves differently, your own experience counts for more than any table.

What this means day to day on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn

Instagram

On Instagram it pays to use reels and stories differently on purpose, rather than uploading the same clip twice. The reel carries reach, short and with a strong opening frame: for a window-fitting business in Neukölln, the finished shot of a newly installed bay window lands harder in second one than a slow time-lapse of the build. The story carries retention: several short clips show the path there, the cut, the fitting, the finished result, each one only a few seconds long. A single long story clip, by contrast, rarely gets watched to the end, because swiping is faster than watching.

TikTok

On TikTok, editing pace matters more than raw length. A 20-second video with five quick cuts often feels shorter than a 15-second clip with a single static shot. If you post on TikTok, build the hook as a question or a small surprise, and save branding, logos or the company name for the very last second. Otherwise people scroll on before the actual content even starts.

LinkedIn

On LinkedIn a lot of people are scrolling between two meetings, often with the sound off. A video there can carry more length than on Instagram if it shows something substantive: a number, a decision, a short explanation. On-screen text for the first lines matters, because most people watch the video muted at first. A 60-second video where a workshop owner from the Torstraße walks through a decision in a way people can follow tends to land better there than three separate 15-second clips on the same topic, because that audience expects substance more than a quick sequence of impressions.

Why the first three seconds matter

At the editing desk we see it in every piece of raw footage: the first frames decide whether someone keeps watching or keeps scrolling. Not because people have grown impatient, but because a feed offers an endless stream of alternatives. A logo intro, a slow establishing shot, a warm-up line, all of that costs seconds you don't have. What works is an opening that shows straight away what it's about: the finished result, an unusual movement, a line that raises a question. The rest of the video can then tell its story more calmly once the opening has landed.

Our own numbers back that up too: in our sample of 781 Instagram posts from 16 Berlin-based businesses, the median engagement rate for reels was just under 2 percent, versus under 0.4 percent for single-image posts, roughly five times lower. That's not a study and not a projection onto the wider market, just our own observation from working with Berlin clients, but it matches what we see at the editing desk: moving footage holds attention longer than a still image.

From one shoot: a 60-second brand film, a 15-second reel, a 6-second ad

Length is also a production question, and that's exactly where the difference shows between a single shoot and lots of separately bought pieces. One shoot day for a brand film doesn't just deliver the 60-second film for your website, it also yields a 15-second reel for Instagram and a 6-second cutdown for an ad campaign, cut from the same material. Same shots, same visual language, just cut differently for the length and platform each one needs. That works because the same two people shoot, edit and post at null3null: Öykü and Nils, with no handover to another supplier in between. It's one of the reasons we work the way we do.

Many social media packages, by contrast, are priced by posts per month and add video on top as an extra allowance, say four posts a month with up to two of them reels (source: pricing page of a Berlin-based social media provider, August 2026). In practice that often means a moving feed image rather than a real shoot, because an extra camera day simply isn't part of the package. For you as a client, that means video ends up as a side item rather than the core of the service. With us, the shoot is part of the monthly retainer, because we don't buy in video production, we make it ourselves. You can see how that looks day to day on the social media content page, and examples are in our references.

How to find the right length for a new video

Before the first cut is set, we clarify three things: where the video will run, what it's meant to trigger, and how much content it actually carries. That order prevents the most common problem at the editing desk: a length decided by gut feeling before it's even clear what the video is for.

• Decide the platform and placement first, not last: a reel gets planned differently from a LinkedIn video right from the start.
• Find the one line that needs to land: does the content carry that line in 15 seconds, in 60, or only after two minutes?
• Assess the raw footage honestly: does the shoot support the planned length, or is something being stretched that should really be told shorter?

When longer is better

Not every piece of content belongs squeezed into 15 seconds. An interview where a founder explains why she opened her workshop in Weißensee loses its point if it's cut down to a snapshot. Explainer content too, a process with several steps, a question that deserves a real answer, needs more than half a minute. The rule of thumb here: as long as the content carries it, not as long as the platform technically allows. A two-minute video that someone watches all the way through is worth more than a 15-second clip nobody finishes.

• A how-to or explanation: as long as the last step takes, often 60 to 90 seconds.
• An interview or a statement: as long as the thought needs to be finished.
• A product or sales moment: short, often under 15 seconds, because the decision happens fast.

Common mistakes with video length

From the feedback we get from clients and from our own campaigns, the same length mistakes come up again and again. None of them is hard to avoid once you know what to look for.

• A logo-and-music intro before the actual content burns exactly the three seconds in which viewers decide for or against the video.
• One video for every platform at the same length: a 90-second longform clip feels out of place in a TikTok story and rarely gets watched to the end.
• Too many messages crammed into too little time: a reel trying to fit five points into 15 seconds ends up delivering none of them clearly.
• Forgetting subtitles: assuming a video will be watched with sound loses the large share of viewers who scroll with the sound off.

How long a video should end up being is something we work out in the first call together with the full scope, and after that it's written into the offer. That way there's no surprise later, not in the number of formats and not in the price.

What we don't promise here

Even the best length and the sharpest hook don't guarantee reach, and we won't tell you otherwise. What we deliver instead is material made for the specific platform and placement, rather than one video played out everywhere at the same length. If you want to check what an approach like that costs on an ongoing basis rather than as a one-off, the ranges are in the article What does a social media agency cost per month?. And if you're still working out how often to post at all before length even becomes the question, the answer is in How often should you post on social media?.

If you want to see what video lengths could work for your own business, the simplest step is a short call: 45 minutes, free, no buzzword slides. You can book one on the contact page, and see everything we offer on the services overview.