Hello, friends.
You’re on the Brzhechko&Nobody channel.
While the continuation of my course “Shoot It Right” is being prepared (yes, being prepared), I decided to record this video about duration.
Recently, during the defense of a marketing strategy, a media agency strongly insisted that our creatives should be shorter, because the average view time is only 2–3 seconds.
Okay. Sounds logical.
People don’t watch ads — so let’s make them shorter.
As if people had a built-in valve in their heads with a timer that clicks exactly after 2–3 seconds and says:
“That’s it. Close it.”
And all we supposedly need to do is fit into those 2–3 seconds.
But believe me — that valve has far more levers. And the timer is definitely not the main one.
Honestly, I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like when arguments like this are used seriously, explaining the opposite becomes almost impossible.
It’s like someone telling you that the sun is just a big light bulb that gets switched off at night to save electricity.
And then the question arises: should you really make a video explaining basic astronomy in that case?
Alright.
I still hope there are curious and intelligent people among you.
So let’s break this down.
In many areas of our lives, we rely on the same counterproductive approach, best described as “the average temperature in the hospital ward.”
At the same time, I don’t want to completely dismiss averages. There are processes where an average metric makes sense.
But today we’re talking about situations where orienting yourself around average duration is simply the wrong path.
Let’s take sex as an example.
They say the average duration of sex is about 3–4 minutes.
Now imagine that the woman is the customer, and the man is the seller.
Can the customer be satisfied in that time?
There’s separate data showing that the time required to satisfy the customer is usually longer than the time required to satisfy the seller.
And if we anchor ourselves to an average of 2–3 minutes, we will almost never satisfy the customer.
The customer — just like a woman — does not respond to a stopwatch.
They respond to:
- meaning
- trust
- safety
- and the quality of contact
So when an agency says:
“Let’s shorten it because the average view is 2 seconds,”
that’s exactly the same as saying:
“Let’s do everything faster, because someone only needs 30 seconds.”
One more thing.
Extending a sexual act is much harder than shortening it. And if everyone starts chasing the “average,” very quickly we’ll end up with a new average — even lower than the previous one.
And here we are already extremely close to advertising.
Sex is a process whose outcome should be pleasure, connection, intimacy, and loyalty.
Not… well, you know what.
Can you achieve that by focusing on average duration?
No.
Our task is to achieve the result.
How much time it takes is secondary.
The only thing you can achieve by optimizing for averages is an average result. That’s it.
When duration becomes a goal in itself, and we start believing it somehow guarantees success — we’re simply lying to ourselves.
Now let’s move on to math and advertising.
Once, Joseph Sugarman — a legendary copywriting guru — was asked:
“What is the optimal length of an advertising text?”
I don’t remember his exact wording — it was a long time ago.
But the essence was this:
If your copy doesn’t tell a person that this is about them, that this exact product can actually solve their problem, then the length of your text doesn’t matter — you won’t sell anything anyway.
But if a person understands that it’s about them, about their pain, and that you know how to solve it — they’re ready to read your message from start to finish, completely forgetting about time.
Think about yourself.
When you have a problem — especially a health-related one (and I sincerely wish everyone good health) — you instantly become an expert on that topic.
In some aspects, you even know more than your doctor.
Why?
Because you’ve read miles of text and watched hours of video.
I can easily imagine walking into a bookstore and seeing a book titled:
“How Brzhechko Yevhenii Can Become Successful, Rich and Happy — 100% Guaranteed.”
I swear, I’d start reading it right there in the store — and I’d read every volume, no matter how many there were.
But yes — this is still theory.
You can argue with it.
I honestly don’t understand how — but you can. People always argue, especially when they really want to.
Numbers are harder to argue with.
Especially when they’re used in a real methodology.
Let’s imagine a completely realistic experiment.
We launch a YouTube campaign.
Planned reach — 2 million people.
Our KPI — 10,000 packs sold.
Product price — 7 USD.
Let’s assume that out of those 2 million people, 600,000 actually have the problem the product solves.
Now imagine that all 600,000 watched the ad till the end.
Yes, in reality there will be some dispersion — but it will be neutralized by full views from a portion of people without the problem. We still assign them just one second.
The rest of the audience scrolls past.
We count 1 second of viewing time for them.
Ad length — 15 seconds.
Campaign budget — 21,000 USD.
So:
- 1,400,000 people × 1 second
- 600,000 people × 15 seconds
Out of those who watched fully, 10,000 people purchased.
Less than 2%. Completely realistic.
What do we get?
70 000 USD in revenue.
ROAS = 3.3.
And now — attention.
The average view duration under these parameters — which are very hard to dispute — is… 2.4 seconds.
That means an ad that sold, paid for itself, and made money has an average view time of 2.4 seconds.
That’s it. I’m done. I’m leaving.
And after this, we’re told that people don’t watch ads.
Of course they don’t.
There has never been a single era in human history where people liked watching ads.
(Unless it’s not an ad, but a nice video that people enjoy — and that doesn’t sell anything.)
I’m not advocating extremes.
I’m not saying you should shoot films instead of ads.
There’s another crucial factor: noise and the volatility of attention.
That’s why you shouldn’t optimize for average view time.
You should optimize for the communicational qualities of your creative that ensure:
- engagement
- attention retention
- and sales
Then your ad can be 3 seconds long — and still sell.
And once again, we arrive at a simple axiom. If you truly understand it, you will never take “recommended durations” seriously again:
Advertising is communication that sells.
It’s not a video people like.
It’s not a video of a certain length.
It’s a video that fucking sells.
Now, a separate note for agencies.
If you really want to measure and average everything — measure something else.
Measure the average view duration among those who actually purchased.
And separately — the moment where people passed the hooks but didn’t buy.
That’s where the weak spot of the creative is most likely hiding.
That actually makes sense.
Dear advertisers and marketers — clients of agencies.
I hope now you better understand what really deserves your attention — and which metrics have nothing to do with effectiveness.
Because if we all start making shorter and shorter ads, the only thing we’ll achieve is even shorter ads and an even lower “average” — which we’ll then chase again, complaining that nobody watches advertising.
And if you want to learn how to shoot the right creative that sells regardless of duration — subscribe to this channel and watch the first part of my author’s course “Shoot It Right.”
See you on the channel.
