🔥 Let’s Talk Video Marketing: Is Short-Form Still Winning, or Is Long-Form Making a Comeback?
Hey Product Hunt friends! 👋
As someone deeply involved in video marketing and content creation, I’ve seen the meteoric rise of short-form video (TikTok, IG Reels, Shorts). It’s amazing for quick growth and instant engagement.
But lately, I’ve been noticing that long-form videos are quietly starting to regain attention — especially when it comes to building deeper trust, better community connections, and longer-lasting revenue streams.
Curious to hear your experiences:
Are you currently focused more on short-form or long-form video — or a blend of both?
Has short-form content translated into meaningful long-term results for your business or community?
Have you noticed any new trends or strategies that are outperforming expectations?
I’d love insights from creators, startups, educators, and marketers here. How are you adjusting your content strategy right now?
Excited to see your responses! 👇
— Austin
Replies
IXORD
In my experience, short videos are better. For example, if you are making a landing page, then short ones are better. But if it is a guide, then it is better to make a detailed video.
Both have different uses even in the same field e.g. education could have - long video for detailed info on a topic, short video for something like 5-words a day or similar.
I think short form is working because of tiktok and insta. people have started their educational channels on insta and tiktok because there are better conversions and better view rate than youtube now. But i see people who actually get more converted are on youtube long videos if you have a good user base who longs videos you have better conversion rate as short form can still get you more view in billions but conversion can be lower.
So something i see is working really well is making short content of your long videos gives you better outcome
It is true. Once I read paper/report by TikTok – they noticed how longer duration of Short videos started performing better.
+ People started watching YouTube videos on their TV (it is more cinematic experience suitable for long-form)
+ I consume long-form too (e.g. videocasts during exercises, some have more than 3 hours) :)
Absolutely feeling this shift, Austin.
In the early days, we leaned heavily on short-form quick experiments, faster reach. But what we found over time is that short-form drives visibility, not necessarily trust.
Now, we use short-form as top-of-funnel and long-form to deepen engagement especially for product education, use-case breakdowns, and onboarding flows. The real conversions started coming in when we slowed down and told better, longer stories.
One thing we’re testing now: pairing a 60-sec reel with a 5-min explainer on the same topic, and tracking which journey converts better. Too early to conclude, but early signals favor the long-form.
Curious if you’ve seen any retention lift with long-form too?
Loving this discussion, Austin!
Short-form is still king for reach, but long-form feels like the heart for a deeper impact. For me, I'm leaning into a mix lately: shorts for discovery and long-form for educational-content.
I still prefer short form videos. Maybe it's just my attention span, but I love it when videos get their message across within 30 sec to 1min.