There is a common misconception that longer campaigns are more likely to reach their goals simply because they have more days to work with. Our data shows that campaigns that are “too long” can actually be less likely to reach their goal than those that stay within a certain length — 40 days.

According to our data, campaigns that run for less than 40 days are 6% more likely to reach their goals than campaigns that go longer than 40 days. Of course, this goes against the natural instinct to extend the campaign as long as possible in order to give yourself the most time to raise money — but there are some clear reasons to account for it:

1. Engagement — The longer the campaign, the harder it is to continue to keep your audience engaged, excited, and contributing.

2. Momentum — It’s great to get the ball rolling, but you want to keep it rolling too. Doing that for 60 days will be much harder to sustain than doing it for 30 days.

3. Urgency — Potential contributors, especially those you might not know personally, may be less inclined to contribute to your idea when they see there are still many days left — and they might forget to come back again.

4. Perks — We recommend that you continue adding perks during your campaign. Overly long campaigns will have a harder time developing new perk ideas that continue to grab contributors in the later stages of the campaign.

Shorter campaigns allow you to really focus your effort and build a sense of urgency amongst your audience (and potential audience). Keep people engaged, pack in the perks, and don’t let people think, “Oh, there’s plenty of time left,” — and then click away. That being said, Indiegogo is a totally open platform where campaigners can make decisions that are right for them. If you think your campaign needs more than 40 days for any variety of reasons, then do what’s right for your campaign!

What do you think are other benefits of a shorter campaign? Let us know in the comments!