YouTube Shorts ads: only the first 60 seconds play, trim to fit

For Google Ads campaigns on YouTube Shorts, the help page says you upload the video to YouTube, it can be up to 3 minutes long, and only the first 60 seconds play on the Shorts feed. Under 60 seconds is the recommendation, so a 3-minute video wastes two thirds of its length.

What the page gives

Only the lengths and text limits the page states are listed here.

Cut the first minute well

If the ending holds the offer, a plain 60-second cut removes it. Re-order before you trim: cut the 3-minute video to the section that works alone, then end on the call to action. Use video trim with an explicit start and duration: 55 to leave a margin.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-trim \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: shorts-ad-55s-001" \
  -d '{"video_url":"https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/long.mp4","start":0,"duration":55,"precision":"exact"}'

Check the last frames

Sample the end of the cut with video inspect, asking for frames.at [50, 53, 54.5], and confirm the call to action is visible and not cut mid-word. If the trim moved the ending, re-run with a different start.

Because the video is uploaded to YouTube first, the file you trim is the one viewers see; the headline and description fields come from the ad form, not from the video.