How Much Does Video Production Cost
We work a lot with marketing companies and advertising agencies where their clients are educated on the cost of video production, they know how important it is to have their videos well produced, and they set aside the necessary budget to accomplish their goals. So here we’re going to talk through some of these key points for the small businesses and startups that may be going straight to a video production first for video ads or client-facing content and cutting the corner of hiring out marketing right away. Don’t be embarrassed. We’ve all been there. Yes, eventually you’ll outgrow doing this on your own and you’ll bring in a marketing team, until then, we’ve got you covered on what to expect, how to best move forward, and what your budget should look like.
First, let me specify what kind of video production we’re going to address here. This is not necessarily social media content creation like a TikTok dance trend video or a screen record of your no scopes. This is video content you’re going to put ad spend behind or video content you need to use to set a standard and best represent your brand voice. So, videos you’re going to back with ad spend, videos that live on your website, videos you’re adding to eblasts, the client-facing, best-foot-forward kind of ones you need done and you need them done well.
The short answer is: budget at least $5000 before reaching out to a video production company to create a video. There, I said it. Now, it will be higher or lower depending on your needs; what the shoot requires in terms of locations, scripting, how many days of production is required, number of crew members, gear, props, actors, makeup/hair, travel/lodging, motion graphics, animation, licensing, VFX, stock, VO recording, wardrobe, set design, deliverables etc. it can go on and on and that 5k budget can start doubling, tripling, quadrupling, all the ings. If you just need something like BRoll of your store location that loops on your website’s header with no sound, you may be looking at a lot less but for any full production that requires even a minimal amount of pre-production, scripting/concepting, shooting, editing, color grading and audio mastering. Have about 5k in mind.
<<here are a few more little tips & tricks>>
Be Transparent About Your Budget
If you have a video production budget in mind whether it be 5k or 500k, it’s not a bad idea to be up front about that budget with your video team at the time you’re looking to book. We don’t charge any differently for a client with a big budget as compared to a smaller one. The only thing a bigger budget does is give you more options that you can ultimately have the choice to cut. So, share your numbers at the start of conversations. It helps us to understand how wild the creative concepts can be so we’re pitching ideas that we can accomplish within that budget. We can always pull back. Otherwise, we pitch initial concepts defaulted to about a 5k budget.
Negotiating
There’s that old saying that everything is negotiable. Not the case with video production (not with us at least) but there are some things to consider.
Being open minded about cutting services (and expectations) can cut down on your costs. Have a video ad concept you love with 3 locations and 6 actors but you need to cut costs? We can rework the creative into a new concept that accommodates 1 location with 3 actors. Reworking the creative in the scripting phase is always an option. Or if you’re doing a company profile video, cut the number of interviewees down or the length or amount of deliverables. We can always help navigate cutting costs by cutting down the concept, services and/or deliverables.
Another thing to consider is trades. If you offer a service or a product our company already needs to spend money on, we may be able to consider a trade for all or part of the production cost. This is, of course, on a case by case basis but it doesn’t hurt to ask if we can swing some sort of trade situation.
Like Toilet Paper, The More You Buy, The Less it Costs
Submitting bulk video production orders for a proposal as opposed to one video is so much more cost effective usually. With bulk order productions and either a retainer or a payment schedule spread out throughout the term of the project, we can strategize shoots and edits to be done in a way where each individual production can get cut to up to half of the cost. We can help walk you through all of this and optimize your production strategy for bulk orders.
Ok all this talk about bulk items is making our tummies growly… we’re gonna go snag a bunch of Costco hotdogs so this is the end of the blog.
