Marketing in eCommerce is undergoing a fast-paced transformation, shifting to video experiences, such as on-site vertical videos, shoppable videos, and livestream shopping. The large-scale development is directly proportional to the eCommerce video production costs incurred by brands. The mounting costs invariably deter businesses from scaling up video usage on their website.
There is a wide range of options to choose from, but how does one arrive at a concrete budget before the brand begins with video production?
Let us look at a detailed explanation of all the costs that you are likely to incur when upping your marketing game with videos.
The costs of video production can start at as low as $500 and go up to $50,000, depending on the complexity, quality, and time. Video production costs depend on the type of video being produced. Some of the types of videos are product videos, explainer videos, testimonial videos, animated videos, and educational videos. For example, if the business aims to inform viewers about its products, it might want to add an explainer video to the homepage of its website. Allotting a higher budget for this video might be the right thing to do since this will provide an introduction to the brand and be available to viewers 24×7.
Essential Video Production Costs
Let us break down the costs involved in video creation.
Project Management and Project Coordination
The task of video production requires to be managed by a dedicated human resource. The manager overlooks the budget and the costs being incurred, handles all personnel and performs other administrative work. A fresh graduate from film school may charge $25 an hour, whereas an experienced video production professional charges around $250 an hour.
Talent Cost
This cost includes on-camera as well as off-screen talent. Scriptwriters, storyboarders, actors, models, and voice-over artists are some experts you may want to consider. Influencer fee is another key cost item for brands that would like to rope in subject matter experts or creators for the livestream shopping sessions.
The cost of additional video production crew members should be budgeted, for example, camera operators and make-up artists.
Equipment Cost
Equipment costs are generally the largest costs for in-house video production. Some video production houses charge a smaller amount of rent for their advanced equipment.
Location Cost
The shoot location predominantly affects your video production budget. Remember to research studio rentals, travel, fees and permits, and building rentals.
Post-production Cost
The intense work usually begins after the completion of video shooting. Video editing, adding special effects, and voice-overs are some high-effort and time-consuming tasks that require special attention in your video production budget.
Additionally, music licensing fees depend on the choice of a music track for the video.
Hosting and Broadcasting Cost
Once the eCommerce video is produced, it is ready to be displayed to the intended audience. Hosting a video on the brand website entails certain costs too. Multiple platforms offer private video hosting servers that charge a few dollars a month to a few thousand.
Similarly, other expenses come along with professional broadcasting. The objective of the video can determine the budget for hosting the video. Bandwidth, encoder support, and embedding the videos on the brand website mount up to significant expenses.
Videos can significantly burden your server with even a little push of traffic, regardless of whether you have a dedicated server or virtual machine. A standard homepage with photos should take up no more than a few gigabytes, however, a single 720p video frequently takes up more than 100. Therefore, ten viewers watching a minute of HD video on the server use a gigabyte of bandwidth. For the same bandwidth, the website could receive a thousand or more visitors to a page with both text and images. A single video might easily push you above your allotted bandwidth in a matter of days because web hosting plans frequently place a limit on it. Third-party platforms, therefore, become the more convenient and cost-effective choice.
Factors that Influence Video Production Costs
In addition to the agency costs mentioned earlier, the major deciding factors of production cost remain as follows:
- Video Length – It isn’t surprising to know that longer videos cost more money due to the time required to edit them. Brands may add up to a few hundred dollars with each additional minute to calculate the cost of their video! Experts suggest that every finished minute of the video costs between $1000 and $5000. A 2 to 3-minute professional video usually costs $2000 to $7000.
- Video Style – Your creative vision will determine how long your production studio needs to deliver the final product. The amount of time required to complete the video tasks influences the overall cost. A 3-minute film could be made in 3 days for $3,600 but a more complicated 3-minute video could be made in 14 days for more than $10,000.
- Video Quality – The desired quality of output is directly proportional to the video production cost.
Reading through and adding up these costs might influence one toward in-house video production. However, this path is not necessarily light on the pocket. The money saved by the brand in outsourcing video production will cost the brand time. The opportunity cost of using an existing employee should be contemplated in detail and accounted for. If a regular requirement of video creation is anticipated, hiring a full-time specialist is the more straightforward way forward. Alternatively, advanced and affordable technology can now enable efficient video creation for websites.
Summary
The rise of video marketing is nudging eCommerce brands to increasingly prioritise videos for driving engagement and boosting conversions. However, creating videos that are not high-quality can have a negative impact on the brand’s reputation. Hence, investing in creating good quality videos is essential. However, the cost can be optimized either by roping in video production agencies that offer competitive production rates or choosing end-to-end creation platforms that make video creation a breeze.
