fbpx

Video production - how much does it really cost?

Posing as a mystery shopper, we’ve uncovered the elusive pricing of Video Production Services. If you’re thinking of commissioning a video, then this is essential reading!

Video marketing is now a vital part of any marketing strategy. However, the cost of video production varies massively.

Just getting like-for-like quotes from video companies can be a very time consuming process. They’ll often keep their pricing a secret until you’ve sat through their sales pitch.

So we did some research! Our main aim was to get both a thorough and realistic comparison of prices from different production companies.

To rule out geographical differences, we concentrated on companies within West Yorkshire, UK. This is an area with a population of 2.3 million, and includes several large cities.

We started by compiling a list of all the production companies in the area. We spent hours searching online until we were confident that we had a list of every video production company which was offering its services. We then went on to contact each of the 35 companies individually to request a quote.

Our strategy was not to tell the companies that we were doing research, nor to tell them which company we were from, and we used an anonymous email account to communicate with them. This might all sound a bit shady… but we wanted to avoid skewing the results. If the companies had known that this was part of a research project, it could have affected the quote they gave us.

We asked each company for an estimate for the same project. We informed them that we were looking for quotes for a customer testimonial video, and sent them all an identical brief. Then we waited for a response.

The results (shown in the scatter graph below) varied massively. Prices averaged at £788, but ranged from just £225, right the way up to £2,400+VAT. Remember - this is for precisely the same project, based on the same brief.

Most companies quoted for 1-2 days work, which was fairly consistent. But it was the day rates which varied so much.

Of course, different companies will deliver a different quality of output. So presumably, the higher quotes would deliver a higher quality video than the lower ones. But, for exactly the same job, it seems remarkable that pricing fell within such a large range. From the information they provided, it would have been almost impossible for a potential client to understand the tangible differences in what they were offering.

And it is important to consider that some companies might have given us a “go away” price - an artificially high quote due to a lack of capacity or desire to take on this particular job.

  • Commissioning a video must be really frustrating. Lots of people don’t have experience or understanding of the production process, so it’s easy for companies to take advantage of that, and artificially inflate prices.

  • This research has reminded us how important it is to provide clear, consistent and detailed pricing, and explain to the client exactly what we can offer.
  • Here at Envisuals, we have a clear, fixed and fair pricing structure, and always give a full, itemised estimate and quote. Where appropriate, we also give options for different budgets. This pricing structure is affordable for our clients and allows us to deliver a top-quality service. To find out more about what we do, and for a free, no-obligation quote, get in touch.