How Much Should a 30-Second Video Cost?
If you’re a business owner or marketing director looking to create a short video for an ad, you’ve probably wondered: “How much should a 30-second video cost?” The short answer? It depends.
We believe in transparency to help you understand what goes into video pricing.
Here are the three biggest factors that influence the cost of a 30-second video:
1. The Type of Video You Need
Not all 30-second videos are created equal. A simple talking head video filmed in your office will cost significantly less than a cinematic brand video with actors, a script, and multiple shoot locations. Here are a few common types:
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Social Media Ad: Often quick and efficient, starting around $750–$1,500.
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Animated Explainer: Great for simplifying your message, typically $1,500–$3,000.
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High-End Brand Video: Story-driven and polished, ranging from $3,000–$10,000+.
2. Production Quality and Crew Involved
Higher-quality video means better lighting, sound, editing, and storytelling—but it also means more crew and equipment. The cost will reflect if your project requires a director, cinematographer, drone shots, or studio space.
At 12 Media Group, we typically have a production crew of 2 to 3 people to ensure the production experience is smooth and the video assets turn out amazing.
3. Post-Production
Editing your project can take as much time as filming—sometimes more.
People assume a 30-second video will be cheaper than a longer video, but that’s not always the case.
It can be more difficult to cut a video down to 30 seconds, especially if it needs to be exactly 30 seconds for certain platforms, like Hulu, for example.
So, What’s the Bottom Line?
With our company, a professionally produced 30-second video will be between $3,600 and $20,000, depending on complexity.
If you want a quick quote tailored to your project, contact us here and let’s talk about your project.
5 Powerful Video Types Proven to Increase Sales
The purpose of a professional video is not just to look cool. We always aim to provide a return on investment on your video project. Each video should serve a purpose to generate revenue. Here are 5 types of video that can boost sales for your company.
1. Brand Videos
Businesses that use video on their homepage see conversion rates improve by up to 80%.
(Source: Unbounce)
The videos we tend to shoot the most are brand story videos. These are great because we interview you, your leadership team, and any other key team members to share why you do what you do. We also show your process and footage of you providing your service. These are great for building trust and separating you from your competition. They also humanize your brand.
2. Event Recap Videos
If you host an event like a business conference, trade show, or corporate event, having a recap video shot can boost sales. Here’s how: one of the easiest ways to promote an event is to show what the event is like so prospective attendees know what to expect.
We were recently approached by a networking group to shoot a video of their upcoming business summit. Their main frustration was that they host this event annually, but had ZERO video footage to be able to promote this year’s summit.
These also allow you to show your company’s culture in another way besides just showing your service.
3. Drone Videos
Drone videos are excellent for boosting sales for construction companies because they show the vast scope of projects that they can handle. These can also be used to show the progress of a project and highlight the quality of your work.
We are shooting a series of videos for a commercial roofing company showing the before, during, and after of a gigantic project. They will be using this to pitch other companies with proof that they handle large projects.
4. Educational Videos
These are a great trust builder for any service builder. When you educate your potential customer throughout the buyer journey, you create a more informed buyer who’s more willing to do business with you. We try to include 3 to 5 educational videos with every video shoot project that we do. These can be posted on your website, YouTube, and social media.
5. Testimonial Videos
These may be the most powerful of the 5. If you say your company is great, you just blend in with the crowd. But if your customer tells the story of how your business was able to solve their specific problem, it will carry more weight. Having a few of these on your website that show your ideal types of clients singing your praises will be your best “salesperson”.
If you need help shooting any of these types of video to boost sales for your business, fill out the form below, and we can discuss your project.
Do You Need a Studio for Your Video Shoot?
We’re getting this question more often as more businesses move to a remote work model.
The answer is yes. We have access to a studio at Purposefull Productions in Plano.
Recently, we shot a brand video for Holmes Law Group.
The attorneys and staff are fully remote, so we were able to get all of the footage in one location in one day.
Here’s how it works.
Professional Setup
What we love about the Purposefull Production studio is that it’s usually used for podcast recording, so it’s already soundproof and fully furnished (the sets can be changed for different looks).
Before you arrive, we will bring in our professional lighting, microphones, and cameras and set everything up for the shoot.
We will then get you mic’d up for sound check.
From there, we’ll make sure you’re comfortable and get you ready to deliver your speaking parts.
Shooting Your Speaking Parts
Once we have you mic’d up and the shot framed up, we will guide you through your speaking parts.
Our production assistant and videographer will use the outline from our shot list that we created from the details of the pre-production call.
We’ll go through each speaker one at a time to deliver each topic of the video.
There is a waiting area so others that aren’t aren’t on camera yet have a place where they can wait comfortably.
B-Roll Footage
Another benefit of this studio is that we also have access to conference rooms where we can shoot B-roll footage.
This allows us to create different scenes with your employees, like a team meeting or collaboration.
We can also get aerial (drone) footage of the surrounding areas for establishing shots.
Your Next Step:
So if you’ve been considering a professional video for your company, but you weren’t sure where you would shoot it, we have you covered.
Book a call today to schedule a call to go over your project here: Get a Quote
Best Types of Events to Showcase Your Brand Video
I do quite a bit of networking and attend several events throughout the year. Over the past month, I’ve seen a professional video played at 3 different types of events, so it encouraged me to write this post.
It’s important to me that our clients are getting the most out of the video assets we produce for them. If you have a professional video shot for your business, here are 3 events at which it should be played.
Trade Show/Conference
We had a company reach out to us last month requesting that we shoot a video for a trade show they are attending. The owner mentioned several other businesses had a video showcasing their products and services, so he wanted one as well.
It makes sense: businesses invest thousands of dollars in a booth at a trade show or conference, so they need to do everything possible to attract leads for a great ROI.
Corporate Luncheon
If you sponsor a corporate event, you will typically get a few minutes to talk about your services. You can use some of the time to play a promotional video. That’s exactly what Huffines did at the McKinney Chamber Spring Quarterly Luncheon.
They played a short video showing their activity in the community.
These types of videos can be powerful because they tell a story, and your ideal audience (hopefully) is in the room.
Gala
Galas and events for nonprofit organizations are a great place to share your company’s story video. When people are bidding on items or donating to a charity, they want to know the impact that the nonprofit is making.
They also want to be able to trust that organization.
We shot a testimonial video for Delighted to Doula a while back to show the powerful impact they are making for moms who need postpartum support. This is a video they use for galas, donation drives, and more.
Your Next Step
If your business is sponsoring an event soon, we’d love to put together a video for you that shows how amazing your company is to maximize the ROI on your investment.
To discuss your project, click here: Get a Quote
Do You Need a Script for Your Business Video?
We were asked during a discovery call, “Do we need a script for our video?
The short answer is it depends. The overwhelming majority of the time, we would say no.
Instead, we recommend that you use an outline.
During The Pre-production Call
We have a pre-production call before every video shoot. during this call, we are going over all of the speaking points. This allows us to create a shot list and have an outline loaded on an iPad the day of the shoot.
Our Production Assistant
Our production assistant will guide each speaker through the outline of their speaking parts. They will be feeding you the topics to allow you to speak from your heart, your mind, etc.
This way it comes off a lot more natural instead of looking like a bad commercial at 2:00 in the morning.
We will “clean everything up” as far as mess-ups and do-overs in the editing process.
The Exception to the Rule
Now there is the exception of people who look great and confident reading off of a script, but also it doesn’t look like they are reading. We recently shot a video with a high-end recruiter and he was brilliant reading off a script/prompter.
In this case, if you provide us with a detailed script (we can assist with this), we can load it into an iPad prompter for you.
The Bottom Line
So really it comes down to your comfort level and how you’re going to feel confident. Most of the time, we recommend that you allow us to guide you and help you get the content out of there naturally so it doesn’t feel robotic and scripted. Hope this helps, keep recording!
Your Next Step
If you need a professional video for your website, click here: GET A QUOTE
Our Proven Video Production Process: Step-by-Step Guide
Here at 12 Media Group, we have a repeatable video production process that helps us deliver high-quality videos to our clients every single time.
These are the steps we take to make it happen.
Discovery Call:
We start with a Zoom (or regular call if you prefer) call to understand your needs for the shoot. We need to dig in and understand why you need a new video (the goal of the video), where it’s going (website, social media, etc), how you want your audience to feel once they’ve watched it, and the funds available for the shoot.
It’s also important to know how many speakers you will have in the video, how many videos you need during the shoot, how many locations (and where they are), and how many days we will need to complete the shoot.
All this info allows us to create a quote/agreement for your video shoot.
Agreement:
After the discovery call, we put together a detailed agreement showing you the exact details of the video shoot, including the investment amount, the number of videos you’re getting, how the assets will be delivered, and editing information.
All of our shoots include editing and royalty-free music so there are no surprises on the back end.
Once we (you and our company) sign the agreement, we will schedule the shoot.
Preproduction Call:
After we schedule your video shoot, we need to schedule the preproduction call. This is the most important part of the video production process in my opinion.
On this call, we will cover these details of the shoot:
- What are the points/topics that must be in the video.
- Who will be speaking in the video.
- What to wear during the shoot.
- How we will get the b-roll and what those shots will be.
- Different locations of the shoot.
- Which room in your office is best
These details will help us build out the shot list so everything runs smoothly and efficiently on the video shoot day.
The preproduction call is the key to producing a video that you will LOVE!
Video Shoot Day:
The day you’ve been waiting for! Video shoot day. We arrive at your location (or your job site location) to set up our equipment (lighting, tripods, etc.).
We assign a production assistant to our video shoots.
Their role is to get all of the speakers prepped for their parts of the video, manage the shoot as far as ensuring our videographers are hitting everything on the shot list (speaking roles and b roll), manage the shooting environment (ensuring cell phones are on silent, speakers have water, other employees are quiet while filming is going on, etc).
Once we shoot all of the speaking roles, b roll, and drone (aerial) footage, we will debrief with you to give you expectations of when all of the assets will be delivered.
Editing/Delivery of Video Assets:
We are currently turning our video projects around in about 2 weeks or less.
The discovery and preproduction calls makes our editing process smooth because we’ve already covered all of the details, including the look and feel that you want the video to have.
This step-by-step process leads to us having little to no revisions since we nailed all of the details.
After we have fully edited your video, we then deliver it to you in Dropbox.
If you need a professional video for your business, we’d love to help.
You can get a quote here: BOOK A CALL
What to Expect in a Pre-Production Call for Your Video Shoot
Once we schedule your video shoot, the next step is to set up the pre-production call. This is one of the most vital steps in the video production process.
Here’s what we cover during that call to ensure your video project goes smoothly from start to finish:
Who is Speaking?
The number of speakers is determined in the discovery call. We go into more detail during the pre-production call. We need the names and titles of the speakers so we can include that information in the editing process.
What Are The Topics?
We need to know what information you want to ensure is covered in the video. We also ask that you assign topics to different team members if there are multiple speakers in the video.
This allows us to create the shot list for your shoot so our production assistant keeps everyone on task and organized.
Most importantly it helps us to ensure the video hits your business goals.
B-Roll Shots:
B-roll is the footage that supports the speaking parts. We go into more detail in this article: What is B Roll Footage in a Video.
Our goal with every video is to avoid using stock footage for b roll. During the pre-production call, we will determine the best strategy for getting this footage.
It’s always best to have your actual team members in the shot. An example would be having us capture footage of a team member performing the task you’re talking about in the video.
Best Area To Shoot:
It’s our job to guide you on where we should shoot the speaking parts of your video. However, we will ask you on the call where you think the best places at your office or job site are to film. We look for good lighting (although we always bring our professional lighting) signage that your company name/logo, and overall aesthetics.
Clothing:
The next item to address is what you and your team members should wear on the day of the video shoot. Branded clothing is always best, but what you would normally wear to work is typically what we recommend.
For more in-depth guidance, we wrote an article on this as well: What to Wear on a Video Shoot.
Inform Office Members
We will also remind you to inform any team members that may be on location the day of the shoot that we will be filming so they don’t make an unexpected cameo 🙂
Confirm Location, Date, and Time:
Once we schedule the video, we will have the location(s), date(s), and time. It’s always great to double-check to ensure all parties are on the same page for your video shoot.
Logo and Best Number to Contact
Lastly, we’ll have you send us a high-resolution version of your logo and the best phone number for potential customers.
We will add these details at the end of your video for the call to action.
The pre-production call is a crucial step in ensuring your video makes your business money for years to come!
