When considering implementing explainer videos into your marketing strategy, one critical question needs to be answered – how much will it cost? Unfortunately, a quick Google search won’t do you much good here. That would get you a range of $5,000-$35,000 per minute, which is about as helpful an answer as “a bit.” The frustrating part is how accurate an answer this is.
Explainer videos cost about as much as you want them to. A lot goes into creating a quality video, with plenty of variables dictating the overall cost. Length, style, and time constraints are a few such examples. While this doesn’t help you determine explainer video costs much, this article should. Let’s get into specifics.
What goes into a quality explainer video?
Creating a high-quality explainer video is no easy task. As with anything, the higher the desired quality, the more you can expect to pay. Since costs can mount quickly, you should first know what a higher investment will return.
Deep research into your brand, product, and target audience
Producing an enthralling video that captures your audience’s attention is fantastic – it’s what leads to those conversions. However, top-tier content is wasted on an audience that ultimately has no interest in your product. This is where market research comes in.
If you are prepared to invest a bit more into your content, you can massively benefit the foundation of your videos. By doing extensive research, you can ensure your videos will be tailor-made for your target audience, in addition to being a perfect match for your brand. Moreover, investing in research can help you navigate competitive markets by analyzing what works and what doesn’t and avoiding anything that could be seen as too similar. We all know data is important. That’s no less true in video creation. https://www.youtube.com/embed/H9eXvny6AvM
Completely unique content
Following on from the last point, the more unique your content, the better. Not only does unique content rank better in terms of SEO, but it makes a better impression on your audience, plus saving you the headache of worrying that you might have flown too close to the sun.
When it comes to video creation, aiming for entirely unique assets can be expensive, but it gives you complete control over how they are used. As you own all assets, reusing them later won’t be as costly, nor do you risk them being associated with anything you disapprove of.
Better asset and animation quality
High-quality explainer videos need high-quality components, which in turn bump up the cost of a project. There are plenty of cheaper options available, like whiteboard or 2D animations, that are perfectly capable of getting your message to an audience. However, to take your video marketing strategy to the next level, you’ll want a bigger budget and a better type of video.
3D animation is one approach to big-budget video marketing. The levels of detail, camerawork and graphical quality are almost unparalleled. While sure to be an expensive investment, high-quality and near infinitely customizable animation styles such as this are worth it. In addition to sole ownership and individuality, you ensure that your quality brand is appropriately represented by quality content.
Professional staff
This last point is pretty obvious – capable people create quality products. While having professionals on your payroll won’t come cheap, you’ll be better off for it. While true in all industries, it is especially so in video creation. Pros are what keeps your project to the time schedule, less likely to cut corners or hit stumbling blocks and produce the best results. As your projects expand and require more roles to be filled, you’ll want to seek out specialists. Having your animator double as a scriptwriter might save you some money but will often deliver worse results.
How should you tackle content creation?
Now you know what factors explainer video costs, you need to consider how you will approach the video-making process. There are a few options available, all with their pros and cons, though choosing one is ultimately down to your budget and desired results.
D.I.Y or in-house
Your first and cheapest option is to simply do it yourself. This may mean flexing your artistic muscles or working with your employees in-house. Costs for this method are small, only including the software price, such as Adobe Spark or Biteable, and employee salaries if applicable. This low cost is a great advantage, but the only tangible advantage to this approach.
As for disadvantages, there are quite a few, particularly if you aren’t well versed in video creation. Firstly, learning how to use your software and how to even create videos takes time. How disadvantageous this depends on when you need that video. Secondly, unless you are a video-making prodigy, you probably won’t produce great quality videos first try. This leads to the third disadvantage – reputational damage. You are the sole creator, and so the buck stops at you. Nobody can share responsibility for a sub-par result, which is likely to be the case, at least until you find your feet. This doesn’t mean D.I.Y video creation is a bad idea, as long as you know what you’re getting into. https://www.youtube.com/embed/59YwbipmUoA
Cheaper creators or freelancers
If D.I.Y video creation doesn’t match your skill-set, outsourcing is your best option. There are many ways to go about this, with freelancers and smaller, cheaper companies perfect for tighter budgets. Opting for either freelancers or low-cost creators can be advantageous for several reasons. They are cheap, of course, but also result in a quicker turnaround and improvement to quality, at least in comparison to D.I.Y. The downside here is it isn’t always clear what you’re getting, so be prepared to sift through some pretty bad options until you find one you can trust. Additionally, do not gloss over your contracts. When outsourcing asset and video creation, ensure you are listed as the owner to avoid any messy situations in the future.
Professional video creators
Your final option is to shell out for higher-cost, professional video creation companies. The advantages to this are what you would expect. Professionals offer experience, quality, timeliness, extensive customization, and support you wouldn’t find elsewhere. For example, many professional video creators implement specific ways for you to provide feedback or will assist with the rollout of your content. All in all, you pay a premium to be in safe hands.
The disadvantages are just as evident with this approach. In exchange for excellent service, you’ll have to pay a high price. Precisely what this price is differs depending on the company, in addition to what you need from them. The result is almost always worth the investment. Although it can be a bit too steep for smaller businesses to consider.
Final thoughts
As you can see, the variables and different approaches make a specific price hard to identify. Generally speaking, the cost will be what you make it, though be aware that you get what you pay for. Provided you temper your expectations, you can cut the costs quite low, to the tune of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. However, if you want your content to pack quite the marketing punch, you’ll need to expect that price tag to be notably higher.
