How Much Does An Explainer Video Cost?
Ah, the million dollar question… well, not literally. You want a video and you want to know what the price is… but asking how much a video costs is like asking how much a house costs. Do you want to live in Silicon Valley, or in Thailand? 2-bedroom or 5-bedroom? Modern fixtures, or older appliances?
The truth is that there are a lot of factors that go into the pricing of a video, and it’s impossible to quote a price without digging a little deeper. If we had an exact price for every video, we’d put in on our website homepage and call it a day… but it’s honestly not that easy. Here are the 3 things we need to know before we’re able to provide a quote.
1. Reference Videos
You need to have an idea of what type of quality and complexity you’re looking for in your video; do you want a video simple stick figure video, or do you want a 3D masterpiece that Pixar would be jealous of? The most effective way to communicate what quality you’re after is by showing us reference videos that encompass your needs of quality and detail. You can show us any videos we’ve created, or those made by other agencies; you’ll definitely get a custom-made video that matches your branding and style preferences, but quality references are key. You can see lots of different video styles on our portfolio page (hint: use the basic / standard / premium filters for different quality levels).
2. Required Services
The next thing you need to understand is what services you’ll be needing during production. LaunchSpark is a full-service agency, but you might want to take on certain aspects of the process; the most common part of the process for clients to complete on their side is script writing. Some clients are in the camp that say they know their customers best, while others say we’re the experts at scriptwriting; if you’re not sure you’re a expert scripting craftsman, leave it to us. The other part of the process that clients sometimes (but more rarely) take on themselves is to source and edit the voiceover; for more info on that, you can see our post titled How To Source A VoiceOver, and From Where. The other parts of the process include illustration, storyboarding, animation, background music, and sound effects, but unless you have experience in any of those areas, I suggest you leave them to us.
3. Video Length
This one isn’t absolutely necessary, since we can give you a per-minute price (with to-the-second-billing) that allows us to nail down the exact length later. But having a rough idea helps, since a 30-second video involves a different per-minute price than a 6-minute video. We can tell you that the sweet spot for explainer videos is generally 60-90 seconds, and that videos should rarely go over 2-minutes, but we can’t tell you the specifics of what would work best for you without a more in-depth discussion.
So there you have it. When you see a video agency that doesn’t post pricing on their site, it’s not that they’re trying to reel you in by making you fill out the contact form. Every video is truly different, and any agency would be doing you a disservice without learning at least this level of detail before giving you a quote for your video.
Questions about the price for your video? Feel free to shoot us an email at info@launchsparkvideo.com.