A commercial costs $1,000 to $100,000+ to produce. Social-first video runs $1,000 to $5,000, mid-range brand video $5,000 to $25,000, and broadcast-quality spots $25,000 and up. TV airtime, talent usage rights, and music licensing are billed in addition to production.
Ask three production companies for a quote, and you'll get numbers that differ by a factor of fifty. Nobody's padding the invoice.
How much does a commercial cost? It comes down to two separate things: what you produce, and what you pay to put it in front of viewers. A 15-second vertical cut edited in an afternoon and a national broadcast spot with a union crew are both commercials. They aren't the same purchase.
Here's how The Influence Agency's commercial video production team breaks down each tier, what it buys, and the costs most brands leave out of the budget.
What goes into the cost of a commercial?
Every commercial budget splits into three phases: pre-production, production, and post-production. The shoot takes the biggest share, which makes shoot days your real negotiating lever.
- Pre-production. Concept, script, storyboard, casting. The cheapest phase to get right and the most expensive to skip: a change here costs a conversation, while the same change in post costs editor hours.
- Production. The largest share, billed by the day. Every shoot day you cut takes its crew, gear, and talent costs with it, so capture your 30, 15, and six-second cuts in the same day instead of booking a second shoot.
- Post-production. Editing, color, sound, and graphics. This is the phase that absorbs every decision you didn’t make earlier, so set a revision limit in the contract before the first cut lands.
Agency fees sit on top of all three. Media spend sits outside the production budget entirely, and brands forget that constantly.
Image source: Canva
How much does TV airtime cost?
TV airtime is billed separately from production, and the price per spot runs from local-station rates up to an average of $8 million for 30 seconds of the Super Bowl. The rate depends on network, daypart, and audience size, so every TV commercial cost estimate has to price both halves, or it isn't a plan.
Cable TV and local TV ads deliver a low cost per thousand impressions (CPM) with narrow reach, while national TV buys a higher CPM and broader reach. Between them sits connected TV (CTV), meaning ads served through streaming apps and smart TVs, with audience targeting that broadcast can't match.
Self-serve CTV platforms lower the entry cost for small test budgets, while a managed buy earns its fee once spend scales.
How much does a TV commercial cost at each production tier?
Most commercials fall into one of three production tiers, from $1,000 social-first video to $100,000+ broadcast spots, and the tier decides what you get as much as what you pay.
Tier one: social-first video, $1,000 to $5,000
A $1,000 to $5,000 budget buys a half-day shoot, a one- or two-person crew, an existing location, library music, one edit, with platform cuts usually billed on top. It’s where most video production for small businesses starts.
What it doesn't include: a real concept, cleared talent, or broadcast deliverables. It’s right for small business advertisers and brands testing offers across digital. The entry cost is low, but TikTok recommends refreshing creative every two to four weeks, so budget several versions instead of one. Template-based editing keeps each refresh affordable, since the structure is built once and only the footage and copy change.
That's the thinking behind our approach to videography: build a library, not a centerpiece.
Tier two: mid-range brand video, $5,000 to $25,000
A $5,000 to $25,000 budget is where most serious commercial video production lands: a scripted concept, one or two shoot days, and a real crew (director, director of photography, gaffer, sound, producer). Add cast talent, a scouted location, licensed music, color grading, and motion graphics.
No recognizable talent, no multiple cities, no broadcast clearance. It’s right for local campaigns running online, B2B brands where one video carries the sales conversation, and anything sitting on your homepage for two years.
Tier three: broadcast-quality commercial, $25,000 to $100,000+
A $25,000 to $100,000+ budget buys a broadcast-quality commercial: agency-level concepting, an established director, two to four shoot days, union talent on negotiated usage cycles or non-union talent on a buyout, and broadcast clearance.
A buyout is a flat fee covering a set usage term. You also get an art department and a full post pipeline. At this tier, production covers regional and local broadcast and broadcast-quality digital, stopping short of a network or premium streaming spot.
Typical regional spots run $25,000 to $150,000, according to producer Jens Jacob of Saturation, and $150,000 is where entry-level national work starts.
Image source: Canva
Hidden commercial production costs to budget for
Four costs catch most brands off guard: talent usage rights, music licensing, versioning, and category clearance. Most won't appear in a standard production quote unless you ask.
- Talent usage rights. Your quote covers 13 weeks at a time, up to a 24-month maximum in the States. Past that, it's a renegotiation with the campaign already live and no leverage on your side.
- Music licensing. A stock track costs $59 for web and social and $199 to clear for broadcast in perpetuity in one territory, paid once. A recognizable song is a different purchase, negotiated with the publisher and label. Swapping either after lock means recutting.
- Versioning. 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, a six-second bumper, a 15, and a 30. Every ratio is billable editor hours.
- Clearance. Major Canadian broadcasters won’t schedule a spot without a Telecaster number from thinktv. Ad Standards preclearance is separate, and it’s only mandatory for children’s advertising, which the CRTC requires broadcasters to follow as a licensing condition.
Ad Standards also reviews six regulated categories: alcohol, children’s advertising, cosmetics, food and non-alcoholic beverages, food and beverage ads directed at kids, and health products. Quebec bans commercial advertising directed at children under 13 outright.
That cost is calendar, which hurts worse than cash when you have a launch date. It's also why our production scope includes Ad Standards and thinktv clearance.
Should you DIY or hire a video production company?
Shoot it yourself when the video is disposable. Hire a production company when it carries paid media, broadcast or CTV placement, or regulated claims. AI tools and phone cameras made disposable video cheap, and that’s fine for a lot of content.
Weekly social, founder updates, and quick demos are fair game for an in-house phone shoot, and they’re a cheap place to test which message earns a bigger media budget.
The trade-off isn't polish. It's whether a $40,000 shoot produces usable footage and rights that last for 24 months. Know your number before you call “action.”
FAQ on commercial video production
Key takeaways
Get a real number for your commercial
Every number here moves once you attach it to a real brief. How much does a commercial cost for your brand? It depends on where it runs, how long it lasts, and what the viewer sees at the end.
Tell our commercial production team those three things, and we'll build the budget backward from them, so you know your tier and your number before anyone opens a lens case. Ready to price yours?
Fill out our client questionnaire, and we'll take it from there.