A short social video ad from a production company typically costs about €1,300 to €4,500. A corporate or explainer video runs about €4,000 to €18,000. A full commercial starts around €13,000 and goes well past €45,000.
Those are converted from US 2026 market ranges, so treat them as approximate. European studios are often cheaper; London and New York crews are not.
The format changes everything. Three edited reels from existing material can cost a few hundred euros. A one-minute film with a crew, a location and actors costs a car. Below is the video production cost breakdown, line by line, so you can see where your money goes.
Video ads cost: the tiers
Most quotes for a business video fall into one of five bands.
| Tier | What you get | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| DIY | Phone, free editor, your time | Your time |
| Edited short-form pack | Reels cut from your photos, clips and graphics | From €350 for three reels (our pack) |
| Social / short production | Half or full shoot day, simple edit | ≈ €1,300–4,500 |
| Corporate, explainer, demo | Script, shoot or animation, polished edit | ≈ €4,000–18,000 |
| Commercial / brand film | Crew, cast, location, grade, sound design | ≈ €13,000–45,000+ |
The last three rows come from Vidico's September 2026 pricing guide, in US dollars, converted at about $1.12 to the euro (the late-October 2026 rate). They describe the US market.
The gap between row two and row three is the shoot. Once someone has to turn up with a camera, a day rate starts.
Video production cost breakdown, line by line
Here are the parts of a quote. All ranges are from Vidico's 2026 guide unless marked, converted from US dollars and rounded, so they're approximate.
Pre-production
| Item | Approx. cost |
|---|---|
| Concept and creative direction | €450–1,800 |
| Scriptwriting | €900–4,500 |
| Storyboard | €450–1,300 |
| Location scouting | €90–450 per day |
| Casting | €180–900 |
Pre-production is the cheapest place to save money and the worst place to cut. A clear script with one goal saves days later.
Shoot day and crew
| Item | Approx. cost |
|---|---|
| Freelance videographer | €540–1,070 per day |
| Agency crew of 3–5 | €2,200–7,100 per day |
| On-screen talent | €450–1,300 per day |
| Studio or location hire | €450–2,700 per day |
| Camera, lighting, sound rental | €900–3,600 per day |
UK figures are lower. YunoJuno's 2026 rate data puts the average UK freelance videographer at £427 a day, about €510.
Editing and post-production
| Item | Approx. cost |
|---|---|
| Editing | €65–135 per hour |
| Motion graphics editing | €135–270 per hour |
| Colour grading | €450–1,800 |
| Motion graphics and titles | €450–4,500 |
| Sound design, mix and music | €270–2,700 |
| Voiceover | €270–900 per session |
| Extra revision round | €450–1,800 each |
Music licence
Music is the line people forget. Tracks in Instagram and TikTok libraries are often licensed for personal use only. Law firm Osborne Clarke notes that business accounts, discount codes and product promotion all point towards commercial use, and short snippets still need a licence.
For ads, you either use royalty-free tracks cleared for commercial use, such as Meta's Sound Collection, or buy a licence. Epidemic Sound's Business Plus plan, for example, lists from $100 a month billed annually, roughly €90.
Video production cost per minute
Per-minute pricing is a useful sanity check, not how most studios quote. A 30-second ad still needs a full script and shoot.
| Type | Approx. € per finished minute |
|---|---|
| Social short-form | €450–2,700 |
| Testimonial or interview | €900–3,600 |
| Product demo | €1,300–4,500 |
| Live-action explainer | €1,800–7,100 |
| Animated explainer | €2,700–13,400 |
| Commercial / brand film | €4,500–18,000+ |
Source: Vidico, 2026, converted from US dollars. Animation has its own price logic; we break it down in animated video cost per minute.
Product demo video cost
A product demo is usually cheaper than a brand ad, because the product is the star and the set is a screen or a table.
Vidico's mid-2026 product video guide prices a SaaS demo at roughly €1,300 to €13,400. The budget end is a screen recording with voiceover. The top end is custom interface animation. A typical two-to-three-minute B2B demo lands around €2,200 to €4,500.
For physical products, a demo can be a 15-second reel: product in hand, product doing its job, one result. That's the Show and Proof part of our reel structure, and it doesn't need a crew.
Where AI-assisted production fits
AI tools can now replace parts of a shoot: backgrounds, product scenes, motion from a still. They don't replace the script, the edit or the judgement about what to cut.
Prolific Studio's 2026 animation guide puts AI-assisted studios at about €1,300 to €3,600 per finished minute, against €4,500 to €13,400 for a small or mid-size studio. That's converted from US dollars and covers animation, not live action.
In the lab we use AI where it saves time without making the ad look generated. Turning existing product stills into motion is a good example: no shoot day, and the product still looks like your product. We compare the options in AI video ads: what they cost and AI product video from an image.
If the ad runs in the EU, check the labelling rules too: the EU AI Act and AI-generated ads.
How to spend less without it looking cheap
- Pick one goal per video. A reel that sells, explains and builds the brand does none of them.
- Shoot once, cut many. One shoot day can feed a month of reels, stories and feed ads in 9:16, 4:5 and 1:1.
- Keep it short. Every extra second needs footage. For most ads, 15 seconds is enough. See how long a reel should be.
- Use what you have. Product photos, website images and phone clips can be edited into strong reels.
- Test hooks, not whole videos. Re-cutting the first two seconds costs far less than a reshoot.
- Agree revision rounds up front. Extra rounds are one of the easiest ways for a quote to grow.
- Ask who owns the files. Raw footage and project files are sometimes extra. You'll want them for the next campaign.
For formats that don't need a shoot at all, there are 40 in reels ideas for business.
What our pack includes
Our Reels & video ads pack is the edited short-form row in the table above. For €350, excl. VAT, you get:
- three reels of up to 15 seconds each, from one idea
- concept, script and shot list
- three hook options to test
- editing with motion type and on-screen words in your brand style
- subtitles
- 9:16, 4:5 and 1:1 exports, ready for Meta and TikTok, with a caption for each
- two rounds of feedback
Price goes up with more or longer reels, filming on location, motion graphics or 3D, and extra ad versions. Our autumn-offer reel and the Pisipuu campaign for a kids' furniture brand were both made this way, from material rather than a crew day.
