How Should I Balance My Video Budget Between Production and Promotion?

Video marketing is a powerful tool for reaching customers, clients, and buyers in today's digital age. However, you must plan a dependable budget for video production long before the camera rolls. This budget should balance your equipment costs, your post-production needs, and, most importantly, your marketing strategy. 

Find out how to know the budget for a video production to begin your next project. 

Understanding Video Production Components

From equipment to visual effects (VFX), you have a lot to consider when budgeting for a video production. A professional video production team or a production manager can help you identify everything you'll need to budget for, including:

• Pre-production costs
• Video equipment
• Crew wages
• Talent and actors
• Food and catering
• Visual and special effects (SFX)
• Post-production costs
• Marketing and promotions
• Reshoots and contingency

Budgeting for equipment investment

A high-quality video production needs high-end video gear, including high-definition (HD) cameras, comprehensive lighting, and a dependable audio setup. Consider the following options for video equipment:

• Renting equipment: Many businesses offer video equipment rentals, letting you use expensive cameras and other gear for a fixed period. This is cheaper than buying the gear yourself, but you'll usually need production insurance and a video team to operate the gear.
• Partnering with a video production company: Most production companies have their own video gear, studio spaces, editing software, and production insurance. Working with a professional team can save you significantly on your equipment budget. 
• Buying equipment: High-quality cameras are incredibly costly and quickly become outdated. Buying your own equipment outright usually isn't cost-effective unless you're producing videos on a regular basis. 

Importance of pre-production planning

During pre-production, you'll prepare your video's strategy, script, storyboard, budget, equipment, crew, props, and everything else you'll need for your project. Consider everything you hope to achieve during the next stages of video production, including particular shots and your marketing goals.

Strategies for pre-production planning and budgeting include:

• Break down the script: If you have a near-complete script or treatment, note every character, prop, stunt, camera instruction, visual effect, and superimposed text that's included. The most traditional way to do this is to mark up your script with multicolored highlighters. 
• Delegate between departments: Larger video projects will require multiple teams and departments, such as camera, sound, and art. Collaborating with department heads during pre-production can help you identify everything your project needs.
• Test footage: Running rehearsals and capturing test footage can prepare your team for the actual production and boost quality later on. It also identifies potential setbacks or any aspects you're missing. 

Post-production editing costs

Though most of the work is already finished, post-production can still drive up your budget depending on the amount of work hours needed. As a rule of thumb, one minute of footage takes approximately one hour to edit, but high-quality projects take much longer.

Many variables can increase your post-production budget. For example, let's say you want a highlight reel from a three-hour conference, and you had three cameras running at the event. Even if you only need a 30-second video, editors will still need to sift through roughly nine hours of footage to complete your task. 

Factors that can inflate your video editing costs include:

• Video software
• Extensive footage to edit or sort
• Poor sound and video quality
• Color correction
• VFX and animation
• Sound effects and voiceovers
• Multiple video export formats
• Revisions and updates

Overview of Video Promotion Strategies

With an effective promotion campaign, your high-quality videos can raise brand awareness and boost your conversion rate. There are practically endless ways to promote your video content, from display ads to paid social media promotions. 

Though it may not be your top priority during pre-production, you must allocate enough funds for your marketing campaign later on. Otherwise, you could risk your project going unnoticed or being "buried" by social media algorithms. 

Best Social Media Platforms for Video Promotions

Social media apps attract different users and demographics, making them great ways to hone in on your target audiences. Knowing the best social platforms for your marketing campaigns is essential when budgeting for video production, as you may need to distribute funds across multiple apps.

Consider the following social media platforms for your video campaigns:

• YouTube: Over 80% of US adults use YouTube in some capacity. This video app lets you reach broad audiences or hone in on specific users based on their activity, whether you post full videos or YouTube Shorts. 
• LinkedIn: This professional-focused social media app is ideal for business-to-business (B2B) marketing.
• Facebook: Just behind YouTube in popularity, Facebook lets you reach various demographics with paid video ads that appear in users' feeds and while scrolling through Reels.
• Instagram: Popular among young adults, this photo app can help you reach various users in your demographic, especially using video Reels. 
• TikTok: TikTok already focuses heavily on videos, so it's a great way to market to young adults and specific target audiences. 
• Snapchat: Though the app is smaller than others, affordable Snapchat ads can also reach young adults with various interests.

Non-Paid Social Media Posts

Though most social media apps offer various paid promotion options, these may not always be your most effective tools. You can often get your video seen just by having a solid hook, caption, and posting strategy. 

For example, a humorous TikTok video with a subtle promotion could rake in views within the app's algorithm, especially if it has high engagement rates. On the other hand, viewers may immediately scroll past your video if it's obviously an ad. 

As you budget for video production, consider which videos will benefit the most from paid promotions. Similarly, as you craft your video scripts, consider ways to grab viewers in the first few seconds. This can boost your videos' rankings in social media algorithms and help them develop more views over time, even after the official promotion ends. 

Long Form vs. Short Form Videos

Short-form videos under 60 seconds dominate most social media platforms, but they don't always give you enough time to deliver your message. Still, short-form videos are the best way to get your brand, product, or service noticed. A professional video production team can work with you to brainstorm ways to tell your story in under a minute, helping it be seen by as many viewers as possible. 

Of course, you may need long-form videos for certain goals, such as when sharing product demos, instructional videos, or webinar highlights. Both Instagram and Facebook let you share ads up to 120 seconds long, and YouTube ads can last multiple hours, though users can skip your ad after a few seconds. Still, with a good hook in the first six seconds, you may convince the right viewers to stick around. 

Determining Your Overall Video Budget

Your video production budget should cover all of your production components, post-production processes, and promotion campaigns. While you can update certain aspects as you go, you should set a fixed budget early to avoid exceeding it later in the process. 

Delegating to other departments and video professionals streamlines your budgeting processes, reduces costs, and gives you a comprehensive plan. For instance, the art department can identify the cheapest price ranges for items on your props list. Camera departments will consider multiple options for your goals, weighing the costs of different equipment and crew sizes. 

Combine each department's and production stage's budget into one place, whether that's a binder or a Google Drive folder. Sum up the total budget and compare how each part of your budget compares to the other. The actual production will reasonably take up a large part of your budget, especially after adding in the cost of equipment, crew, food, and talent. However, you should designate enough resources for post-production and marketing — plus about 10% of your budget for contingency costs. 

Allocating Funds Between Production and Promotion

Once you've estimated costs for each department and production stage, compare them with your actual budget. Then consider how much of your budget you have left for marketing and paid promotions. Paid promotions are often essential for getting your video noticed, so they should be crucial parts of your budget. 

Consider the social media platforms you want to promote your content on, and then compare the costs of their different ad options. In some cases, you may need to reduce your production budget to afford your marketing campaign.

You may be able to reduce your production costs by:

• Limiting the crew or talent in your production
• Finding more affordable props, costumes, and set dressing
• Replacing VFX components with SFX or vice versa
• Using fewer cameras for a smaller crew and shorter post-production times
• Completing some tasks, such as basic edits, by yourself

Ready To Talk About Video Production?

Adding video to your marketing budget can improve your brand, conversion rate, and online engagement. At Charter & Co, our video marketing experts can help you budget for video production without going over your limit. Talk to us today to start planning your production budget.