When the budget only stretches to one, the honest answer is that photos and video do different jobs and the right cut depends on where your buyer currently stops.

What photos still do best

Sell the shelf and the grid. A product page, a marketplace listing and a category page all need clean stills, and a video does not replace them. Photos also survive being resized, cropped and reused in ways video does not.

What only video can do

Answer a doubt. How big it really is, how it moves, how it opens, what it sounds like, whether it fits a small apartment. Every one of those is a reason somebody does not buy, and none of them is answerable with a still image no matter how good.

Where the buyer stops tells you which to cut

If people arrive at the product page and leave without adding to cart, the doubt is not aesthetic and more photos will not fix it. If people never arrive at all, the problem is upstream and video for ads is the lever. Look at where the drop happens before deciding.

The Canadian version of the question

Photos are language neutral, video is not. A brand serving Quebec pays for the French version of every video and not of every photo. That genuinely changes the cost comparison and it is a fair reason to keep a photo heavy product page and put the video budget into advertising.

The pragmatic split

Photos for the page, video for the ads and for the two or three doubts that cost you the most returns. That covers both jobs without pretending one format can do the other's work.

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Frequently asked questions

What do photos do best?

Sell the shelf and the grid.

What can only video do?

Answer a doubt that stops the purchase.

How do I decide which to cut?

Look at where buyers actually stop.

Does bilingual change the maths?

Yes, video needs two versions and photos do not.