In this market two invoice lines decide the annual income: usage rights, and the second language. The price of the video itself is almost a detail.
What a single video is worth
A range, and above all what moves it.
The price of a video depends on the length, the number of shots, the actual shooting time, the edit, and whether or not you supply the product and the location. A short video, shot at home, with a product sent to you, sits at the bottom of the range. A video with travel, a set, several people or specific equipment sits at the top.
What does not push the price up: your follower count. The brand is buying a file, not an audience.
Usage rights are the real multiplier
That is where the difference lies between a profitable business and an exhausting one.
A video posted once on the brand's account, a video pushed as paid advertising for six months, and a video used with no time limit on every channel are not the same product. So the price is built in three separate lines: production, licence, and each extension.
Write down the duration, the territory and the channels. A licence with no written duration is an unlimited transfer that has not been paid for as such.
Extra hooks
Cheap for the client, very profitable for you.
Four different openings for the same video body are shot in ten minutes on the day and let the brand revive a tired advert with no new session. Invoice them individually, at a low price.
It is the line that raises the total without raising your workload, and the one clients accept most readily.
Invoice in the client's currency
Two practical points.
Invoicing in the client's currency removes a friction and avoids arguments about the rate applied. In exchange, the payment term becomes exposure to currency movement: the longer it is, the further the amount actually received drifts from the amount invoiced.
The rules applicable to invoicing, compulsory statements, any withholding and transactions with a client outside the country depend on your situation and are checked with the competent administration and with an accountant, before the first invoice.
What each line of a rate covers
| Line | What it includes | What it excludes |
|---|---|---|
| Single video | Preparation, shooting, editing | Rights beyond six months |
| Series of three | The same, grouped | Paid advertising |
| Monthly package | Four videos and their formats | A second language |
What justifies an increase
Three orders from the same client, a new language, a lead time shorter than the market, a new category mastered.
What is never negotiated down
The number of revisions, the rights line and the deposit.
What pushes your rates up
Three things, in this order.
Specialisation in one category, which makes comparison impossible. Proof of an advertising result, when the brand agrees to share it. And reliability: delivering on the announced date is worth more, to a buyer, than an extra shot.
Raise on new clients first, once a year, without justification. The right moment is when you turn work down for lack of time.
