Two creators film the same product on the same afternoon. One charges three times more than the other. The difference is not in the shoot.
Here, the shoot is the cheap part
Three reasons why shooting time explains the price gap badly.
A video is shot in half a day, whatever the final rate.
The equipment is the same for both creators.
And the editing, barring particular effects, takes a comparable time.
What explains the gap: the duration of the licence, the authorised channels, the territory, exclusivity and paid advertising use. Those five variables move the price by a factor of three to ten, for an identical shoot.
The steps that really move the price
Five steps, from cheapest to most expensive.
Organic use only, on the brand's accounts, for a short duration.
Adding paid advertising, the step that changes everything, because the video becomes an asset published at scale.
Extending the territory, from one country to several markets.
Lengthening the duration, from a quarter to a year, then to unlimited.
And the full buyout, dealt with below.
One simple method: start from a base price for the shoot, then apply a percentage per step added. The quote becomes readable and the negotiation bears on lines, not on a global figure.
The two lines given away without noticing
The full buyout
The formula seems harmless and means the brand can do anything, anywhere, forever, including reselling. It is priced as a multiple of the base rate, never as an option, and it deserves to be refused when the price does not follow, because it rules out any future income on that content.
Exclusivity
It is almost always requested for free, in passing, in a sentence about competitors. Yet it has a real cost: it bars you from an entire category for a period. It is priced according to the duration and the breadth of the category, and it is limited in time.
What swings a quote from single to triple
| The factor | The effect on price | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising use | The strongest | The video becomes a distributed asset |
| The number of variants | Moderate | The shoot is already done |
| A tight deadline | Moderate | It displaces other orders |
What is not billed by time spent
A short video can need as much preparation as a long one. The price follows the value of use for the brand, not the stopwatch.
What must appear on every quote
The number of files, the formats, the included revisions, the rights duration and the territory. Without those five lines, the quote protects no one.
The guiding ranges
Four markers for positioning yourself, with no absolute figure.
The base price covers the time, the equipment and the editing, and it does not go below the threshold that would make you work at a loss.
Adding paid advertising represents a significant share of the base price, not a token supplement.
Each extension of duration is invoiced, including when requested after the fact.
And publication from your account, dealt with above, is billed by the month.
One note on method: do not look for the market rate, build your own from these lines, and hold it. A constructed price is defended in one sentence; an invented price is negotiated down from the second question.
One last marker: the difference between the two creators in the introduction is not about talent, it is about the quote. One sold a video, the other sold a shoot, rights, a duration and a territory. It is the same afternoon's work, and it is not the same trade.
Sources
Checked on 27 August 2026. Thresholds and rates change: where this guide and the official source disagree, the official source is right.
