Explainer Video Costs: The Full Breakdown
Hi, we’re Squideo, and we’re here to tell you what other agencies might not want you to know.
If you’re in the market for an explainer video, you may notice you’ll be getting a variety of quotes from different animated explainer video production companies.
To find out why, renowned explainer video expert Matt Byrom of Wyzowl conducted a study in 2018 to find the average price of an explainer video.
Their team contacted 70 companies to ask for pricing of a 60-second video, and the price gap was astounding.
From the companies they contacted, the lowest price was $700, and the highest price was $72,000, meaning the average price for a 60-second explainer video is $7972.
You can see the results here:
But why is the explainer video price gap so big?
To be able to answer this question, we’ve broken this down into three specific areas we believe affect the price of animated explainer videos:
- The Process
- The Quality of Animation
- Creation Methods
The Process
Processes vary widely between agencies, affecting both production hours and overall delivery time while feedback is collated.
The work that goes into an animated explainer video is certainly more than some may think.
We believe careful research and planning is key to producing successful explainer videos. Often video subjects can be complex in nature, so collaboration with each client is critical to ensure all aspects are thoroughly understood upfront, so they can be portrayed effectively.
That’s why, at Squideo, our process is designed to be efficient, yet collaborative at every stage, so clients can have as much or as little input as necessary.
Our process follows a similar structure each time:
- Quote
- Kick-off meeting
- Scripting and revisions
- Storyboard and revisions
- Style Concept and revisions
- First Draft Video Production and revisions
- Revisions and Delivery
As you can see, there are seven main steps we go through to create each video. In addition to the stages above, we implement team brainstorming, internal quality checks and more, with the initial 30 seconds of video taking roughly 22 hours across the team.
With a ‘fail fast’ approach, big changes to script and direction can be made early on with no impact on delivery, the initial draft is in line with client expectations, minimising the more time-consuming, yet necessary, tweaks to the final drafts.
If different animation companies spend more or less time on the process, this likely affects the overall cost, however, we believe this process is necessary to guarantee a positive outcome.
The Quality of Animation
It’s no surprise to you that the quality of the animation is certainly a factor in the price.
Let’s look at Toy Story 4, one of Disney’s record-breaking animation films released in 2019. Toy Story 4 contains some of the highest quality animation we’ve seen from Disney so far, however, the production budget for this film was a whopping $200 million.
https://screenrant.com/toy-story-4-budget-cost/
With budgets this large, boundaries can be pushed in every single aspect of production, so it makes sense why the quality is so high and why it took 5 years to make.
On the other end of the scale, using a DIY software to create your own video can start from as little as £7.00 per month.
This DIY approach requires time to write your own script, a software learning curve, and create the video itself. Limitations in many of these platforms mean videos can end up looking similar and ultimately, the video is only as good as the producer.
This can be a frustrating experience for most, and ultimately, a poor-quality video on your website can reflect negatively on your brand.
At Squideo, we aim to be the best value when it comes to affordable, professionally produced content fit for companies of any size and calibre.
Here's some examples of the high-quality videos we produce:
Creation Methods
When researching animation video companies, you may notice that different companies have different styles, depending on the methods they use to create the video.
Some animation companies like to create every single asset from scratch. This means drawing each element (a background, a character, an icon) on a graphics tablet and stitching these together to create a completely bespoke animated video.
Although this offers unlimited flexibility with the scenes you can create, its also a more time-consuming method, which equates to a higher product cost and a longer delivery time.
Other companies may use libraries of assets that have already been pre-created, eliminating the extra creation time and offering a faster turnaround.
However, this also means that there are certain restrictions on the assets you can contain in the video. If you want to feature your office pet or a bespoke piece of machinery, it won’t be included in the cheaper method of animation.
At Squideo, we do a mix of both methods.
Our videos contain predominately pre-created elements, so we can produce the video quicker, and pass the savings back to our customers. However, we also can create completely bespoke elements, so there are no limitations to what can be included in the video.
We hope this blog has shed some light on the differences in costs for your animated explainer video and explained why your quote is what it is.
If you’d like to discuss this further, get in touch with the Squideo team today.
