Promotional Video Production: Cost and Time
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Promotional Video Production: Cost and Time
By Shootsta · Published September 16, 2026 · Updated September 2026
Most promotional video production schedules are not slow because of the edit. They are slow because of the approval chain. Here is where the days actually go.
Short answer. Promotional video production is the making of short video that sells something: a product, an event, a location or an offer. Cost is driven by where the footage comes from and how many versions you need, not by run time. Turnaround is driven by the approval chain, not by the edit. A first cut can land in about 48 hours once footage exists, and most projects lose more days to sign-off than to production.
Ask a promotional video company how long a promo takes and you will hear a number for the edit. That number is rarely the problem.
Across the work we see, the edit is the shortest stage. The days disappear into getting footage, waiting for the fourth approver, and making the six extra versions nobody scoped at the start. Understanding that changes what you negotiate on.
This is a buyer guide to promotional video production: the formats worth buying, what moves the cost, and where the calendar actually goes.
What is promotional video production?
Promotional video production is the making of short video built to sell something. A product, a service, an event, a location or an offer. It is a commercial format, so it is measured on whether people act rather than on whether it looks good.
That separates it from brand film, which builds long-term positioning, and from training or internal video, which exists to inform. A promotional video has a job and a deadline attached to it.
What formats does promotional video production cover?
Five formats cover almost every promotional video production request we see.
- Product promo. Sixty to ninety seconds on what a product does and who it is for. The most requested format by a wide margin.
- Event promo. Two versions of the same story: one before, to sell tickets, and one after, to sell next year.
- Offer or campaign spot. Fifteen to thirty seconds, built to be cut down further for paid social.
- Location or facility tour. A walkthrough of a space, used heavily in property, hospitality, education and manufacturing.
- Testimonial promo. A customer making the argument instead of you. The highest-converting format in most B2B pipelines.
Most teams need two or three of these rather than one, which is why buying them as a pack costs far less than commissioning them separately.
How long does a promotional video take?
Set the three things that actually drive a promotional video production schedule and see where the days go.
What drives promotional video production cost?
Three things drive promotional video production cost, and run time is not one of them.
Where the footage comes from. Using footage you already own costs almost nothing to start. Filming it yourself with a kit and a shot list costs a day of your team's time. Hiring a crew costs the most and takes the longest to schedule, because a crew, a location and the people on camera all have to line up.
How many finished versions you need. A promo, three social cutdowns and two language versions is six finished assets, not one. Scope them at the start and they come out of the same edit. Ask for them a month later and each one is a new job.
How many rounds of changes you buy. One defined revision round is normal. Four approvers each sending notes separately is how one round becomes three.
What does promotional video production cost against an agency?
The number worth comparing is cost per finished video across a year, not the quote on the desk today.
An agency prices each promo separately, so twelve promos means twelve quotes and twelve scoping calls before any filming happens. That overhead is billable and it is invisible in a single quote. A subscription prices the year in advance instead. Shootsta charges a fixed monthly fee covering a set number of video credits, where one credit covers editing one finished video, with no per-project fees and no rush charges.
Across the teams we work with, that lands 50 to 60% below what a traditional agency charges for the same volume. The saving does not come from cheaper editing. It comes from deleting the quote, the scope and the concept round from every job.
What does a promotional video look like?
A launch film produced with Shootsta for Knight Frank, the property group. It is short, and it is built around one event rather than around the brand in general.
Why does approval take longer than production?
Because production is scheduled and approval is not. An editor has your job in a queue with a due date on it. An approver has your video in an inbox.
An editor has your job in a queue with a due date. An approver has your video in an inbox alongside everything else. When four people review in sequence rather than together, a two-day edit turns into a three-week project, and none of that delay appears on any production plan.
The fix is unglamorous and it works. Name one approver who holds the final call, collect everyone else's comments in one place with timestamps, and set a review window rather than waiting for replies.
How fast can a promotional video be turned around?
About 48 hours to a first cut once the footage lands, which is the standard Shootsta works to. There are no rush charges, so a fast job costs the same as a slow one.
That number only helps if the footage exists. Promotional video production is limited by its slowest input, and that input is usually not the edit. A promo that still needs a shoot is limited by the shoot, not by the edit. Teams that need genuine speed keep a kit and a shot list ready so filming can happen the same week it is asked for.
Should you hire a promotional video company or produce in-house?
It depends on how many promos you make a year and how predictable they are. Promotional video production rewards volume in a way that single projects hide.
For a handful of high-profile pieces with crews and locations, a promotional video company earns its fee. For a steady stream of product, event and campaign promos, the per-project model gets expensive and slow, because every job carries a quote and a scoping call before anything happens.
Most teams that publish regularly end up with a hybrid. They film their own footage, hand editing to a partner working from locked brand templates, and keep an agency for the two or three pieces a year that genuinely need a director.
What should you ask before signing?
Four questions, and they are the four that cost money later.
- What is the first cut turnaround, in business hours? An estimate is not a commitment. Ask what happens when it slips.
- What counts as one revision round? Define it before the first project, not during it.
- Do we own the footage and the project files? Get it in writing, including the working files rather than only the export.
- What happens in our busiest month? Ask what four times the usual volume in one week does to the queue.
Where to go next
To see the service itself, visit our promotional video production page, which covers formats, turnaround and how projects run.
If you are working out what to put in the video rather than who should make it, read how to produce promotional videos that get results. To compare buying models across your whole video plan, use the cost calculator, or read our guide to choosing between a video marketing agency and a subscription.
To scope a specific promotional video production project, book a free consultation.
About Shootsta
Shootsta is a global video production service that helps enterprises create on-brand videos at scale and operationalize video production across every business touch-point. We have produced 70,000+ videos for 920+ brands since 2014, with a first cut in about 48 hours and 4.9 / 5 customer satisfaction across post-delivery surveys. Editors work from offices in Sydney, London, Singapore and San Diego.
Last updated 16 September 2026.
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