Selling Video Production to Your CFO

Why do video business cases fail?

Most video business cases fail because they're written for marketers, not finance people. They lead with engagement metrics, brand awareness, and creative examples. A CFO reads this and sees soft benefits with no clear connection to revenue or cost savings.

A business case that gets approved speaks the CFO's language: return on investment, payback period, cost per unit, and risk mitigation. It answers the question every finance leader asks: "What do we get for what we spend, and how confident are we in that number?"

What does a CFO actually want to see?

Strip away the marketing language and a CFO evaluates any investment against four criteria.

Revenue impact

Does this investment generate new revenue or protect existing revenue? For video, this means connecting video to pipeline. If your video-influenced pipeline is 15-30% of total pipeline, the revenue argument writes itself. Show the math: X videos > Y leads > Z pipeline > W closed revenue.

Cost reduction

Does this replace something more expensive? If you're currently spending $15,000 per video with an agency and a subscription model delivers the same output for $3,000 per video, that's a cost reduction of 80%. Multiply by the number of videos per year and the savings are clear.

Payback period

How long until the investment pays for itself? If the annual subscription costs $60,000 and you can attribute $200,000 in pipeline influence within the first 6 months, the payback period is under a quarter. CFOs like investments that pay back within 12 months.

Risk

What happens if this doesn't work? For a video subscription, the risk is low. Most contracts are monthly or annual with no long-term lock-in. If it doesn't deliver results in 6 months, you cancel. Compare that to hiring a full-time videographer ($80-120K+ salary and equipment) or building an internal studio ($200K+ buildout).

How do you build the cost comparison?

Put the numbers side by side. CFOs think in comparisons, not absolutes.

Agency model: $10,000-$20,000 per video. At 20 videos per year, that's $200,000-$400,000. Each additional video is an additional cost. Speed: 4-8 weeks per video.

In-house team: $80,000-$120,000 salary for a videographer, plus $30,000-$50,000 in equipment, plus editing software, plus management overhead. Capacity: maybe 3-5 videos per month. Fixed cost regardless of output.

Subscription model (like Shootsta): $3,000-$10,000 per month depending on volume. At 10 videos per month, cost per video is $300-$1,000. Each additional video costs the same or less. Speed: 48-hour turnaround.

The subscription model wins on unit economics and flexibility. You pay for what you use, you can scale up or down, and you don't carry the overhead of full-time staff and equipment.

How do you quantify the revenue side?

This is where most business cases get vague. Don't let it. Use real numbers from your own data where possible, and industry benchmarks where you don't have data yet.

Direct attribution

If you already produce video, pull the data. How many leads came from video? How much pipeline? What was the win rate on video-influenced deals? Even rough numbers are better than "video improves engagement." If you don't have attribution data yet, building it is part of the proposal.

Comparable channel economics

Compare video's expected performance to channels your CFO already understands. If paid search costs $50 per lead and organic search (fueled by video content on pages) costs $15 per lead, video reduces your blended cost per lead. If video-influenced deals close 20% faster, that's measurable pipeline velocity improvement.

Conservative modeling

Always present three scenarios. Conservative (low adoption, minimal pipeline impact). Expected (moderate adoption, measurable pipeline contribution). Best case (full adoption across teams, significant pipeline and revenue impact).

CFOs respect conservative estimates more than optimistic ones. If even the conservative scenario shows positive ROI, the decision is easier. Most enterprise video programs exceed their conservative projections once multiple departments start producing content.

What objections will the CFO raise?

"We already have an agency"

Yes, and they charge $10-20K per video with a 6-week timeline. A subscription model isn't replacing the agency for your annual brand film. It's replacing the 90% of videos that don't need agency-level production - the leadership updates, training modules, social clips, and product demos that your agency is too expensive and too slow to produce.

"Can't our marketing team just do this?"

They can film. They can't edit at volume. The subscription model separates filming (which your team does) from editing (which professionals handle). Your marketing team's time is better spent on strategy, distribution, and measurement than on learning Adobe Premiere.

"How do we know it will work?"

Propose a pilot. 3 months. One department. 10-20 videos. Measure time saved, cost per video, and business impact. If it works, expand. If it doesn't, you've spent one quarter of budget learning that video isn't the right investment right now. The downside is small.

"What about AI video tools?"

AI tools help with scriptwriting, captioning, and repurposing. They don't replace professional editing or on-camera talent for brand-sensitive content. Read our practical guide to AI video in the enterprise for a realistic breakdown of where AI helps and where it doesn't.

The one-page business case format

When you present to the CFO, keep it to one page. Here's the structure:

Problem: we need X videos per month but our current model produces Y at $Z per video.

Solution: a video production subscription that enables teams to film on their own devices with professional editing at a fixed monthly cost.

Cost: $X/month (vs $Y/month current spend for the same output).

Expected return: X leads/quarter from video content, $X pipeline influenced, $X revenue attributed at Y% win rate.

Payback: under X months.

Risk: month-to-month contract, can cancel if no results within 6 months.

Next step: 3-month pilot with [department], measuring [specific metrics].

If you want help building the numbers, talk to our team - we can walk through comparable results from companies in your industry and help you model the ROI for your specific situation.