It’s no surprise that brands are chasing motion graphics videos these days. From sales pitches to ads on the Super Bowl screen, animated videos have reached the biggest stages now.
88% of marketers say video is bringing in a high return on their investments.
Since a huge amount of videos are uploaded to the web each day, scaling the video marketing efforts is important.
The brands want to produce more video content yet need to optimize their budget. Thus, one of the crucial factors in deciding whether or not to use a motion graphics video is the cost of making them.
Creating animated motion graphics videos is tougher than it seems. Even after so many tools with pre-ready templates, high-quality motion graphic video production is a time-consuming process that begins with brainstorming the message and then storyboarding and goes through the illustration, character development, story development, animation, and multiple other steps.
An entire animated video goes through a lot of iterations of character design, animation, voiceover, etc. Thus determining the motion graphics video cost is not at all a static numerical value but can be answered the way you get answers to the question: ‘How much does this car cost?’
Let’s begin to understand how various factors affect the cost of a Motion Graphic Animation Video and plan a budget for your video marketing strategy based on our survey of quality, delivery time and professionalism of various Companies, Freelancers and Marketing Agencies across the globe.
What factors affect the Motion Graphics Video Cost?
The cost of a 2D Motion Graphics Video differs with factors such as Style, complexity, delivery time, voice-over, and length. All the mentioned factors play a crucial role in deciding the final cost of your video.
Having an internet presence for your business or brand without animations and videos is similar to driving a car without steering. Thus to stand out from your competitors, you need to think and make your decision wisely.
Investing your time and money in a video marketing strategy with a compelling animated video can boost your CTR by up to 400%.
Let’s go through these factors one by one and understand how they affect your Motion Graphic videos’ cost.
Video Style and Animation Types
Motion Graphics Animations can be varied into different types like Kinetic Typography, Graphics Loops, UI/UX Animations, etc. Video Type is the very first and crucial factor when it comes to deciding the cost of a video.
Each video type requires different efforts, expertise, design time, Animation time, software, and computer resources.
Thus an Animated Motion Graphics Video can cost anywhere between $1500 to $10,000 per minute based on the video type you choose.
Elements, Characters, and Designs Needed in Motion Graphic Video
The script is the defining guide for an animated explainer video. As the number of elements, characters, and designs changes, the cost of your video changes along with it.
A script with more elements and quick transitions tends to increase the cost of a motion graphic video. Each new element added to a video can increase the cost of production from 50 to 500 USD based on iteration’s complexity.
Voiceover Language and Accent
Including a voiceover in your motion graphics video is an optional choice but it is always clever to include a voiceover with your video as they make comprehension easier and engage the audience throughout the visuals.
Depending on the target audience, the choice of accent and language plays an important role in defining the cost of your video.
A professional English Voiceover in a regular accent costs somewhere between 200 to 750 USD per minute based on expertise, complexity and voice.
Length of the video
It’s an obvious and kind of the most important factor. The proportional cost for a 15-second and 5-minute video is different even for all the same factors.
The shorter the length of the video, the higher the cost seems as the time and effort dedicated to building characters, elements, and background is the same for both 15-second and 5 minutes videos. Thus cost looks higher as the length of the video shortens.
30-second video: A 30-second motion graphics video will cost somewhere between 1500 to 4000 USD depending on the animation style, script complications, and voiceover.
3-minute video: A 3-minute motion graphics video will cost somewhere around 5000 to 8500 USD depending on the animation style, script complications, and voiceover.
How does cost vary with the change of medium of production?
The choice of the medium of video production impacts the cost of the video immensely. Based on professionalism, time boundation and target goal of your video, you must choose the medium for video production wisely.
The cost is deeply impacted by the choice of your production medium, so let’s understand your option and associated cost one by one.
Choice 1 : Animation software or template ready tools.
This one is the easiest accessible and most inexpensive choice when you want to do it all by yourself.
A ton of creative cloud spaces are available with pre-ready templates, just put some colors, and transition into it, and your video is done. Sounds easy and quick?
But The major problem that arises with these pre-made templates is the linear video style, and similar format, and tons of videos are available on the internet in the same format and style. Thus killing the uniqueness of the brand.
We’ve compiled a list of Motion Graphics Animation Software to help you choose the best online video maker for you and the pricing associated with each Online Video Platform.
A DIY Cloud Software usually costs from 100 to 1000 USD Per month, but the time required is greatly dependent on the user’s expertise.
Choice 2 : Hiring freelancers
With the internet rising to be a global community, Freelance Motion Designers, Animation Production Specialists, and Animators are available almost everywhere today. Some of them are pros at their job while others really find it hard to produce quality.
Freelancers may be experts at one specific skill or can manage the entire project by themselves.
The cost of hiring a freelancer depends on
- Experience and Expertise of the Freelancer
- Their Involvement in the management of the project
- Ability to manage themselves independently
Based on mentioned factors and traditional factors affecting Video Production Costs, an animated motion graphic video costs somewhere between 500 to 5000 USD based on the Freelancer
Choice 3 : Outsourcing to a trusted video marketing company. [Top Choice]
Outsourcing your requirements to a well-established motion graphic company gives the brand freedom to focus on Production, Supply Chain, and Market Growth without worrying about Marketing Efforts.
While the hired agency dedicatedly works on marketing chores and producing high-quality videos, the brand can focus on production.
These companies have experts for every stage of production and marketing which helps them speed up the process without compromising on quality.
The project is customized entirely as per your requirements and so is the cost. But a standard Motion Graphic Video pricing with a Video Production Service Company is somewhere between $1500 – $4500 per minute based on requirement factors
Where can a brand use Motion Graphic Video?
Motion Graphics Animation Videos are easy to repurpose and can be used to fulfill both Marketing and Engagement needs.
Here are the top 6 places you can use Motion Graphic Animations to enhance your Marketing Plan.
- Landing Pages
- Event Showcase
- Mobile App/PWA Intro
- Social Media
- Sales Pitch
- Employee Training
Like every production process, Marketing And Video Production also faces a number of challenges related to management, strategies and trends on different levels of production and management.
Let us understand these challenges as risk management plays a crucial role in deciding the cost of your video.
Challenges in creating high-quality Motion Graphic Videos
1. Managing multiple-step process
The motion graphic video production is not a one or two-step process. It starts with Scripting, Characters, Background Elements, Storyboarding, Lighting, Animation, Music Composition, Transitions, and much more.
For a brand to manage these steps is not easy without a full-fledged team for these tasks.
Most brands outsource their video marketing efforts to a proven company in animated explainer videos considering the time required to produce a certain number of videos.
2: Keeping up with trends
The digital landscape is ever-changing. With customer behaviour and preferences switching every moment, it’s tough for brands to create a marketing strategy that is agile and flexible.
Also, in order to stay ahead of the competition, brands need to adapt themselves to what’s happening around in the market.
Brands running their video marketing campaigns without analyzing the current trends end up losing money in exchange for no results.
3: Absence of an effective strategy
Since Motion Graphic Video Production is time and resource-consuming, it’s important to have a clear and well-defined strategy before kickstarting marketing campaigns.
Without a strategy, it’s difficult to scale the speed, achieve the desired goals, and hit the conversion targets.
What about hidden fees?
At MotionGility, a well-known Explainer Video Production Company, we do not charge any hidden fees. It’s truly bad business, period.
There may be extra fees, but the fees incurred will be transparent and will only be incurred if you choose to add extra work after a prepared contract, but you are informed prior if you are in danger of accruing any additional fees.
Here are some examples of where extra fees can arise:
- Changing the VO after it has been approved and recorded
- Preponing the decided deadlines
- Purchasing stock footage to include in your video
Final Thoughts
Budgeting is one of the most important skills that every business must master to understand the right cost of an explainer video.
The above-discussed factors impact the cost of a motion graphics video more than anything else. Brands should focus on getting a balance between quality and cost.
With clearly laid out strategies, it becomes easy for brands to find out what is the best step to move forward with.
