It’s no secret that TV ads cost a lot of money to produce. Most people are familiar with the quoted amounts to reserve and produce an ad for things like the Super Bowl, which can total up to millions of dollars. However, you might not know how much a regular TV commercial costs.
These kinds of ads don’t come cheap, but they are not all as spendy as nationally televised ads during huge or special events. If you have a business or are just curious about the cost of TV ads, you can learn more by continuing to read.
What Do TV Commercials Cost?
The average cost for TV commercials can vary depending on how long they are and what networks they are shown on. Local ads can cost as little as $1,000, and national ads can cost more than $100,000. The amount of competition for the air time can have a big impact on cost, and national ads are much more expensive than ads that run on local television only.
Ad agencies can sometimes get good deals on ad spots for their clients, but there are times when competition is fierce for a specific time slot. In these cases, primetime ads will probably be in excess of $50,000.
Production costs can vary significantly as well, depending upon the location where the ad is filmed and the talent that is used to create the ad. If you use famous people to help advertise a product, creating the ad will be much more expensive than if you just use regular actors who are familiar with commercial creation.
Most commercials are only 30 seconds, but having to film on location instead of in the studio or having to hire specific talent can really add up, even for a very short time slot like this. Commercials that are much longer cost exponentially more to create.
The other factor that is not considered in the cost to make the actual commercial is the broadcasting cost. Broadcasting can add another fee to the process of making and showing an ad. Local stations might charge as little as $25 to run an ad, while national broadcasting can cost more than $100,000.
TV Ads Are Expensive to Make and Broadcast
There is almost nothing that is cheap about creating and running an ad for a business. Even local ads are expensive and can be outside the budget of even well-established companies. Advertising can be very effective for businesses, but it can be hard to find the money to even begin to think of creating an ad and then paying for it to run on TV.
This article was last updated on September 5, 2023 .
