The honest answer
You want a number. Here are three real ranges, based on what we see priced and produced every month.
Social and branded content: $25,000 to $80,000. This is a one-day shoot, small crew, one or two locations, straightforward post. You are making something for Instagram, YouTube pre-roll, or your own website. The production value is real, but the scope is tight.
Regional digital: $80,000 to $200,000. More polish. Bigger crew, better locations, professional talent, a real post-production pipeline with color grading, sound design, and licensed music. This is the range where most mid-market brands land when they want something they are genuinely proud of.
National broadcast: $200,000 to $500,000+. Network television, streaming pre-roll at scale, or a flagship brand campaign. Union crew, SAG talent, multi-day shoots, complex post. The ceiling here is wherever you want to put it.
Those ranges are wide on purpose. A $25K spot and a $500K spot are not the same thing, and nobody should pretend they are. But the ranges are real, and they reflect what productions actually cost when you are paying fair rates to experienced people.
What you are actually paying for
A production budget is not one big number. It is a collection of smaller, very specific costs. Here is what they are.
Pre-production. This is everything before the camera rolls. Concept development, scriptwriting, storyboards, shot lists, location scouting, casting, scheduling, and permits. On a $150K job, pre-production might run $15,000 to $25,000. It is the most important money you spend, because every problem you solve in pre-production is ten times more expensive to solve on set.
Crew. A director, a director of photography, a producer, camera assistants, gaffers, grips, a sound mixer, hair and makeup, a production assistant or two. A small shoot is 8 people. A bigger one is 15 to 20. Everyone has a day rate, and those rates reflect years of specialized experience.
Equipment. Camera packages, lenses, lighting, grip gear, monitors, audio equipment. A mid-range camera and lighting package runs $3,000 to $8,000 per day. High-end packages with specialty lenses or motion control can push past $15,000.
Locations and studio. A studio day in the Bay Area costs $2,000 to $8,000 depending on size and amenities. Practical locations, meaning real places like restaurants or offices, involve permits, location fees, insurance, and sometimes construction for set dressing.
Talent. On-screen performers. Non-union talent for a digital spot might cost $500 to $2,000 per day. SAG talent for a national spot with usage rights can cost $10,000 to $50,000 or more, depending on the media buy and exclusivity terms.
Post-production. Editing, color grading, sound design, sound mixing, music licensing or composition, graphics, and deliverables. Budget $10,000 to $40,000 depending on complexity. If you need VFX, that number climbs fast.
The biggest variable: one day or two
If you take one thing from this post, make it this: the number of shoot days is the single biggest lever on your budget.
One shoot day with a focused concept, a locked shot list, and a crew that knows what they are doing can produce a beautiful 30-second spot. You arrive at 6 AM, you shoot until 6 PM, you get everything you need. Most of the best commercials you have seen were shot in a day.
But the moment you add a second day, a huge portion of your budget doubles. Crew day rates. Equipment rental. Location fees. Catering. Insurance. Transportation.
That is not a typo. On a $150,000 job, adding a second shoot day often adds $60,000 to $80,000. The crew does not give you a discount for day two. The rental house does not cut the rate in half. The location still charges a full day fee.
This is why pre-production matters so much. If you can design the creative to shoot in one day, you save real money. Not corners-cut money. Actual money that either stays in your pocket or goes into better talent, better locations, or better post.
One day, tight scope, right creative. That is the most efficient path to a great commercial.
Union versus non-union
For most digital and regional work, non-union crews are standard. The talent pool is deep, the rates are competitive, and the paperwork is straightforward.
When you step into national broadcast, things change. If you are buying network airtime or hiring SAG actors, you are likely working under union agreements. That is fine. Union crews are excellent. But the cost structure is different.
Union productions carry fringe costs of roughly 24% on top of labor. That covers health and pension contributions, vacation pay, and other contractual obligations. It is not optional. It is not negotiable. It is just part of the math.
What does that look like in practice? A production that costs $150,000 with a non-union crew becomes roughly $185,000 with a union crew on the same concept. Same locations, same equipment, same post pipeline. The $35,000 difference is entirely labor fringe.
Neither approach is better or worse. They serve different purposes. But you need to know which one your project requires before you start budgeting, because retrofitting a non-union budget into a union production never works.
What drives cost up
Multiple locations. Every new location means a company move. That is load-out, travel, load-in, re-light, and re-block. A two-location day gives you maybe 4 usable hours at each spot instead of 10 hours at one. Three locations in a day is a recipe for compromises.
Travel. The moment your shoot leaves the local market, you are adding flights, hotels, per diem, cargo shipping for equipment, and ground transportation. A crew of 12 traveling to another city adds $15,000 to $30,000 before anyone picks up a camera.
Celebrity or SAG principal talent. Usage fees for recognizable talent can exceed the entire production budget. A national TV buy with a well-known spokesperson might carry $100,000+ in talent costs alone, separate from their day rate.
VFX and motion graphics. Simple lower thirds and end cards are affordable. Anything beyond that, product renders, environment extensions, character animation, gets expensive quickly. Budget $500 to $2,000 per finished second of VFX as a starting point.
Tight timelines. Rush fees are real. If you need a crew assembled in two weeks instead of six, you pay a premium. If you need post delivered in five days instead of three weeks, you pay overtime. Planning ahead is free. Rushing is not.
Deliverable volume. One :30 cut is one thing. But if you also need a :15, a :06, a 9x16 social cut, a 1x1, and five stills, that is significant additional editing and finishing time. Scope your deliverables early so post-production can be budgeted accurately.
What we would tell our own clients
The smartest productions we have worked on at Farallon Films were the ones where the client understood the budget before the creative developed. Not because money kills creativity. The opposite is true.
When the budget is right-sized for the concept, everything gets better. The director can plan ambitious setups because they know the schedule supports it. The DP can request the right lens package because the equipment budget is real. The editor gets enough time to find the cut instead of rushing to a deadline.
When the budget is too small for the concept, you spend the entire production apologizing. Apologizing to the crew for the tight schedule. Apologizing to the client for the compromises. Apologizing to yourself for saying yes to something you knew would be a squeeze.
The best thing you can do before hiring any production company is be honest about your number. Not your dream number. Your real number.
Start with what you can actually spend. Then find a team that can build something great inside that number. That conversation is a hundred times more productive than asking five companies to bid on a concept that was designed without any budget in mind.
Frequently asked questions
Can you make a good commercial for under $50K?
Yes. A well-planned single-day shoot with a small non-union crew, one location, and clean post-production can produce a professional 30-second spot in the $25,000 to $50,000 range. The key is tight pre-production. Lock your concept, shot list, and schedule before the shoot day so you maximize every hour on set. You will not get a Super Bowl spot at this budget, but you can absolutely get something that makes people stop scrolling.
What is the most expensive part of making a commercial?
Shoot days and crew labor, almost always. Each additional day on set multiplies your crew, equipment, location, and catering costs. On national spots, talent usage fees can rival or exceed the production budget itself, but for most projects, the shoot days are where the money goes.
Why are production budgets so hard to quote without a brief?
Because the creative determines the cost. A 30-second spot featuring one person talking to camera in a studio is a completely different production than a 30-second spot with three locations, a car, and a drone shot. Without knowing what you want to make, any number is a guess. A good production company will ask you questions before quoting, not because they are stalling, but because the honest answer depends on your answers first.
What is the difference between a production budget and a media buy?
The production budget is what it costs to make the commercial. The media buy is what it costs to air it. They are completely separate line items. A $200,000 production budget might support a $2,000,000 media buy on national television, or a $20,000 digital spend on YouTube. The production company handles the first number. Your media agency or in-house team handles the second.