As a business owner, you probably know how much video ads matter. Humans love visual content, and you can probably find the best place to position an ad based on market research. You can come up with a video ad idea, and you may feel that it will help your company quite a bit once you get it out there for public consumption.
There’s only one question, though. Should you create the ad yourself, or should you engage a video production company to help you? That’s not always the easiest question to answer, but we’ll break down the argument for and against video production companies right now.
The Argument for Video Production Companies
We’ll start by talking about some of the reasons you might choose to hire a video production company to help generate your ad content. For one thing, they’re professionals, and you might not have anyone working for your company at the moment who can say that.
It’s true that a video production company can go about adding cool video effects once they start shooting your business’s ad, but they can do so much more than that. Because they’re pros, they can tell you what will work from a visual standpoint and what won’t.
It’s not that they’re trying to throw cold water on your campaign idea. It’s just that they know how to produce ads because they’ve probably done it many times before. They can tell you in no uncertain terms how you can frame a shot, the special effects you can add, what elements you can include, and also the ones you can’t base on the budget requirements you’ve stipulated.
They can edit the video for you as well. They know how to get the lighting set up perfectly, and they can suggest ways to present the material that will more clearly convey what you’re trying to tell the audience. In short, this is their field, and they should prove invaluable from the moment you hire them to the time you get the finished product in front of your potential customers.
The Argument Against Hiring a Video Production Company
The cost is usually the main point against hiring a professional video production company. It’s great to have one, but maybe you have a very small company. As a startup, you might not have the money in the operating budget to hire professionals to help you shoot your ads yet.
A time might come at some point in the future when you feel like you can hire some pros to help you shoot and edit your ads. You probably look forward to that time eagerly. If you don’t have the capital at the moment to engage a professional video production company, the best you can do is create some rudimentary ads yourself.
Maybe you can hire some film students to help you. You can post fliers on college campuses and promise anyone who’s interested some experience and a few pizzas for lunch.
Having your own video production department is the other reason you might not hire a professional company to help with an ad campaign. Maybe you feel like you’re going to create a stream of ads going forward, and you have enough money on the operating budget to hire your own full-time team. You may also have enough cash to get professional video and editing equipment.
Usually, you will need to establish your company and find success before you get to that point. Large, multinational companies generally have enough of an ad budget that they can hire full-time video crews to shoot their ads.
The ads they create look professional in every conceivable way. They’re cinematic to the point that you can’t tell them apart from Hollywood movie shots. However, small and medium-sized companies probably don’t have the budget to put a full-time video production crew in place and keep them on the payroll.
Finding Middle Ground
If you own a small or medium-sized business, and you know you need regular or semi-regular video ad shoots, you can probably find a middle ground between these two concepts. You might not have the money to hire your own permanent video production staff and buy all that expensive equipment. However, you can use a professional company whenever you need them.
You might contact a professional video production company and tell them you’re operating within a strict budget. You can then ask them what they can do for you working within those constraints.
They should be able to tell you very frankly what that money gets you. If they don’t feel like you have enough to make hiring them worth it, you can look for another production company, or you can use one of the other techniques we mentioned.
If they say they’re willing to take you on at that price, you can get their expertise, which should help you a great deal, especially if you’ve never done anything like this before. The pros at the production company can shoot your ad, but they might also help you with storyboarding and other technical considerations.
Hopefully, if the company creates an ad for you that you like, you can go back to them whenever you need them. A time might come in the distant future when you want to keep your video ad production in-house, but till then, you can contact that same company whenever you want to do a new campaign.
One thing is certain: you’re going to need video ads. You can feature them in so many different places, and your video ads can show your potential customers your products and services.
These ads can show your brand identity. They can establish whether you’re trying to stay local or appeal to a national or international audience.
Remember that any time you can afford professional video ad companies, you should at least consider it. Having professionals advising you often means a quality product when you finish the shoot.
