Should we keep the raw footage?

Yes, and it needs to be in the contract. If the shoot was paid for from your budget, the raw frames are your asset; being able to reuse the same material after changing agency depends on it. When only the selected, edited frames are handed over, two years later all you hold is those posts.

Is producing in-house cheaper?

With continuity yes, without it no. In-house production pays off by paying for equipment and learning once and using them every month; set up for a few posts a month, the equipment and the time sit idle. The common answer is hybrid: routine product frames in-house, campaign and brand shoots outside.

What content production costs: video, photography, copy

Short answer

What does producing social media content cost?

The unit of content cost is the shoot day, not the post. How many frames and clips come out of one shoot day is the number that sets your monthly cost per post; spread the output of one day across two months and the unit cost halves. Copy and editing are separate lines and are invisible in most quotes; what makes a quote readable is a written count of original assets per month.

Key takeaways

The unit of cost is the shoot day, not the post; spreading the output of one shoot over a longer period lowers unit cost directly.
Stock imagery is cheap but not distinctive; brand recognition cannot be built among three competitors using the same frame.
Video cost is set by editing, not length: a thirty-second edit can cost more than three minutes of raw footage.
Copy is the line most quotes leave invisible; if it does not say who writes headlines, captions and subtitles, the job lands on the client.
Handover of raw files belongs in the contract: if the shoot was paid for from your budget, the raw frames should be yours.

What is the cost made of?

Four lines and what inflates each

Photography
What sets the cost
Number of shoot days, location, models, product count
Video
What sets the cost
Editing time and complexity; editing costs more than shooting
Copy
What sets the cost
How many original headlines and captions, how many revisions
Adaptation
What sets the cost
How many aspect ratios and platforms the same asset is adapted to

Four lines and what inflates each
Line	What sets the cost
Photography	Number of shoot days, location, models, product count
Video	Editing time and complexity; editing costs more than shooting
Copy	How many original headlines and captions, how many revisions
Adaptation	How many aspect ratios and platforms the same asset is adapted to

The table says one thing: the way to lower cost is not producing less content but getting more content out of the same shoot. Product frames shot in a single day can serve the product page, the ads, social and the marketplace at once — when the planning anticipated it.

When is stock imagery enough?

For backgrounds, textures and abstract visuals it is fine and sensible. Anywhere the product, the space or the team appears, it is not — because your competitor can license the same frame, and brand recognition is built exactly there. The test is simple: if the image shows your work, shoot it; if it only carries a mood, stock will do.

Frequently asked

Should we keep the raw footage?: Yes, and it needs to be in the contract. If the shoot was paid for from your budget, the raw frames are your asset; being able to reuse the same material after changing agency depends on it. When only the selected, edited frames are handed over, two years later all you hold is those posts.
Is producing in-house cheaper?: With continuity yes, without it no. In-house production pays off by paying for equipment and learning once and using them every month; set up for a few posts a month, the equipment and the time sit idle. The common answer is hybrid: routine product frames in-house, campaign and brand shoots outside.

Sources

01Product data specification (GTIN, brand, availability) — Google Merchant Center, 2026

Queries this page answers

content production cost
social media content pricing
video production cost
product photography cost