What things cost, and why the numbers move so much

Almost always because they are quoting different amounts of finishing. One quote is an editor cutting your footage. The other is an editor, then a colourist matching sources, then a sound engineer mixing for phone speakers, then a motion artist on the titles.

Both are honest quotes for different work. Before comparing prices, ask each one what happens to the audio — that single question separates them faster than anything else.

Finishing work, not runtime. A single-camera talking head for YouTube sits at the low end. A multi-camera ad that needs colour matched across three sources, a proper mix and motion graphics costs several times that even if the final video is shorter.

This is why we quote against the actual cut list rather than a per-minute rate. A per-minute rate charges you the same for both, which means it is either too expensive for the simple job or too cheap for the complicated one.

For editing, start with one video rather than a package — you learn more about whether the fit works from one finished cut than from a three-month commitment.

For creator campaigns, three creators posting three times beats nine creators posting once. Repetition is what makes a recommendation believable, so a small budget concentrated beats a small budget spread thin.

Yes, sometimes. If you need one straightforward cut and nothing else, a good freelancer will beat any agency on price and we will tell you so rather than take the job.

Where cheap goes wrong is a retainer. At a low monthly fee something has to give, and it is usually the part nobody checks — the sound mix, the tracking setup, or whether anyone read last month's numbers before planning this month.

No. A percentage of spend rewards the agency for spending more, which is the wrong incentive to put between you and your budget. We quote a management fee against the number of campaigns and the creative volume.

Ad spend itself never passes through us — it goes straight from your account to Meta or Google.

No. A brand in Gurgaon pays the same as one in Saket or Mumbai for the same cut. The only cost that is genuinely location-dependent is travel for a shoot, and that is quoted separately and up front rather than folded into the fee.