How much does a video for a car dealership cost?
The useful number is cost per car, because inventory turns over and each car needs its own video. A videographer is priced per shoot or per day and works out to tens or hundreds of dollars per car; a person on staff with a phone costs their hours; VanillaSky is $5 per car and background, with up to five versions and no filming.
Four ways to get a per-car video, and what each costs
| Route | What you pay | Per car, roughly | Time to a posted video |
|---|---|---|---|
| Videographer | Per day or per shoot, plus editing | Tens to a few hundred dollars, depending on batch size | Days |
| Staff with a phone | Their hours | Twenty to forty minutes of someone’s day | Same day, if someone has the time |
| DIY in an editor (Canva, CapCut) | A subscription plus an hour per car | The hour | Same day |
| Listing-to-video (VanillaSky) | $5 per car and background, paid after you review your car | $5 for up to five versions | Depends on queue and concept |
The ranges for the first three are wide because they depend on where you are and how many cars you batch. VanillaSky includes the first video and up to four more versions with the same background. Failed attempts do not count. A different background costs another $5 and includes its own allowance. There is no subscription or prepaid pack; existing purchased balances remain spendable.
The cost that matters is per car listed
A dealership that lists 40 cars a month needs 40 videos a month. That is what makes the videographer route hard: even a good per-car rate on a batch shoot only works if the cars are all on the lot on shoot day, and they are not. The listing-to-video route scales with listings because the input is the listing.
What you give up with the cheapest route
A generated video is made from the listing photos, so it shows what the photos show. It cannot show the engine running, a walk around the car, or a salesperson’s face. If those matter for your brand, keep the videographer for the flagship cars and use the per-listing route for the rest of the lot.
Questions
Is a walkaround video by a salesperson free?
It costs their time — typically twenty to forty minutes per car including the edit — and the result depends on the person, the light and the lot. It is free the way anything done by staff is free.
Does a cheaper video perform worse?
What performs is a video that exists for every car, posted the day it is listed, with the price on screen. A polished video for one in twenty cars loses to a decent one for all twenty.