Television Ad Prices vs a Month of Reels

I asked a TV station if they could give me a break on their prices. They said breaks are the one thing they sell.

Television ad prices are set per spot by the station, and they move with the market, the time of day and how many people watch that show. Airtime is only half the bill. You also pay to make the commercial, and one airing does almost nothing, so you buy the same spot over and over. I'm not going to quote you a TV number I can't source. What I can tell you is what the same money buys from us in a month of reels.

How much does TV advertising cost?

TV advertising cost comes down to two bills: the airtime and the spot itself. The station sells the airtime. Somebody else, usually a production company, makes the ad.

The airtime price depends on the slot. A big local newscast costs more than a rerun at 2 a.m., because more people are on the couch. Stations sell in packages, and the pitch is always frequency. People have to see a commercial a bunch of times before it sticks, so one run is money in the trash.

Then there is the ad. A 30-second spot still needs a script, a shoot, an edit and a voiceover. That is a real production, and it is billed separately from the airtime.

And when the flight ends, the ad stops. You rented that attention, and you don't keep any of it.

How does local TV ad cost compare to a month of reels?

Put the local TV ad cost next to a retainer and you are comparing a rental to something you own. A month with us starts at $1,000 for a solo expert and $3,000 for multi-brand teams.

That buys one shoot day a month, plus the writing before it so you are not standing there wondering what to say, plus the editing and captions after it. Then we post three times a week, which is twelve or thirteen posts a month, all of them yours to keep.

You also get RSoperations, our client platform. It holds your leads board, a booking page on your own domain, your finished cuts and your content calendar. It comes with the retainer. There is no software bill.

Every post sits on your page after it goes out. Somebody finds your account in March and watches what you posted in October. A TV spot from October is gone by Halloween.

The full breakdown is on the pricing page, and if you want to know what a single production runs instead, I wrote up what video production costs in Tampa.

How much does advertising cost for a small business, really?

How much advertising costs is up to you, but my rule of thumb is around 10% of revenue on marketing. That's my view, not a study. Plenty of businesses spend less and some need more.

Where it goes matters more than the amount. I don't think all of it should go into video. You have to save money for SEO and to run ads. Video is one line in the budget, and it should be the line that feeds the rest, because your ads and your website need something to show.

Most marketers keep video to a slice. HubSpot's 2026 State of Marketing report found 46% of marketers put a third of their budget or less into video. That seems about right to me.

In my opinion, a marketing agency worth paying charges somewhere from $2,000 to $4,000 a month and gets you one to two solid shoots and 30 to 50 postable assets. If you are paying more than that and walking away with a few carousel posts, you are paying for the logo on their door.

Here is where I disagree with most agencies

Most agencies will tell you TV is dead. I don't think that's the problem. The problem is the whole budget going into one polished moment that runs for a few weeks and disappears.

People think video is expensive and out of their league. A lot of that comes from spending the budget badly. They blow it on one big thing, see no results, and decide video doesn't work. Then they don't try again for years.

What works is documenting your business every week. If you're Red Bull, maybe that means driving a car off a roof. A clothing brand puts its gear on hikers on the Appalachian Trail and takes photos. You don't need a stunt, though. You need to do your job while somebody films it. Schedule the day, not the videos.

The numbers lean the same way. HubSpot's 2026 State of Marketing report has short-form video as the top ROI format, named by 49% of marketers.

A TV ad also has to be fancy, because it is competing with actual TV shows. A reel doesn't. One cut, twenty seconds, straight information. People follow the person talking, and nobody follows a logo.

When does a TV ad actually make sense?

A TV ad makes sense when your buyers are the people watching that channel and you have a message that works for all of them at once. A regional service business with a broad local market can get real mileage out of it.

It also makes sense when you already have the basics covered. If your page is active, your website works and people can book you, TV can push more people toward all of that.

It does not make sense as your first marketing dollar. If somebody sees your commercial, looks you up and finds a dead Instagram from last spring, you paid for the airtime to send them to nothing.

So if you're choosing, build the page first. If you want to know how often to post once you do, here is how many reels a business should post.

What we do about it

We run monthly retainers for founders, coaches, gym owners and brokers who know they should be posting and aren't. You give us one day a month on camera. We plan it with you, follow you around while you work, cut it into short videos and post three a week.

It's month to month, no annual lock-in. When something's wrong you text me or Grayson, not a ticket queue. Planning call to shoot day is usually inside two weeks, and first cuts show up the week after the shoot.

Prices are on the pricing page. If you want to spend on TV later, great. You'll have a page worth sending people to.

FAQ

Is TV advertising worth it for a small business?

It can be, if your customers watch that station and you can afford to run the spot enough times to matter. For most small businesses I'd get consistent video on their own page first, then decide.

Can I use my reels as a TV commercial?

Sometimes. A reel is shot vertical for a phone and a TV is horizontal, so it usually needs a new edit at the very least. If TV is in the plan, tell us before the shoot and we'll film for both.

Why are TV ads priced per spot?

Because the station is selling you a slice of its audience, and some slots have far more people watching than others. The price follows the viewers, so you pay more for the shows people actually watch.

Want to know what your budget buys before you talk to a station? Book a 20-minute call and bring the numbers.