Should I make AI video ads myself with Veo, Kling or Runway, or hire an agency?

What do Veo, Kling and Runway actually cost?

Google's Veo 3.1 is billed per second of video, with audio included and no free tier. The lowest listed rate is $0.05 a second for Lite at 720p and the highest is $0.60 a second for Standard at 4K¹. As our arithmetic, a 15-second ad at the Fast 720p rate is about $1.50 and at the Standard 1080p rate about $6, before any retakes¹.

Runway sells subscriptions. Standard is $12 a month on annual billing and $15 monthly, with 625 credits and no watermarks. Gen-4.5 uses 12 credits a second, so a month of Standard credits runs about 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 video². Higher plans exist on the same page.

Kling's developer page prices by the second and sells prepaid packages. Kling 3.0 is $0.084 a second at 720p without native audio and $0.126 with native audio and no voice control. The smallest standard package is $700 for 5,000 units, valid for 180 days with no rollover⁴. We could not read Kling's consumer membership prices on its public page, so we quote its developer list prices.

All three are listed in US dollars. The tool bill is rarely the big number. Retakes, your time and the work around the clip are.

What do the tools not do?

A video model turns a prompt, an image or a clip into a clip. Everything around it is work someone still has to do.

• The script and the idea. Ipsos found the strongest ads, human or AI, started from a solid brief rooted in a human truth⁶.
• The storyboard and shot list. In Ipsos's test, a shot list written from the brief was what was fed into the model⁶.
• Consistency across shots. Veo clips are 4 to 8 seconds, so a 30-second ad is several clips joined, and reference images (up to 3) help keep a product or character steady³.
• The edit, the sound design and the cuts for each channel, such as a short bumper, a vertical version and a longer film. Someone has to cut and check each one.
• Language. Veo's documentation says English is fully supported and other languages may work but results can vary³. Tamil or Hindi dialogue needs a native speaker's ear.
• Retakes. Ipsos reported that some AI ads needed several iterations before they were good enough to test⁶. McDonald's Netherlands' AI film took ten people five weeks, according to the production company's chief executive as reported by NBC⁷.
• The disclosure decision. Veo output carries a SynthID watermark for later verification³, but whether your ad needs a visible label is a separate question; see AI ad labelling in India.

Who owns the result, and can I run it as an ad?

Runway says content you create is yours to use without non-commercial restrictions from Runway, listing product advertising as an example⁵. Google's Gemini API terms say Google will not claim ownership of the content but may generate the same or similar content for others, and that the service is for professional or business use⁸.

Owning a clip by contract is not the same as holding a copyright that stops a competitor copying it. The US Copyright Office concluded in January 2025 that copyright does not extend to purely AI-generated material, that prompts alone do not give enough control, and that human selection, arrangement and creative modification can be protected⁹. The human script, edit and added elements are the protectable layer.

Music, voices, faces and logos you feed in need their own permission. Keep a record per ad of the tool, plan and generation date.

What about Sora?

Do not plan around it. OpenAI's help page says the Sora web and app experiences were discontinued on 26 April 2026 and lists 24 September 2026 as the date the Sora API is discontinued¹⁰. The Ipsos study cited on this page used Sora 2, so its result describes a workflow on a tool OpenAI has discontinued⁶.

When is DIY enough, and when should I hire help?

The honest test is whether your time on retakes is worth less than the quote. These are our guidelines, not a published rule.

• DIY is enough for internal concepts, hook tests, mood boards and social experiments where a flaw costs little.
• Hire help when the ad carries your brand's face, needs several channel cuts, uses regional languages, shows real people, or needs rights and disclosure handled.
• Ask any studio who owns the files, which tools it uses and why, how disclosure is handled per platform, what revisions cost, and to see finished ads against a brief like yours.