In this article
What platforms do wellWhere they leave you exposedAgency overhead, honestlyWhich to pick by volumeWe run this calculation for brands weekly, so the numbers here come from campaigns rather than from a blog roundup.
Price is the least useful axis to compare on. Cost per verified view is the only number that survives contact with reality.
What platforms do well
Whatever you decide here, write down the baseline first. Branded search volume, direct traffic and blended acquisition cost, measured before anything changes, are what make the result legible later.
Comparisons in this space are usually written by one of the parties involved, so treat every table you read — including ours — with the appropriate suspicion and check the definitions.
Where they leave you exposed
The account doing the posting matters more than most teams accept. A mediocre clip on an established account will out-reach an excellent clip on a cold one, reliably.
Price is the least useful axis to compare on. Cost per verified view is the only number that survives contact with reality.
Rule of thumb: if you cannot state what a verified view means in your contract, you are not buying reach — you are buying a number someone else controls.
Agency overhead, honestly
In practice this is a volume question before it is a creative question. Six posts tell you nothing; four hundred tell you which hook family works and which was a coincidence.
The right answer depends almost entirely on whether you already have an audience. That single variable flips most of these recommendations.
- Establish the baseline before you change anything: branded search, direct traffic, blended acquisition cost.
- Run enough volume in the first thirty days to distinguish a format from a coincidence.
- Cut the bottom third of formats hard, and put the freed budget behind the top third.
- Judge downstream effects on a four to eight week lag, not inside a seven-day attribution window.
Which to pick by volume
Every platform now demotes reposted and watermarked material, so anything that looks recycled across channels quietly loses distribution before a human ever sees it.
Comparisons in this space are usually written by one of the parties involved, so treat every table you read — including ours — with the appropriate suspicion and check the definitions.
The numbers we work from
| Metric | Benchmark | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Clips per hour of source | 20–60 | Depends on density of the source material |
| Clips surviving full selection | 1 in 38 | ~97% destroyed before publication |
| Programme entry point | $5,000/mo | Priced on selection, not impressions |
| Time from file to live | 24–72 hours | Sub-15 minutes on retainer for live moments |
| Minimum useful budget | $5,000 | Below this there is not enough volume to learn from |
| First reliable read | 30 days | Downstream lift typically 4–8 weeks behind |
The short version
Whether you run this internally or hand it to someone, the structure above is the part that matters. The logo on the invoice is not.
If you want this modelled against your own category and budget, a call takes thirty minutes and gives you a price, a campaign outline and a launch date — whether or not you buy anything.
Want this run for you? Vanguard turns one video into thousands of clips, reviews every one by hand, and posts the best on the network.
Book a scope call →