How much to design a banner ad in UK?

September 1, 2008 6:07 AM

Standard price for designing a banner ad in the UK?

I was dealing with a somewhat-shady seeming potential client who wanted a quote for banner ad design. Figuring the rock-bottom rate for respectable design in the UK at £15, factoring for a minimum of two hours design time and one hour correspondence and waffling with the client, and then adding £5 for negotiating room, I said £50 pounds for a standard banner. If they hadn't given me signs that they were angling for freebies, I probably would have quoted something lower. As it is, they balked as if I was asking for blood. Have I been wildly unreasonable here? What would you guys charge?

posted by nímwunnan to work & money (6 comments total)

Nope, not unreasonable. £15 is a very low rate for professional design, as you say. In my own career as a designer, I have found that most laymen don't understand what a designer does or why the finished product benefits from a pro designer, and they are therefore prone to imagining some arbitrary relationship between the size of the finished product and the price. "£50 for a tiny little banner ad?", they cry, thinking you are trying to rip them off.

Don't feel bad. If you're serious about working as a designer you don't need clients that like. If you're really in need of the money, you should do the work first and try to sell it based on how awesome a job you did. It's easier for most people to see the value of something when it's already in front of them.
posted by chudmonkey at 6:59 AM on September 1, 2008

£15 is far too low a rate imho. 2 hours to design is a little too high though.

For a banner ad I'd probably charge in and around £50 also, but that would be estimating on an hour total.

You haven't been unreasonable at all. They'll get what they pay for, the problem is competing with online services that offer logos and banners etc far too cheaply (and it usually shows).

How much are they actually spending on advertising that little banner I wonder? Bet it's more than £50. It's sometimes bizarre where people see value.
posted by twistedonion at 7:14 AM on September 1, 2008

£50 is perfectly reasonable, and in my experience jobs that cost less than that are more trouble than they're worth. I'd have charged the same, but on the basis of a £25ph rate and less time. (ie an hour plus admin/hassle contingency)
posted by hatmandu at 7:31 AM on September 1, 2008

50 quid sounds reasonable for a quick little bit of work.
Think of it as a lucky escape - they could've given the go-ahead then either tried to make you accept less or forced you to waste lots more time and money chasing them for payment.
posted by malevolent at 7:39 AM on September 1, 2008

factoring for a minimum of two hours design time and one hour correspondence and waffling with the client, and then adding £5 for negotiating room, I said £50 pounds

So, that's 2 hours design, 1 hour correspondence + £5 for negotiating room = £50.

[Not UK but AUS]. Your situation aside, my company would be out of business. My company has given up on making any money on this. It's an added service. We can't compete with people that churn out this stuff out 24/7. We wouldn't even quote on 'just a banner ad' from a new client - Sure, you could pick up a new client, but at what (potential) cost? If a potential client really pushes it (because they've seen our work and they love what we do), we quote more in the region of AUS$120 per hr - design. AUS$25 per hr - management.
On the other hand, we charge our regular clients AUS$25 for a banner ad based on their existing material. It's just a service that makes use of already approved material.
TIPS: Proofreading time (If just one word is wrong…) Colour printout also needs to be factored in even if your client doesn't see it, your proofreader needs to. Uploading time to 'wherever', ftp or email (you need to recover these costs). Also, make it clear that if they want to reuse it in their other 'promotional' that it needs to be 'repurposed' ie illustrator, eps, jpeg or whatever. Charge accordingly.
posted by tellurian at 8:15 AM on September 1, 2008

Thanks guys, I was staring to feel like I was crazy there for a little bit. I'm not too bothered to lose their project. They came off as a bunch of wankers from the start.
posted by nímwunnan at 9:50 AM on September 1, 2008