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How to Make a TV Commercial
UPDATED: 2026-08-12 By Lan He, Senior Video Producer at Pexo
Making a TV commercial takes seven steps: settle one message, pick a standard duration, script to exact time, storyboard it, produce the footage, mix to broadcast loudness, then deliver to specification. A TV commercial takes about 30 minutes to produce once the script clears.
Quick Version: How to Make a TV Commercial
- Settle one message, agreed before anything is written.
- Pick a standard duration and treat it as exact.
- Script to time, counting words rather than estimating.
- Storyboard, because airtime is bought before the edit exists.
- Produce the footage and plan cutdowns from the same master.
- Mix to the broadcaster's loudness target.
- Clear it and deliver to the technical specification.
How to Make a TV Commercial Step by Step
Step 1: Settle one message
Agree the single message before anything is written, and get it agreed by whoever can still change their mind later. TV has no room for a second idea and no cheap way to revise after clearance, so a message that is still being debated in week three becomes an expensive problem.
Write it as one sentence a viewer could repeat. If the sentence needs a comma and a qualifier, it is two messages, and one of them will be the one that gets remembered by nobody.
Step 2: Pick a standard duration
Thirty seconds is the default, fifteen buys frequency, sixty suits a launch or a story. These are exact durations, not targets. A spot that runs 31 seconds does not air, and an automated playout system will not make an exception for good work.
Each length is a different structure rather than the same idea trimmed. Thirty has room for a setup, a turn and a resolution. Fifteen has room for a situation and a payoff, and nothing else. Decide now whether you need both, because that decision changes how the whole thing is built.
Step 3: Script to exact time
Count words rather than estimating. Roughly 2.5 spoken words per second is a workable planning figure, so a 30 second spot with visuals to breathe carries about 55 to 65 words, not 90. Read it aloud against a stopwatch before it goes any further.
Leave the last two to three seconds for the brand and the action. That end card is the part clients most often try to shorten and the part that most needs its time, because a logo flashed for half a second registers with nobody.
Step 4: Storyboard it
Board every shot with its duration. Broadcast work is bought before the edit exists, and the storyboard is what the buy, the client approval and the clearance conversation all run on. It is also where an over-length spot is caught while fixing it is still free.
Add the durations up and compare against the slot. A board totalling 34 seconds for a 30 second buy is a problem you solve now by cutting a shot, or later by cutting footage you already paid for.
Step 5: Produce the footage
A shoot is the traditional route and the reason TV production has historically started in the thousands: crew, location, talent, and a day that cannot be repeated cheaply if the client changes their mind.
Pexo's text-to-video workflow generates the scenes from a description, and image-to-video animates real product photography where the spot needs the actual product on screen. Generate the cutdowns from the same description rather than trimming the master, so the 15 keeps its own shape instead of being a 30 with the middle missing.
Step 6: Mix to broadcast loudness
Broadcasters enforce a loudness target so commercials do not jump in volume against programming, and mixing a spot as loud as an online video is one of the most common technical rejections. It is a mix decision, not something to fix at delivery.
Check the target for your market and broadcaster before mixing, since it varies. Leave the dialogue clearly above the music: a spot mixed for a good pair of headphones frequently loses its voice track on a television speaker in a room with people talking. Pexo generates narration and composes a matched score.
Step 7: Clear it and deliver
Submit for clearance through the body or broadcaster your market uses, and expect comparative claims, health claims, pricing and anything aimed at children to get the closest reading. Clearance happens after the edit, so leave time for it to send you back into the timeline.
Then deliver to the technical specification: resolution, frame rate for the market, colour space, audio configuration and whatever file wrapper is required. Getting this wrong means rejection at ingest no matter how good the spot is. Export 16:9 at the market's frame rate, and produce any social version as a separate recomposition rather than cropping the broadcast master. Pexo exports up to 4K and every ratio from one project.
How to Make a TV Commercial with Pexo
The seven steps above work with any production method. Pexo handles step 5 in a single conversation, which removes the shoot that made this format expensive to attempt at all.
Open the TV commercial page and describe the spot: "A 30-second commercial about a family finally getting out of the door on time, warm morning light, four shots, calm voiceover of 60 words, brand card held for the final three seconds." Pexo generates the scenes to the boarded durations, records the narration, and composes the score.
Ask for the 15-second cutdown in the same conversation and Pexo builds it as its own structure rather than trimming the 30. The platform runs across Seedance 2.0, Kling AI, and more.
For related formats, the commercial video page covers non-broadcast placements and brand ad covers reach-led work.
This article describes production practice. It is not legal or advertising-compliance advice, and broadcast clearance requirements differ by market and should be checked with your clearance body or broadcaster.
5 Mistakes That Get a Commercial Rejected
1. Running over the slot. A 31 second spot for a 30 second buy does not air, and playout does not make exceptions.
2. Mixing at online loudness. Broadcasters enforce a target. This is one of the most common technical rejections.
3. Leaving clearance until the end. It happens after the edit and can send you back into it. Budget the time.
4. Trimming the 30 into a 15. A spot never designed as both loses its structure when cut. Plan the cutdown early.
5. Ignoring the delivery spec. Wrong frame rate or wrapper means rejection at ingest regardless of the creative.
Related Tutorials
- How to make a brand ad for the reach-led creative approach
- How to make a product ad for the short-form counterpart
- How to make a movie trailer for cutting to a fixed structure
- How to make a script for a video for scripting to exact time
