How Much Does a Super Bowl Ad Cost?

A 30 second Super Bowl ad costs $5 million in 2016. That’s the cost just to run the ad. Including production, a 30 second Super Bowl ad can cost $15 million. A 60 second ad can cost twice that. An ad in the first Super Bowl in 1967 cost just $40,000. The total network revenue from all Super Bowl ads this year will add up to $450 million.

Is it worth it? Do companies make back their $5 million to $10 million cost for a single Super Bowl ad? Is it really worth $167,000 per second? Or $500,000 per second for the most expensively produced ads? It may be. See the tables below for the reason why.

Also see: How Much Money Do You Make if You Win the Super Bowl?

Super Bowl Ad Cost Through Time

Super Bowl ads cost a lot. In 1967 a single Super Bowl ad cost $40,000. That’s $284,000 inflation adjusted dollars. In 2016 a single 30 second Super Bowl ad costs $5 million. That’s 125 times more than it started out at the very first Super Bowl.

The table below shows the growth of the cost of a Super Bowl ad from 1967 to today.

Super Bowl Ad Cost Through Time
Super Bowl Ad Cost 1967	$40,000
Super Bowl Ad Cost 1970	$78,200
Super Bowl Ad Cost 1975	$110,000
Super Bowl Ad Cost 1980	$275,000
Super Bowl Ad Cost 1985	$500,000
Super Bowl Ad Cost 1990	$700,000
Super Bowl Ad Cost 1995	$1,000,000
Super Bowl Ad Cost 2000	$2,100,000
Super Bowl Ad Cost 2005	$2,400,000
Super Bowl Ad Cost 2010	$2,650,000
Super Bowl Ad Cost 2015	$4,000,000
Super Bowl Ad Cost 2016	$5,000,000

As you can see, Super Bowl ad cost has nearly doubled every five years since the very first Super Bowl in 1967. Exceptions are in the period from 1995 through 2010. At that time, the cost of a Super Bowl ad seems to have reached a plateau.

Also see: How Much Money Do NFL Players Make?

Super Bowl Ad Cost 2016

In 2016, the networks will have space to air about 45 minutes of Super Bowl ads. That’s about 55 total ads. We’ve sampled ten ads at random below. We’ve estimated the production cost of each ad based on factors like star power, CGI and other costs. Total Super Bowl ad cost includes both production cost and the $5 million cost to air a 30 second spot.

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The cost just for airing the ten Super Bowl ads above is $85 million. The total Super Bowl ad cost to air all 45 minutes of 2016 ads is $450 million. Including production, the total Super Bowl ad cost for 2016 comes to $520 million.

Total Super Bowl Ad Cost
Cost to Air One 30 Second Super Bowl Ad	$5,000,000
Total Super Bowl Ad Minutes	45
Total Cost to Air All Super Bowl Ads	$450,000,000
Total Super Bowl Ad Production Cost (est)	$70,000,000
Total Super Bowl Ad Cost 2016	$520,000,000

Also see: Peyton Manning Net Worth

Super Bowl Ad Cost: Is it Worth It?

Is it worth the Super Bowl ad cost of $5 million to air a 30 second spot? Apparently, advertisers do get their money’s worth for the cost.

Considering the question of Super Bowl ad cost vs Super Bowl viewers alone, the return doesn’t at first seem worth the expense. Estimates place viewership for Super Bowl 50 in 2016 at 120 million viewers. The math doesn’t seem to work. Assume Campbell’s soup’s 60 second ad sells one can of soup to every hundredth viewer. At about $1 a can, they’ll make $1.2 million. That’s not a great return for a cost of $12 million for ad production and placement.

Also, stack Super Bowl ad cost up against other advertising options. A single video from YouTuber PewDiePie can get 50 million viewers. That means if Campbell’s placed an ad on PewDiePie’s channel they could reach more viewers on 15 minutes of PewDiePie videos than in the entire Super Bowl. How much does it cost to place an ad on YouTube? Probably a lot less than the Super Bowl.

Also see: Cam Newton Net Worth

Why Super Bowl Ad Cost is Worth It

Here’s why a Super Bowl ad is worth the cost. Despite much cheaper alternatives that can reach larger numbers of people, there’s a multiplier effect on Super Bowl ads. Consider the table below:

Super Bowl Ad Cost: Worth the Money	Ad Cost (Airing + Production)	Viewers Reached	Potential Additional Views	Cost Per 1,000 Viewers
Super Bowl Ad	$12,000,000	120,000,000	5,000,000,000	$2.34
YouTube Ad	$1,800,000	120,000,000	0	$15.00

The “potential additional views” column contains “best guess” estimates and isn’t based on actual data. That’s because there’s no real way to measure the real number of viewers for a Super Bowl ad.

Super Bowl ad cost doesn’t just buy 120 million single views on Super Bowl Sunday. It potentially buys billions of views. That’s because the really successful Super Bowl ads are going to get talked about. They’re going to get put online and watched over and over again. They’re going to get shared on Facebook and Twitter. They’re going to get analyzed and replayed on dozens or even hundreds of news and entertainment shows. They’re going to get embedded and re-posted on YouTube by every pop channel out there. Super Bowl ads are going to get written about in hundreds or even thousands of blog posts like this one. Finally, they’re going to get talked about around the water cooler in the office and around the dinner table at home.

The very best Super Bowl ads have the potential to get not 120 million views but billions. Doing the math on that, Super Bowl ad cost per viewer turns out to be much lower than other, apparently cheaper options.

Super Bowl Ad Cost: A Few More Commercials

See the section below for a few more Super Bowl ads and their costs. Costs include price to air and production. 30 second ads cost $5 million, while 60 second ads cost twice that.