Editor Hour Cost Benchmark on a Representative Brief (QA)

Editor Hour Cost Benchmark on a Representative Brief (QA)

1. 01

   Define a representative brief that mirrors your typical client deliverable

   Choose a 5-minute talking-head video with b-roll, captions, and a social cutdown. This brief becomes the constant against which every tool is measured.

2. 02

   Select a baseline editor and record their total hours on the brief

   Have an experienced editor complete the brief using your current manual process. Log every minute from raw footage to final export, including revisions.

3. 03

   Run the same brief through each candidate tool with a fresh operator

   Use an editor unfamiliar with the tool to avoid bias. Document the learning curve separately from the production run so you can estimate steady-state speed.

4. 04

   Measure accepted deliverables, not just export count

   Have the client or a senior reviewer approve or reject each output against the same quality rubric. Count only approved deliverables as successful.

5. 05

   Track correction time for every rejected deliverable

   Log how many minutes the editor spends fixing errors like misaligned captions or bad audio. This reveals hidden labor that tool demos often omit.

6. 06

   Compare total editor hours and cost per accepted deliverable

   Divide the fully loaded editor cost by the number of accepted deliverables for each tool. A tool that saves 30% on raw editing but doubles correction time may not be worth it.

7. 07

   Re-run the benchmark quarterly or after major tool updates

   AI editing tools change fast. A tool that underperformed last quarter may have closed the gap, so keep the benchmark current to inform renewal decisions.