How Much Do Super Bowl Commercials Cost?

The Super Bowl is the most watched sporting event in the United States. Every year, tens of millions of people gather around the TV to watch the big game unfold. To reach the millions of potential consumers watching the screen at one time, companies are willing to pay millions of dollars to air a 30-second commercial. How much does a Super Bowl commercial cost? Keep reading to find out!

How Much Does a 30-Second Super Bowl Commercial Cost?

A single 30-second Super Bowl Commercial costs $7,000,000 in 2023. While the current price for an advertisement is set for the 2022-2023 Super Bowl, the price of an individual commercial slot for a Super Bowl event has been increasing with each passing year. The same 30-second time slot that is currently worth $7,000,000 was worth $37,500 in 1967 ($334,000 when adjusted for inflation). Over the last five years, the average cost has been $6,500,000. Generally, the longer the commercial, the more it costs, the most expensive to date is the 2020 Amazon Alexa commercial. The record-setting price for this 90-second commercial was $16,800,000. While this price point seems incredibly high to the average person, the companies that are paying this price make hundreds of millions in profit, making a seven-figure fee an easy expenditure.

How Are Super Bowl Commercials Bought?

Super Bowl commercials are bought months in advance in the form of individual 30-second time slots. Many companies have existing deals that give them exclusive rights to certain times, or guarantee they will be offered a time slot. Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch, and Doritos are some brands which have long-standing ties to commercials during America's most-watched event. The rights to sell and distribute commercial air time are held by the media company that is broadcasting the Super Bowl. In 2023, FOX is the one broadcasting the Super Bowl, so FOX is the one setting prices and selling the advertising time slots.

There are only three companies that air the Super Bowl, and the cycle works in three-year rotations. These companies are FOX, NBC, and CBS. These companies have mutual agreements for the pricing and selling commercial air time. Oftentimes, the precious marketing spaces available for the Super Bowl are sold out months or sometimes years before the Super Bowl is even happening, purely due to the amount of viewers and potential consumers that will be watching the big game.

Why Do Companies Pay So Much?

Companies are willing to pay so much because the expense of Super Bowl ads has been shown to guarantee profits. A company that buys ad space for a commercial during the Super Bowl stands to make $500 million on a $7 million expense. In terms of monetary value, and given how big major brands' marketing budgets are, the cost-to-return ratio entirely justifies the expense of buying a Super Bowl time slot. Beyond the return that corporations see in their profits, the Super Bowl averages around 99 million viewers, and if you have a commercial airing during the game, that's almost 100 million potential consumers for a product.

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