When should an agency hire a video editor?

Start with the coming month. List each client’s agreed videos, deadlines, and variants. Estimate time for footage review, editing, revisions, and export checks. Use hours from comparable completed work where you have them, and mark anything still uncertain.

Compare that demand with the hours your team actually has after other client work and leave. Check who can cover an absence. If there is a shortfall, identify a defined assignment you can hand over.

Look at rework separately. If you keep explaining that a client rejected a particular caption style, record the preference and include an approved example. More editing hours will not fix missing instructions on their own.

For one campaign or a temporary peak, arrange help per project. If similar work remains uncovered every month, agree recurring availability. An in-house editor may suit stable demand that fills a role, provided you can manage the person and want the responsibilities of employing them.

You do not have to hand over all editing at once. Start with one client’s recurring social videos, for example. That lets you see whether the arrangement frees up time while your team retains creative direction. There is no universal video count that makes hiring worthwhile; editing complexity and management time matter too.

Reviewing hours of raw footage is a different assignment from editing prepared selects. Make that difference explicit in your brief, then answer these questions.

An illustrative trial could be one short client video from supplied footage, with captions and two agreed aspect ratios. Choose something resembling your normal work. Supply real brand assets, an approved style reference, one consolidated feedback round, and a realistic deadline. Agree what the assignment includes and what needs a separate discussion.

Watch the questions the editor asks and whether missing assets are flagged early. Does the first cut follow the brief? Is feedback reflected in the next version, and are the exports correct? Record your own team’s time spent explaining, reviewing, and fixing work.

Afterwards, discuss where that time went. An unclear brief needs a better brief; repeated editing errors need a change in how the work is done. Use the trial to revise your time estimate, then decide which assignment to hand over next.