Content creation for Shopify brands

Sidekicks produces the content a Shopify brand needs every month, short-form video first.

Twelve short videos cut for TikTok, Reels, and Meta, one half-day shoot that feeds them, ten edited product photos, and eight image ads, with creative direction throughout, from $7,500 a month on a six-month retainer. Brand identity is a separate project, from $10,000, with its own page.

The first shoot is in week two and the first videos ship in week three.

From $7,500 a month
12 videos, 10 photos, 8 ads
First videos in week three

The symptom

The ads that worked in spring have stopped working, there has not been a new video in a month, and the product photos are the ones from the launch.

Meta calls the first part creative fatigue, meaning the audience has seen an ad enough times that it stops converting. The other two are the same problem from a different angle: nobody is making new content.

The fix is a steady supply of it, shot and cut every month, with short-form first, because that is what the platforms reward and what your customers watch.

What a content retainer includes

01
Twelve short-form videos, fifteen to forty-five seconds, cut for TikTok, Reels, and Meta, with the hook, the captions, and the crop right for each. Product demos, founder-to-camera, creator-style, and trend formats, in whatever mix is working.
02
One half-day shoot a month, video first, in studio or on location, directed by us, so the twelve videos have fresh footage behind them and the stills come from the same day.
03
Ten edited product photos from the shoot, retouched and cropped for Shopify, Meta, and email.
04
Eight image ads built on the angles that are working, with the hooks swapped so each test is clean.
05
Posting and scheduling for the twelve videos across TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, captions included.
06
A content report: which videos held attention, which angles won in the ads, and what goes into next month.

Shoot days

Half day$2,000Edited photos included

Full day$3,500Edited photos included. A launch usually wants a full day.

Extra shoot days are quoted: $2,000 for a half day and $3,500 for a full day, each with the edited photos included. A launch usually wants a full day.

Travel outside Houston is at cost.

Price

The content retainer

From$7,500a month

Six-month retainer, one half-day shoot included

From $7,500 a month, six months. More videos, a founder or creators on camera at volume, or a second shoot in a month are quoted before they start.

See all pricing

Time to first number

Briefs and the shot list go out in week one. The first shoot is in week two.

The first videos ship in week three, and the first ad test reads by day thirty.

Short-form compounds week over week, so the numbers that matter by month three are reach and the cost per new customer from the videos run as ads.

Week 1Briefs and the shot list
Week 2The first shoot
Week 3The first videos ship
Day 30The first ad test reads
Month 3Reach and cost per new customer

What we need from you

Product shipped to us, or a location we can shoot in
Someone from the brand willing to be on camera some months
Your existing footage and photography
Access to the ad account, so we see what has worked
A brand owner who approves within two business days

Questions founders ask about content

01How much does short-form content cost?

On-demand studios charge about $90 a clip and $40 a photo. Agencies price ad batches at $8,000 to $15,000 for 20 to 40 ads. Sidekicks is $7,500 a month for twelve videos, a shoot, ten photos, and eight ads, posted and scheduled.

02Do you post the videos, or do we?

We post and schedule them. The feed is part of the allowance, and you approve before anything goes out.

03Who is on camera?

Your team when it works, creators when it does not, and product-only formats in between. Founder-to-camera outperforms most other formats, so we will ask.

04Where do you shoot?

In Houston, in studio or on location. Ship us the product and we handle the rest. Shoots elsewhere are quoted with travel at cost.

05Can we use our own photographer?

Yes. We write the shot list and direct, you shoot, and the retainer comes down by the shoot cost.

06Do you run the ads too?

That is the paid media retainer, which runs alongside this one or inside the full system.

07Do you do UGC?

Edits from creator footage, meaning UGC, are inside the allowance. Sourcing creators at volume is quoted on top.

08Can we get a logo on its own?

Brand identity is sold as the full project, because a logo without positioning gets redone within a year. See brand identity.

Ready, player two

See your next six months before you spend a dollar.

The plan is the proposal, so you know exactly what we would do and what it costs before you decide anything.

1Tell us your store, your ad spend, and your list size.
2We build your six-month plan from the outside, with no logins.
3We walk you through it on a call, with the price included.