In short: Before hiring a white-label video editor, an agency should confirm eight things in writing. Each client's style should be learned from that client's own published videos, with a clear price for adding another brand. Know who chooses the moments in each video and how much briefing that requires from your team. Get a standard turnaround, the cost of faster delivery and a fixed number of revision rounds, plus what happens if a whole batch misses the mark. Make sure a person checks every video, especially when AI is part of the process. Delivery should be unbranded and land in your own tools, so clients only ever see your agency. Client footage, styles and clips should never be shared or reused for anyone else, and any portfolio use should be spelled out. Finally, pricing should fall per video as volume grows, so margins stay healthy as accounts expand.
Handing your clients' videos to a production partner can double what your agency delivers without new hires. It can also go wrong quietly, one off-brand video at a time. These are the questions worth asking before you sign anything.
1. How will you learn each client's style?
The answer should start from that client's own published videos, not a house template. Ask whether each brand gets its own documented style, and what it costs to add one.
2. Who decides the moments?
Know whether you send timestamps and scripts, or whether the partner picks. Neither is wrong, but it changes how much briefing you do and how much control you keep.
3. What is the turnaround, in writing?
Ask how long edits take from the moment footage arrives, whether you can send footage any day or have to wait for a set day, and what faster delivery costs.
4. How many revision rounds are included?
Get a number. Also ask what happens if a whole batch misses the mark.
5. Does a person check every video?
Especially if AI is involved, someone should watch each video before it reaches you.
6. Is delivery unbranded, into our tools?
Your clients should only ever see your agency. Finished files should land in your Drive, Frame.io, Slack or project tool, ready to send.
7. Is our clients' footage kept confidential?
Ask whether footage, styles or clips are ever reused for anyone else, and what the agreement says about portfolio use.
8. How does price change with volume?
Per-video pricing that falls as you send more keeps your margin healthy as accounts grow. Watch for flat fees that hide a cap on output.
How ReelNinja answers them
One Style System per client brand (the first free, then $120 each). You send footage, a reference and a script for each video, any day you like; edits arrive in about two to three working days as a Frame.io link, unbranded, and get faster with every batch. Up to three revision rounds per video, a person checks every one, and if fewer than 6 of 10 in a batch are usable we re-cut them free or refund the batch. Client footage, styles and clips are never shared with or reused for anyone else; published videos may appear unnamed in our portfolio unless you opt out. Packages run from $35 down to $25 a video. Read more about short-form editing for agencies, or test it with three free clips.