How much does a super bowl -ad [& Does It Get ROI]? A data -supported deep dive

Whether you’re a Diehard Super Bowl fan or like me prefer to see excellent owls, you have to admit: Super Bowl advertising is pretty big.

They are also pretty expensive. And still, Fox, which has the rights to the Super Bowl Lix, easily sold all ad seats for the big game on February 9, 2025.

Let’s look at what goes into the most expensive TV ads in the world, how much they have cost throughout the big game and what brands really come out of them.

Table of contents

How much does a Super Bowl -ad cost?

It is a bit difficult to put a number on the cost of an average, non-Super bowl TV ad, as the number may range from a few hundred thousand to several million dollars. But let’s give this question some context:

• In 2024 (Kansas City Chiefs 25 – San Francisco 49ers 22), US and Canadian advertisers spent one Estimated 69 billion dollars On TV advertising. It’s GDP for Costa Rica.
• The Top 10 tv -ads In USA-VI, brands like Geico, Burger King and T-Mobile- used one average of nearly $ 7.5 million each week in 2023 (Chiefs 38 – Philadelphia Eagles 35).
• Upfront Primetime ad Sales – These are the ads you want to watch on large TV networks between 7 p.m. 20 and 23:00 or at. 19.12 million dollars in 2024which is actually a slight fall from 2023.

Google’s 90 -seconds “Loretta” ad from 2020 Super Bowl (Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31 -Chiefs 9) costs the search decor $ 16.8 million ($ 20.5 million today).

By drilling a little further down, let’s look at the five most expensive 30-second ads during the 2020/21 TV season, according to a Statista Report:

• NBC Sunday Night Football: 783,718 $ per Advertisement
• Fox Thursday night Football: 624,626 $ per Advertisement
• NBCs This is us: 476,352 $ per Advertisement
• NBCs The voice (Monday): $ 254,224 per Advertisement
• Fox’s The masked singer: $ 225,764 per Advertisement

The prize season is also catnip for advertisers, with a 30-second place during the 2024 Academy Awards that has an average of 2.2 million dollars.

Amazon’s 90 -second “Before Alexa” ad from 2020 cost $ 16.8 million ($ 20.5 million today).

In 2025, 30-seconds SUPER BOWL AN ADMANCE SHOULD APPLICATIONS FOR WORKING $ 7 million per day. Pop. It is almost 220% more than a place on Oscars and almost 800% more than a regular season Sunday night football commercial. At the end of January, more news reports said that Fox actually sold at least 10 ad seats for $ 8 million per day. Popwith reference to named sources “close to the case.”

And it’s just that air The ad – once. It does not account for spokespersons for celebrities who earn $ 1 – $ 3 million each; Premium Advertising Agency Costs; Production and Post Production Costs; Even the marketing budget for the ads themselves.

In recent years, between 70 and 100 advertisements have been sent during each Super Bowl game and added up to approx. 40 minutes of advertising.

In 2012 (New York Giants 21 – New England Patriots 17) cost the Super Bowl ads $ 3.5 million ($ 4.9 million today) for a space of 30 seconds. Chevrolet and OK GO’s Musical Rube Goldsbergian Machine took four months of prep and cost estimated $ 500K – $ 1 million. To produce ($ 700K – $ 1.4 million today).

Some brands hang decorated Hollywood directors for the shots, and while the number is difficult to come up with, it is certain to assume that these directors rocked in some cash:

• The Coen brothers directed 2017 (Patriots 34 – Atlanta Falcons 28) Mercedes ad, a tribute to the counterculture cyclist film Light rider.

• In the Super Bowl 1984 (Las Vegas Raiders 38-Washington, DC 9) introduced a Ridley Scott-Helmed Orwellian Apple Apple first Macintosh computer ever.

• David Fincher instructed a swelling Brad Pitt in Heineken’s “Beer Run” from 2005 (Patriots 24 – Eagles 21)

If you’ve even seen a Super Bowl, you probably know the brands that play – usually the biggest names in technology, food, computer and beer. Budweiser, Booking.com, Dunkin ‘and Volkswagen were favorites in 2024 Super Bowl.

Although Google and Amazon share the title for the most expensive Super Bowl ad ever, the king of the beer is the king of the Super Bowl ad cost. Anheuser-Busch spent an estimated $ 470.5 million on his wildly popular Budweiser ads between 1967 and 2020.

In 1999 (Denver Broncos 34 -Falcons 19) cost a 30 -seconds Super Bowl -Annonce $ 1.6 million ($ 3.1 million today).

84 Lumber’s “The Journey Beginner” space cost $ 16.2 million in 2017 ($ 20.1 million today), making it among the most expensive Super Bowl ads in history.

How much can you buy with the cost of a Super Bowl ad?

Does millions of burning have a hole in your pocket but have missed the deadline for a Super Bowl Lix ad? Here’s what you could otherwise spend $ 7 million on:

* It is illegal to own an owl as a pet in the American number based on estimates from the rescues of wildlife and zoos that feed large horned owls.

What Don’t do it Cost of $ 7 million is software like Marketing Hub or our ad management software. You can build or manage your ad campaigns, whether you are targeting football fans or excellent owl enthusiasts.

How Super Bowl -Nonce Prices have changed over time

The first Super Bowl was played in 1967 (Green Bay Packers 35 – Chiefs 10), and NBC and CBS charged brands $ 37,500 for each ad, or about $ 360K in today’s money.

A decade later, in 1977 (Oakland Raiders 32 – Minnesota Vikings 14), forked brands over $ 125K (about $ 675K today). In 1987 (Giants 39 – Broncos 20) costs 30 seconds $ 600K ($ 1.7 million today); In 1997 (Packers 35 – Patriots 21) it was $ 1.2 million. ($ 2.38 million today).

The 2010 Betty White Snickers ad (New Orleans Saints 31 – Indianapolis Colts 17) is estimated to have cost $ 4 – $ 5 million ($ 5.8 – $ 7.3 million today).

Another decade, another (million) dollar (s). In 2007 (Colts 29 – Chicago Bears 17), ADS was an average of $ 2.39 million. ($ 3.72 million today); In 2017 it was $ 5m ($ 6.5 million today).

Is a Super Bowl -ad’s worth the cost?

The short answer: probably not. Unless you market for a brand with a positive huge marketing budget, a single $ 7- $ 8 million is not even on the table.

But for brands that have that kind of consumption, ROI can be significant with Super Bowl ads in Zeitgeist for several weeks before and after the big game. (I don’t see Super Bowl – but I definitely see all ads as soon as they’re online.)

And 123 million US viewers so Super Bowl LVIII – Secondly, only for moon landing – and almost a third of viewers say the advertisements are their favorite part of the game. Your $ 7M -Nonce gets a lot of eyeballs on it.

According to Kantar Research in 2021, “Super Bowl ads delivered an average return on investment (ROI) of $ 4.60 per dollar spent, with many brands in the double digits.”

Brad Adgate, described as a veteran media analyst, The New York Times told in 2024, “In this era of fragmentation is the Super Bowl what TV used to be.”

It is arguably the only true mass market’s live event of the year that reaches almost all demographic. Beauty brands like NYX and Dove have come in or entered the Super Bowl advertisement, and put the lie to anyone who thinks football is not for girls, women or drag queens.

In an interview from 2024 with NPR, Maria Rodas Roi put in a Super Bowl ad on simple terms. Rodas is a marketing professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and a self-described “big fan” of the Super Bowl ads-in her household is speaking during the game, but not during advertising.

Rodas told NPR, “[Super Bowl ads are] as mini-movies. [Advertisers] Hire these great celebrities. The production value is insane. And then suddenly 7 million dollars are probably, as the smallest of what they use, compared to the rest [of the money] That they put into creating these. “

“Having this almost undivided attention gives a great opportunity for marketers to create a narrative, to really be able to connect to a much deeper level with consumers.”

Lessons in Super Bowl -Marketing

This connection is important whether you have an ad budget of $ 7 million or $ 700.

And lots of brands have found alternatives to shut down $ 7 million+ large.

So don’t despair if you are doing marketing on a modest or even shoestring -budget – $ 7 million can buy you 100+ million viewers, but no amount can compensate for poor marketing.