Commercial Voice Over Scripts at 15, 30, and 60 Seconds

Short answer: A commercial voice over script is the timed spoken copy for a paid spot: short, focused, and built around one action the listener can take. Write it by choosing that action first, naming the advertiser, supporting one claim you can prove, and ending on the action. The three scripts below are original copy written for 15, 30, and 60 second placements, all built from the same short brief format.

The businesses, products, and domains in these examples are fictional, so check every fact, price, address, and offer before you adapt them. Treat each heading as a booked length rather than a measured recording. A 30 second slot in one format may run to 60 seconds in another, and pauses, music, and effects consume time that a word count does not. Download nothing until you have replaced the sample details with details you can defend.

What every commercial voice over script needs first

Decide the single next step before you write a single line. A listener asked to visit, call, order, subscribe, and follow is being handed several jobs, and a short spot cannot support them all. Put the action at the top of the brief, then choose the one reason to care that leads to it. Everything else is optional detail that survives only if it earns its seconds.

Keep brackets and speaker labels separate from the spoken copy. A note such as [VO, warm] tells the actor or editor what to do; it is not read aloud and should not be counted as words. When you hand the script to another person, mark that boundary clearly so an instruction never ends up in the recording.

Original 15-second commercial voice over script

A 15 second spot can carry one image, one name, and one action. The sample below gives a fictional cafe a single reason to visit and a single instruction. The bracket is a delivery note, not spoken copy.

[VO, warm and brisk] Fresh bread at seven. Soup at noon. Dinner until close. The Copper Kettle on Grove Street serves from open to close, seven days a week. Stop in for the special or order ahead at copper kettle dot example. The Copper Kettle. Come hungry.

Original fictional commercial sample

The sample runs to about 45 spoken words, so it is a first draft rather than a guaranteed fit. Cut the list of meal times before you cut the address or the action, and remove any second benefit first. If you need to hear the pacing before you book a voice actor, generate a scratch read in Murmur and time it against the booked slot.

Original 30-second commercial voice over script

A 30 second spot has room for one recognizable problem, one function, and one next step. This example avoids a measured outcome and describes what the service actually does.

[VO, friendly and conversational] Moving to a new place is a list that never ends. Boxes, labels, and one nagging question: what actually fits where? Roomwright measures your rooms and plans the layout before the truck arrives, so the couch you already own fits through the door you actually have. Send photos and rough measurements, and we will map the space. Start your floor plan at roomwright dot example. Roomwright. Plan the room before you move.

Original fictional commercial sample

The copy promises a floor plan, not a happier move or a saved hour, because those outcomes are not the writer's to claim. Notice that the price is absent: if the service has one, confirm the current figure with the business and leave room in the read for it. A 30 second spot often sits near the 65 word mark that ad platforms recommend, so count the spoken words before you record.

Original 60-second commercial voice over script

A 60 second spot can carry a small scene, two voices, and a slower reveal. This example uses a narrator and a specialist to explain a service through a question a customer would really ask.

[NARRATOR, calm] A restored table starts long before the first coat of finish. [SPECIALIST, plain] First we look at the joints. Loose ones get repaired before anything else, because finish hides small problems and shows big ones. [NARRATOR] At Aldermoss Furniture Repair, the workshop photographs each stage and shares the plan before work begins. [SPECIALIST] You will know what we found, what we propose, and what it costs before we touch the surface. [NARRATOR] Bring a photo and a description to aldermoss dot example, or book an assessment at the Bridge Road workshop. Aldermoss Furniture Repair. Repair first. Finish when the piece is ready.

Original fictional commercial sample

The dialogue is an original fictional scene, not a customer testimonial, and the quoted specialist reports no measured result. A 60 second read can hold roughly 100 spoken words at a relaxed pace, and this draft sits near that limit. If the workshop hours or the booking process change, update the copy and re-record rather than leaving a stale line in rotation.

Word counts and timing for a commercial voice over script

Two official references are useful for planning, and neither replaces timing your own performance. Spotify's audio ad specifications recommend no more than 65 words for a 30 second ad and 100 words for a 60 second ad. Google's video ad formats page describes non-skippable in-stream ads as 60 seconds or shorter and bumper ads as about six seconds. Both describe their own products, not universal broadcast rules, so check the current brief from the placement owner before you finalize copy.

Use the range to draft, then time the finished read. A slow, warm delivery fits fewer words than a brisk one, and music or sound effects take time that the count ignores entirely. If a spot overruns, remove information before you speed up the voice, because a rushed read costs clarity on the one line the listener must catch.

1. Write the action first, in one sentence, before any scene or benefit.
2. Draft the copy, then count the spoken words only, excluding delivery notes.
3. Read or generate a scratch version and time it against the booked slot.
4. Cut the second benefit, then the least important condition, before the advertiser name or the action.
5. Re-time the final mixed audio, because music and effects add seconds at both ends.

A checklist for adapting commercial copy without changing the claim

Advertising must be truthful and evidence based, so keep every factual promise attached to its proof. When you adapt a script, change the wording, not the substance, unless the business can support the new claim. The clearer the promise, the more carefully it needs to be checked before anyone records it.

1. Mark every price, guarantee, date, comparison, and outcome, then confirm each one with the advertiser before recording.
2. Keep one call to action. Delete extra phone numbers, addresses, and links that split the listener's attention.
3. Read the domain or number aloud to a second person, and have them type exactly what they hear.
4. Keep required conditions, such as closing dates or eligibility, in the spoken copy rather than the fine print.
5. Replace every fictional brand, product, and domain in these examples before you use them.

For a spoken-only spot, the listener cannot see a screen, so the address and the action must survive being heard once. The radio ad script examples cover audio-only placements in more detail, including how music and effects change the timing you have to work with. If the commercial runs before a video instead, the audience can also see the product, which changes what the voice needs to say.

Where a local voice studio fits the workflow

Before a client approves a script, most writers need to hear it. Murmur is a local voice studio for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs running macOS 15 or later. It can generate a scratch read from your script so you can hear the pacing and catch a missing word, and because it runs on your Mac, an unreleased client script stays off a cloud service. The bundled Kokoro model offers a set of built-in voices and several languages; the exact model list lives in the app.

A generated scratch track is a draft, not a finished commercial. A human voice actor still brings performance, and a national spot usually passes through a studio. Use the scratch read to fix the script, then hand a clean master to whoever records the final version. When you prepare the delivery file yourself, the voiceover export guide explains how a WAV master differs from a compressed delivery file.

Check the licence terms before you publish any commercial spot. The guide to commercial licences for local TTS models and the piece on AI voice watermarking and commercial rights walk through what to confirm with the model and with your client. If your spot is a written script for a human actor rather than a generated voice, the voicemail greeting examples and podcast intro script examples show two other short-form formats with different constraints.

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