How to Get Commercial Auditions

What they look for in a commercial casting

They look for people who are believable for each brand’s audience, sometimes actors and sometimes “real people”. Naturalness weighs more than technique, and many tests are resolved without lines, with an action, a reaction or an improvisation.

Real people and actors

Many campaigns want faces that don’t look like advertising, and some casting directors go out looking for them on the street: Casting Club, in Buenos Aires, has a street casting team. In Argentina, the agreement considers an actor anyone who plays a character in a commercial, whether or not they belong to the AAA, and also anyone who plays themselves following an advertising script. Those “real people” with a script work under the agreement.

Profiles by product category

Each request comes with a specific profile: a family for a supermarket, someone who rides a bike for a sports drink. Note on your profile what sets you apart, such as sports, trades, languages or accents. And there are jobs without your face: the Argentine agreement names the hand double and the body double.

Naturalness, product and few lines

They may ask you to try something and react, tell an anecdote or show the product: hold it near your face without covering the label and stay still for a second at the end. If there is a line, say it the way you would at home. If they ask you to improvise, accept the proposal and add something concrete (more tips in how to improvise in an audition).

Your materials: photos, video and measurements

You need current, natural photos, a short intro video and your measurements at hand. Many casting directors ask you to upload everything through a form on their website.

Photos and measurements

Take a close-up and a full-body shot in daylight, with no filters or heavy makeup, plain clothes and your hair the way you wear it today. The form of Casting Club, for example, asks for a face photo and a full-body photo, T-shirt, pants and shoe sizes, a CUIT or CUIL (Argentine tax and labor ID numbers), whether you have an exclusive representative and whether you have a work permit. The step-by-step is in our guide on how to prepare your audition materials.

Intro video and self-tape

Your intro video, or slate, lasts one minute at most: name, age, city, height and something about you, looking at the camera, with your profiles and a full-body shot at the end. It works better if you look comfortable than if you sound rehearsed.

According to a 2020 article in Perfil, an Argentine newspaper, the pandemic moved castings to self-casting: the applicant records the scene at home and sends the video. Follow the instructions to the letter (introduction, profiles, hands, an action with an object), with front light, a plain background and good sound. If you have never made one, read our note on what a self-tape is.

Contracts: the concepts you need to understand

You are paid for two different things: a day rate for each day on set and a license to use your image for a set period, in certain media and countries. Category exclusivity can be added on top.

Day rate

It is what you earn per day, and in commercials it is called a session fee. You will find the basics in our note on what a day rate is.

In the United States, SAG-AFTRA’s summary of the Commercials Contract explains that day rates are called session fees and that performers are paid per 8-hour day worked or per commercial filmed, whichever is greater. All of its rates are minimums, so you can negotiate for more. According to the union’s May 2026 cheat sheet, the minimum for an on-camera principal performer is $855.20 for 8 hours (April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027). Overtime is paid at time and a half for the 9th and 10th hours and double time from the 11th hour on, and weekends and holidays are double time. Rates rise each April 1 during the three-year contract, and session payments are due 15 business days after the last day you work.

In Argentina, the AAA publishes the rate scale for the advertising branch. The one in force from October 1 to November 30, 2026 sets these amounts per day, in Argentine pesos (ARS): 1,172,476 for a lead, 977,062 for a co-lead, 637,506 for a supporting role, 570,429 for a minor role and 257,174 for a group role. The callback and the wardrobe fitting are paid 104,598 each. The daytime workday is 8 hours and 45 minutes; anything beyond that is paid as overtime.

Usage rights (image rights)

This is the permission for the brand to use the commercial, with three variables: term, media (television, film, internet, outdoor) and countries.

In the United States, a union commercial has a time limit. The union’s FAQ on the 2025 contract says the maximum period of use (MPU) is now 24 months, beginning 10 working days after the first day of on-camera production. Use is also paid by category, such as cable, Traditional Digital (which covers social media, websites and YouTube.com channels) and streaming platforms: under the 2025 contract, a 52-week streaming use cycle pays an on-camera principal $10,000.

Non-union work is different, because no union contract sets those limits for you. Backstage notes in its advice article on non-union commercials that it is not uncommon for those contracts to ask for a buyout: a flat fee for the rights to use the spot, for a set term or in perpetuity, any way and anywhere. Before you sign a buyout, check how long it lasts, where and in which media the spot can run and whether the fee is fair for that use.

In Argentina, the agreement says the actor grants the advertiser, through the production company, the right to use their image “under the conditions of time, space, territory and media agreed”. It is paid separately from the day rate, for 12 months, and if the campaign continues it is renewed and paid again. Territory matters: on the agreement’s grid, “whole world” is worth eight times a single country like Argentina. If the brand uses the commercial beyond the agreed term or territory without renewing, you can send a formal demand and claim what is owed plus 30%.

In Spain, the Unión de Actores y Actrices (Spain’s actors’ union) keeps a commercials guide to the III Convenio Audiovisual (the third audiovisual collective agreement), from 2016, in its section on agreements and rates: in a commercial you must be hired as an employee, never as a freelancer, and image rights go in a separate contract that says for how long, in which territories and for which uses. In Mexico, Colombia and the rest of the region, ask your country’s actors’ union.

Category exclusivity

If the brand asks for exclusivity, then for the agreed term you commit not to advertise for the competition in that category: another beer, another bank.

In the United States, exclusivity comes with holding fees. SAG-AFTRA explains that holding fees are paid in fixed 13-week cycles if the producer wants to keep the right to air the commercial and hold a performer exclusive to the product. During those 13 weeks you cannot accept work in a commercial for a competing product: the union’s example is that a performer who received a holding fee for a Pepsi commercial may not accept work for a Coca-Cola commercial. The first holding fee is due 13 weeks from the first day of on-camera production, and if a holding fee does not arrive on time, you are released from exclusivity. Extras are not held in exclusivity, so they do not receive residuals on the commercials they work on.

In Argentina, exclusivity is paid separately, with an extra 40% of a day’s work that is paid again if the commercial is renewed. If someone asks you about earlier commercials in the category, tell the truth: a commercial of yours still on the air can clash with the new one.

Wardrobe fitting, callback and shoot

Each stage has its own payment. In Argentina, the wardrobe fitting is paid and lasts 4 hours at most, rehearsals are paid at 50% of a day and the callback is paid even if you don’t get the part, as long as you were called in. The contract is signed in writing before filming and, in the AAA model, you are paid thirty days after the shoot ends. Before that, during the casting, some production companies give you a pre-contract, or deal memo, to sign with the basic terms: signing it does not yet mean you got the job.

In the United States, SAG-AFTRA’s FAQ says producers must use commercially reasonable efforts to give you the full contract, with any riders, 24 hours before your first workday, and that all session payments (including wardrobe, meal penalties and travel) are due 15 business days after the work date. Not every call is a booking, either: being put on avail or first refusal is not, while a hold is. We explain the difference in what is a booking.

What to ask before you accept

• Brand and role: what product it is and in which category they hire you.
• Dates: days for the wardrobe fitting, rehearsals and shoot.
• Day rate: how much per day and how overtime is paid.
• Rights: term, media and countries, and how much is paid for the license.
• Exclusivity: category, duration and extra pay.
• Union or non-union (United States): whether the job falls under the SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contract, and, if it is a buyout, for how long, where and in which media.
• Extras: photos for print ads (in Argentina, 20% of a day even if they are not used), use on social media and dubbing of your voice, which under the AAA contract you can authorize or refuse.
• Payment: who pays, when and how, with everything in writing.

Reviewed in October 2026: the U.S. figures and rules above come from SAG-AFTRA’s official pages and from the sources linked in each paragraph. Contracts and rates change, so check the current rate sheet before you sign.

Where commercial castings show up

They are generally organized by casting directors and casting agencies that work for the production companies. Many call in people they already have in their database, so the goal is to be inside it.

United States

In the United States, the casting director decides where a project is posted. According to the Breakdown Services FAQ, agents and managers see projects on Breakdown Express, actors see them on Actors Access and the breakdowns include commercials. So a commercial agent is one way in, and submitting yourself on the platforms in our guide to casting websites for actors is another.

Many agencies have separate commercial and theatrical departments. A Los Angeles talent agent explains in a Backstage column that actors can “sign across the board” with an agency that handles both, with separate agents under the same roof. Whoever represents you, SAG-AFTRA says in a November 2024 notice for Los Angeles members that franchised agents may collect no other fees or additional commissions from you or from employers. For the basics, see what a talent agent is.

Argentina

Casting Club has worked in Buenos Aires since 2008, shows commercials for brands such as Modelo, Pfizer and Google Pixel and adds you to its database with a web form. For labor matters, the AAA’s advertising section brings together the agreement, the model contract, the rate scale and the contacts of its inspectors.

Mexico

Morán Casting, from Mexico City, lists commercials for Coppel, Cerveza Modelo, Chocolate Abuelita and Liverpool, among others. Use those credits as a map: note the production companies that appear (Landia, Rocket to the Moon, Bulldog Studios, Chocolate Films) and follow them.

Colombia

Start with the agencies in the country that we gathered in our Latin America Casting Directory and ask each one whether they work in advertising. Look at which production companies sign the local commercials and ask other actors which casting directors they work with. Before you send your details, check that the agency has an address, published work and references.

Spain

In Barcelona, Casting&Co, the studio of casting director Sílvia Menéndez-Cahué, includes advertising among its services and shows work for brands such as Carrefour, BMW and Huawei. In an April 2024 article in the newspaper Ara, her colleague Luci Lenox highlighted her work in advertising, “looking for people from unimaginable countries”.

Red flags specific to advertising

Many of the industry’s traps sell you something else instead of a role: headshots, a course or a registration. Others hide in the fine print of the contract.

• Paying for photos to get in: the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in its guide on modeling scams, says real agencies won’t ask you to pay for a test shoot or for your photographs, and that they should let you hire your own photographer.
• Castings that end in a course: the same guide warns that ads for casting calls for “the next child star” are often a way to get parents to enroll their kids in expensive acting classes.
• Up-front charges: registration, a “casting fee” or a fee to reserve a spot. As the FTC puts it, never pay an agency up front.
• Unlimited transfer without pay: a contract “in perpetuity”, “worldwide” and “in all media”, with no separate amount for your image. In Argentina that clashes with the agreement, which separates the day rate from the license and sets terms. In the United States, union commercials have a maximum period of use, while non-union contracts can ask for a buyout in perpetuity.
• Rush and promises: they guarantee you the role or pressure you to sign the same day.
• Odd places: appointments at night, in a house or in a hotel. A 2020 Perfil article collected the recommendations of the AAA and the Fundación SAGAI: ask for precise information about the casting, tell relatives or friends, go during the day and don’t let anyone record you with a cell phone.

You will find more signs in our guide on how to spot a fake casting call.

Your action plan

• Materials: photos, video and measurements in a folder with a link.
• Databases: upload your profile to the advertising casting directors in your city and follow them, along with the production companies that sign the commercials.
• United States: decide whether to look for a commercial agent, set up your profiles on the casting platforms and learn the SAG-AFTRA basics: session fee, use fees and holding fees.
• Speed: reply fast, because in advertising everything is decided in a few days.
• Contract: ask in writing for the term, media, countries, exclusivity and payment date.
• Golden rule: never pay for a casting.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need experience to do commercials?

For many roles it is enough to be believable on camera, because they also look for “real people”. In Argentina, if you play a character or follow an advertising script, the agreement considers you an actor even if you are not a member. To start, check the open commercial castings and apply to the ones that fit your profile.

How much do actors get paid for a commercial in the United States?

It depends on the budget, the role, where and how long the spot runs and whether it is union. On a SAG-AFTRA commercial, an on-camera principal earns a session fee (at least $855.20 for an 8-hour day from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027), plus use payments for the airing and holding fees if they are kept exclusive to the brand. Non-union rates are whatever you negotiate.

What is a buyout in a commercial?

It is a flat fee for the right to use the commercial for a set term, or in perpetuity, in the media and places the contract names. Backstage says it is not uncommon for non-union contracts to ask for one, while SAG-AFTRA commercials pay session fees plus use and holding fees. Before you sign, check the term, the media and the territory.

Do I need an agent to audition for commercials in the United States?

Not always. The casting director decides whether a breakdown goes to agents and managers, to actors on Actors Access or to both, so you can submit yourself to the projects posted there, but some are released only to agents. Many actors have a commercial agent, and some sign with an agency that has both commercial and theatrical departments.

Is the callback paid?

In Argentina, yes, even if you don’t get the part, as long as you were called in: on the AAA scale in force from October 1 to November 30, 2026, it is ARS 104,598. In other countries, ask before you go.

What are image rights in a commercial?

It is the payment for the brand to use your image for a set term, in certain media and countries. It goes on top of the day rate and, when the term ends, the brand has to renew the license and pay for it again.

What does signing an exclusivity mean?

It means that during the agreed term you commit not to advertise for competing brands in that category. That is why it is paid separately: in Argentina, an extra 40% of a day’s work; in the United States, holding fees. Ask for the contract to state the category and the duration.

Do casting agencies charge a sign-up fee?

Serious ones don’t. If they ask for money to enter the database, for headshots with their photographer or for a mandatory course, be suspicious. You can take the photos yourself without paying anyone: we explain how to take headshots at home. A subscription to a casting website is a different thing: you pay for the service, not to be considered for a role.