A TV spot is like an advert you see on television for services or products. It has a story, actors and a message and it aims to convince the viewer of the benefits of the product or service the advertiser is promoting.

Queen Latifa One of her most notable commercial voice over partnerships came in the early 2000s with a line of CoverGirl products. But that's just the top of the pile – Latifah has been nothing short of prolific in the voice over world, having voiced iconic commercials for Pizza Hut.

TV spots are the most common form of TV advertising. They are the adverts that we encounter at the beginning, middle and end of all our favourite shows, across linear TV and broadcast VOD.

Spot: A “spot” is the industry catch-all term for advertisements and commercials. Regular spots typically run from 30 to 90 seconds. A long-form spot has the ability to run between 5 and 30 minutes. These long-form spots are typically more content rich and associated with pitches and infomercials.

Allison Janney Allison Janney If you've ever heard a Kaiser Permanente commercial, you've probably heard Janney's voice over – she's been at it for a while.

Your earnings as a voice actor range from: $35 for a small market radio spot, $150 for a 15 second recording for say a small website, $250 – $350 for a 30 second major market radio commercial (Plus use fees) to about $2000 – $5000 per audiobook, as an established voice talent.

The standard length of a TV ad is 30 seconds long and approximately half of all ads are 30 seconds. However, ads can also be 10, 20, 40, 50, 60 seconds or longer.

A 30-second slot on daytime TV can cost between £1,100 to £2,200 peak rates for shows such as Hollyoaks and Catastrophe are around £10,000 to £20,000. Channel 4 have done a great job of acquiring top-rated shows and commissioning must-watch shows like Gogglebox.

Actor Jon Hamm (most known for his role as Don Draper on Mad Men) has been the voice actor for Mercedes-Benz since 2010. He replaced actor Richard Thomas (The Waltons, The Americans). The first Mercedes-Benz commercial Jon Hamm's voice appeared in was for the S400 Hybrid (below).

He also reportedly earned between $1 million and $2 million for his voiceover role for Visa Debit Card commercials, so he likely continues to earn in the range for his voice acting and narrator roles.

"Is voice acting harder than acting?" Not necessarily. There are some elements that make it very challenging, but at the end of the day it's easier than acting because you don't have to worry about how to memorize lines and you can do it from home, meaning you don't have a director breathing down your neck.

All things considered, the average voice actor can expect to earn about $6,358 a month or around $37 an hour. Aspiring voice actors should expect a lower monthly rate until they've established themselves as a credible, reliable talent.