Wondering how much YouTubers get paid per video? Or how many views it takes to make money on YouTube? Or want to know what each ad click is worth?
Perhaps you want to know what 1,000 views on YouTube is worth to a video creator?
YouTube creators get paid based on two metrics.
- The first is the number of ad views.
- The second is the number of ad clicks.
More Than Just Views
You will hear a lot of people trying to estimate how much a YouTuber earns based on the number of views their channel gets. They will say ?the average income per 1,000 views is $1, so ?x? YouTuber must make ?y??.
It makes sense that this would be how they try and calculate a YouTubers revenue, since ad click metrics are not readily available. But unfortunately, it is not an accurate measure for several reasons.
Advertiser Costs Impact Creator Revenue
As a YouTube advertiser, I know there are a huge number of factors that influence my CPV (cost to have my ad viewed by 1,000 people). What a lot of people don?t consider is that those same factors (and several more) are also influencing how much a YouTuber earns.
When an advertiser puts their ad on YouTube, they don?t just say ?this is how much I?ll pay per 1,000 views? and walk away. A myriad of factors influences how much they have to spend.
Reasons View Count Can?t Be Used To Calculate Revenue
If an advertiser?s costs are influenced by a range of factors (discussed below), and creators are receiving 55% of the YouTube advertiser revenue, then those factors are having a major influence on how much video creators make. Below are just some of the factors that impact YouTuber revenue.
- Clicks Influence Payment Too
Adsense payments are based on ad clicks as well, not just views. So attempting to calculate revenue just by views is missing a big chunk of the picture.
- Ad Skipping Reduces Payments
The percentage of people who skip ads heavily impacts YouTubers? revenue as YouTube does not count skipped ads as a view, advertisers don?t pay for skipped ads, and therefore creators do not get paid for viewers who skip ads. If a YouTuber has an audience made of people who always skip ads, they won?t earn as much.
- The Quality Of The Ads Impacts Revenue
If there are more advertisers serving ads with amazing deals or great creative, this can result in more views and clicks which results in more revenue for the YouTuber. So the quality of the advertisers a YouTuber?s video attracts also impacts their revenue. This can be influenced by the time of year, competition in that market, and demand to reach a particular audience.
- Competition In The Market Influences Bids
The number of advertisers competing to put their ad in front of a specific audience can require them to increase their bid, and therefore the revenue that the YouTuber will receive.
- The Video Topic Has An Impact
Some topics are more competitive or the audience is harder to reach, so advertisers have to pay more to advertiser across content on these topics, which result in a higher payment for YouTubers.
- Keywords Impact Ad Placements
The keywords that YouTubers use can influence whether certain advertisers target their videos. The same video, with different tags can result in different advertisers and payouts due to targeting. These keywords can make the difference between a high and low payout per 1,000 views.
- Competitiveness To Reach Certain Demographics Influences Payouts
The audience of the YouTuber influences their income. Advertisers may want to market more to audiences in a certain county, demographic, age, gender, income, or marital status. All of which influences how much they are willing to bid and therefore how much the YouTuber will get paid.
- Video Length Impacts The Number Of Ads & Payments
The length of the video can also influence how many ads are served to a single viewer, potentially doubling or even tripling ad revenue.
- Audience Adblockers Impact Revenue
Certain demographics are more likely to use ad-blockers, which means there is no ad served and no revenue earned by those YouTubers. For example, a YouTuber with a male audience primarily aged between 18 and 29 years old would likely have a higher percentage of viewers using AdBlock than a YouTuber with a female audience under 18. This would impact their revenue.
- YouTube?s Monetisation Policies
YouTube is become far stricter about which videos can be monetised at all. Certain topics and themes could draw in hundreds of thousands of views but not be monetised at all.
Views ? Revenue
You may have heard YouTubers ask why two videos with the same number of views have earned completely different amounts of revenue. The points above are just some of the reasons this happens.
There is more to YouTube AdSense revenue than just views.
And all of this is without going into the potential effects of YouTube partnerships, sponsorships, influencer marketing platforms, and brand deals on YouTube incomes.
So as you can see it isn?t as simple as saying that the average payment per 1,000 views is $1 so X Youtuber must earn Y. We don?t know how much each YouTuber actually earns, and the above factors have a massive influence on YouTubers of all sizes.
We Rely On Estimates Because We Don?t Have The Data
Many of the estimates you will see are based on averages. If we know the amount that some YouTuber?s earn, and we divide that by their view count, we can try to make estimates on other YouTuber?s incomes. But that is all they are: estimates.
We can not access data about the advertisers bid or the actual Adsense income, and that?s okay. An individual?s income should be private until they choose to share.
TL;DR
YouTube income is impacted more by the amount advertisers are willing to pay to reach that audience than it is by the number of views that video gets.
For more stories about YouTube marketing for influencers, check out www.contentcareer.com
This story is published in The Startup, Medium?s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 323,238+ people.
Subscribe to receive our top stories here.
