Harnessing Monetization Potential with YouTube Ad Strategies

Monetize YouTube Videos | The Ultimate Guide to Ad Revenue

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

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Want to make money on YouTube? There are qualifications you have to meet before you can monetize your videos with ads, but you don’t have to have a huge channel.

Here’s everything you need to know to join the YouTube Partner Program and start earning ad revenue:

1. Qualifying for the YouTube Partner Program
2. How to Apply for Monetization on YouTube
3. What is Ad Friendly Content?
4. How to Get Paid Through AdSense
5. Which YouTube Videos Get the Highest Paying Ads?
6. Useful Terminology (CPM, CPV, CPC)

What is the YouTube Partner Program

YouTube’s Partner Program, or YPP, allows creators to monetize their YouTube videos through ads. If you are a YouTube Partner, that means you are earning revenue from the ads being shown before and during your videos.

Before you dive into the below guide, you may need a video editor to start your monetizing on Youtube. Filmora video editor will be the best choice.

Becoming a skilled video editor takes years of practice, but with Wondershare Filmora video editor, you can produce YouTube videos that have a professional look and feel, even if you are new to the world of video editing. This YouTube Video Creator has big icons and an intuitive interface, so those YouTubers who edit videos for the first time can quickly make a video.

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Qualifying for the YouTube Partner Program

In order to qualify for YPP, you need to prove that you’re creating consistent, original, content and that people are watching your content. YouTube believes that has been proven when you reach these qualifications:

1. 1000 Subscribers
2. 4000 Hours of Watch Time (over the past 12 months)

Not quite there yet? Here’s a list of actionable tips that can help you grow your channel.

If you meet these requirements and are approved for monetization, but then drop below them, your channel will not be automatically demonetized. YouTube may review your content and demonetize you if you seem to have stopped posting videos, but this will not be automatic.

Remember: meeting these milestones does not grant you automatic monetization.

You can apply for YPP when you reach the milestones above, but your channel will still need to be reviewed by a human working for YouTube. Reviewers will be watching for:

1. Nudity or sexual content
2. Harmful, dangerous, threatening, or hateful content
3. Violent or graphic content
4. Harassment or cyberbullying
5. Spam, scams, and misleading metadata
6. Copyright infringement or impersonation
7. Privacy violations
8. Fake subscribers
9. Other guidelines violations

If your content violates any of YouTube’s Community Guidelines you may be denied monetization. Learn more about YouTube’s Community Guidelines here.

How to Apply for Monetization on YouTube

Once you qualify for YPP, applying for monetization is easy.

1. In the Creator Studio, select Channel > Status and features.
2. Under ‘Monetization’, click Enable and follow the steps that appear to accept YouTube’s terms.
3. Wait to be approved.

If you’re approved, you can start earning money as soon as your AdSense account is set up!

If you’re not approved, you can apply again in 30 days.

To make sure you’re approved the next time you apply, review all of YouTube’s related policies (Partner Program policies , Terms of Service , spam policies , and Community Guidelines ) and remove the content that might be holding you back.

In order to start monetizing, you’ll need to link your channel with an AdSense account. You must be over 18 to create an AdSense account. YouTube creators under 18 can link to the AdSense accounts of their parents or guardians.

Here’s how to sign up for AdSense through YouTube:

1. Under Channel > Status and features in your Creator Studio, look for Paid content. Click where it says ‘active AdSense account’.
2. On the following ‘Monetization’ screen, click Next to go to AdSense.
3. You will be asked whether you want to use the Google account you’re already signed in to for AdSense, or if you want to use a different account.
4. The next step is ‘Your Website’. This will automatically be filled in with your channel. Click Accept association if it’s right.

Note: you can only have one AdSense account. Do not make a second one if you already have one. Duplicate accounts may be banned, which will stop you from monetizing your videos.

What is Ad Friendly content?

Not all content that meets YouTube’s Community Guidelines will be considered ‘advertiser-friendly’. Companies don’t want to run ads alongside content that doesn’t match the values of their brands.

YouTube may disable ads on any video it doesn’t think is ad-friendly. Videos which may be flagged as inappropriate for ads include (but are not limited to):

1. Videos that cover controversial or sensitive subjects.
2. Videos depicting the use of drugs or dangerous products.
3. Videos may encourage harmful or dangerous behavior.
4. Videos with swearing (but not ALL videos with swearing – quantity and context are factors).
5. Videos which contain hate speech.
6. Videos that depict family entertainment characters (i.e. Disney princesses) engaged in inappropriate behavior (even if you’re being satirical).

If you want to make sure all of your content is advertiser-friendly, here are some best practices suggested by YouTube:

1. Be respectful of your viewers and any people or groups you may include or mention in your video.
2. Extend this respectful tone to your thumbnails and video titles, and make sure your thumbnails and metadata accurately depict your video’s content.
3. Don’t try to monetize videos that already contain ads (i.e. paid product placement ).

How to Get Paid Through AdSense

In order to receive a payment from AdSense, you need to earn at least $100.

For example, if you only earn $10 in a month, you will not receive a payment that month. You will not lose that $10 – you will receive it when your total earnings reach or exceed $100.

You will also need to provide AdSense with tax information and verify your identity and address in order to start being paid.

The most popular way to get paid through AdSense is via an EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer). To receive your payments this way, you’ll need to link your bank account to your AdSense account.

Here’s how:

1. Log in to AdSense.
2. Click Settings in the menu on the left, and then select Payments.
3. On the Payments page, click Manage payment options.
4. Click the Add payment method.
5. You’ll be prompted to add your bank account details.
6. Make sure the name on your AdSense account matches the name on your bank account (if you’re under 18 and cannot make your own AdSense account, this may mean you’re using your parent or guardian’s bank account).

Which YouTube Videos Get the Highest Paying Ads?

Not all ads pay the same, and not all videos will be able to attract the ads that pay the most.

How much money your video has the potential to earn depends on:

1. The size of your channel
2. Your niche on YouTube
3. The specific topic of the video

That the size of your channel matters probably isn’t a surprise. The biggest brands want to run their ads beside videos that are getting more views.

Whether or not your YouTube niche has a high potential for profit will depend on a couple things:

1. How many other channels are in your niche?

The more people there are making similar videos to you, the thinner the available ads are spread.

1. How many cheap or expensive products are being advertised in your niche?

If the products are free or inexpensive (i.e. free online games) then that limits your earning ability. In large niches like gaming, the few higher paying ads will go to the most popular channels and the low-paying ads will be spread amongst everyone else.

If you have a very specific niche, i.e. luxury cars, then you will have less competition and the ads available will likely be for more expensive products (and thus the ads themselves will be higher paying).

Even if you are in a large niche, you can still make videos on specific topics designed to attract higher-paying ads and more revenue. Pay attention to the analytics in your Creator Studio to learn which of your videos earn the most. Then, make more videos on similar topics to boost your earnings.

Another factor that can affect what ads appear alongside your videos is the viewing habits of individual viewers. People are shown ads that YouTube believes are more relevant to their interests.

Useful Terminology (CPM, CPC, CPV)

A lot of people think your ad revenue is determined by your view count. This isn’t true – it’s determined by ad impressions.

How much revenue you earn from the ads running around your videos depends on these three things:

CPC: ‘cost per click’. Most of the ads on YouTube are CPC, meaning that an ad impression is only recorded when an ad is clicked on.

CPV: ‘cost per view’. Skippable pre-roll ads are the only ads on YouTube which record ad impressions without clicks. These ads record ad impressions when viewers watch 30 seconds of the ad instead of skipping it.

CPM: ‘cost per mille’ or ‘cost per thousand’. This refers to how much money gets paid out for 1000 ad impressions.

Your CPM will be affected by a multitude of things including the ads themselves and the size of your channel. AdSense has made it a rule that you cannot disclose your CPM to anyone, which makes it difficult to determine what you should expect.

Note: never click on ads near your own videos or instruct your viewers/friends to do so. If your clicks are higher than what AdSense considers normal they may ban you.

Sites like Social Blade provide estimated earnings for any channel you want to look up. Looking up channels that are where you plan to be in the near future could help you set your own expectations.

Are you able to monetize your videos? How many more subscribers or hours of watch time do you need?

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Livestream Platforms at Play: FB Vs. YT Live & TWITSpaces

Facebook Live Vs YouTube Live Vs Twitter Periscope

Shanoon Cox

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Live videos are gaining huge popularity these days. People find them best method to share adventurous moments with friends over social media. You can have wide range of choices for selection of platform like Periscope, YouTube Live and Facebook Live etc. But most of you might be thinking hard about which one of these is best to get more audience support. Many of you will just respond with the quick answer that I will switch to a platform where my most of friends are connected. Actually, there are so many features to discuss about a live streaming platform as performance depends upon so many parameters.

Facebook Live

Who is not familiar with this name? Even aliens must be aware about awesomeness of Facebook and now its live streaming capability added more wonders to the life. On top portion of this application, you will find three icons telling you to make easy choices for Check in, Photo and Live. When you are ready to live stream then simply hit this Live button and you will be ready to step inside world of entertainment. Same as YouTube, it sends messages to all followers about your broadcast via notification Bar so that they can soon join the fun online.

Facebook Live has gained wide popularity within very less time and now users are enjoying long hour streaming engagement over here. It has been designed with so many interesting features, how can we forget to list 360 option in this talk. That is truly awesome and is receiving great response from viewers. Users on Facebook Live can easily update their privacy settings for each uploads and It also allows editing with filters and masks, same as that of Snapchat.

Pros

There is no doubt to say that Facebook Live is quite simple to operate. Even when you enter inside this world for the very first time, it will make everything user friendly to you.

Cons

• It generate too much notifications, they make subscribers annoyed.
• News feeds gets affected with Live feature.

YouTube Live

Go to YouTube Live, hit the camera option from top menu and it will show you two options immediately on screen: Record for camera roll and Go Live for added online adventure. You can make easy selection about whether you want to share content with public or want to make it an unlisted video. You will definitely love its ability to auto generate a thumbnail of captured videos that becomes available to all subscribers over channel and provided better description about your next post. You can set broadcasting to horizontal as well as vertical mode and as soon as you start browsing over internet, YouTube will provide you effective editing controls with its Instagram like unique filters such as Sepia, Dawn, Dream and many more.

This platform is currently entertaining millions of users from different corner of world on desktop based platform whereas if you have 10000 plus subscribers on your channel then you can also enjoy mobile live streaming feature.

Pros

• It offers quite simple operations.
• Users can easily find their favourite content in well organized YouTube Live library.
• YouTube Live also provides earning options to streamers.

Cons

• You can easily miss important comments as they fly too fast.

Periscope

Twitter’s recently updated Periscope is one of the best live mobile streaming applications. It can process all videos at faster rate with high quality results. When you are ready to broadcast then simply Go Live and all your followers will immediately receive a message about your streaming. It helps world to know immediately about where broadcasts are going to update. Periscope can easily make your streams more attractive with its appealing live stream engagements.

As, millions of users are already connected to Twitter and enjoying interactive talks with world over there so most of these prefer to chose Periscope as one of the most trustworthy platform for Live streaming.

Pros

• It offers wide range of settings and functions.
• Twitter has recently added 360 video ability to Periscope.
• Well designed with user friendly interface.
• More number of subscribers can be easily connected.

Cons

• Infrequent updates are issue for professional streamers.

Facebook Live Vs. YouTube Live Vs. Periscope: What’s the Difference?

1. Audience:

We all know that Facebook is currently having highest user base so naturally Facebook Live is assumed to have more viewers and streamers. Google considers most of the YouTube content valuable but note that it is YouTube not the recently updated YouTube Live platform. On the other side, if we talk about Periscope then it can be best described as a standalone network. In case if it gets linked to main app YouTube then it may avail some popularity in the market, same as that of Facebook. If you are a beginner then probably, Facebook is the best choice for you as it can provide more audience over the nights. Periscope users can also enjoy healthy content over Mobile phones with great stream quality. One more interesting thing to know about Periscope is that it can be used to develop healthy relationships with so many viewers and followers.

2. User Interface:

Here is one more interesting factor to discuss about all these amazing Live streaming platforms. This feature makes a system or software standout among other competitors. If we compare user interface of Facebook Live, Periscope and YouTube Live then you will find them all almost similar. But most of the beginners rate Facebook as most simple and user friendly tool for live broadcasts. Second rating is received by Periscope whereas YouTube Live stands on third level. User interface of Periscope and Facebook live possesses so many similar features such as ability to subscribe, comment or updating likes etc.

3. Saving Broadcasts and Embedding Replays:

Let us discuss about saving broadcasts as well as get some idea about their ability to arrange embedding replays. The video archiving ability of YouTube and Facebook is having almost similar kind of features. Users are able to update their live streams and they can also be saved for longer run, even permanently as per need. If you want to delete them then simple controls allow easy removal of updated broadcasts from channel. On the other side, Periscope allows live streamers to stay on channel only for 24 hours. After that, all the updated videos get automatically deleted. On Facebook, users cannot come to know about who is watching their live streams until and unless they receive comments from viewers. Although, Facebook keep on updating notifications about all live streams but more often they create a bug. In case of Periscope, whenever a person starts viewing your uploaded content, his name will directly appear at your end. It can help you to know the real strength of your updates so that you can improve quality of content as per interest of viewers. It is also possible to make private or public settings for broadcasts on Periscope whereas Facebook is gaining more popularity for its Split Screen and 360 videos.

4. Interaction:

Communicate with Broadcasters:

If you want to interact with broadcaster on Facebook then you can simply update your comment or show them your reaction with emojies. They can be updated at the time of live broadcasts as well as at the time of replay. Most of the Facebook users are unhappy with its lag time as broadcasters comment gets published after a delay of 30 seconds. In case of Periscope, viewers are able to just comment on live broadcasts and they can also update a heart for their favourite content. If we compare the lag time of Facebook and Periscope then it is lower for Periscope and people often enjoy instantaneous conversations over this network. The best part is that Viewers can update numbers of hearts even for single broadcast and all of them will get recorded. This feature is not available with Facebook emojies. You will be glad to know that once you have prepared account over YouTube then same details can be used to access Periscope platform.

Interaction with Viewers:

Facebook allows broadcasters and viewers to enjoy healthy communication as here talks can be initiated by updating name of the person before writing comment. If you want to communicate with all viewers in more professional manner then Facebook’s name based comment updates are best choices. Note that, facebook allows users to enjoy communicate even when stream has already ended. In case of Periscope, again viewers and broadcasters can enjoy direct name to name comment based conversations. Periscope broadcasts can also be enjoyed on Twitter platform directly but here you cannot update hearts directly. Also, comments remains dedicated to Twitter and Periscope environment. YouTube Live allows users to share their viewing experiences with comments and it helps broadcasters to get feedbacks for improvement. Content from YouTube Live can also be shared on other platforms.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox