This topic is important for influencers who want to better leverage or bloggers who want to become YouTubers. We hear so many stories of so many people making money off of YouTube that it begs the question: How much can you make from your YouTube videos, and more specifically, how much does YouTube pay per view?

As you can imagine, there isn’t a straight answer to this question. While certain monetization tools are purely dependent on video views, others lean on advertising revenue, YouTube Premium memberships, and other monetization tools. Some of these tools or even independent of YouTube and can be used even if your videos get demagnetized or you never reach the monetization threshold.

In other words, the answer to “how much does YouTube pay per view” is “it depends.” Let’s look at the different factors that can affect how much money you make on YouTube, including both YouTube native choices and some third-party tools.

How do YouTube Payments per View Work?

First, let’s look at monetization that is embedded in YouTube itself. Content creators are paid for the Google Ads on their channels’ videos through the YouTube Partner Program. The earnings are paid through your AdSense account. Advertising options include banner ads, embedded ads, and even the “commercials” that play before viewers can watch the featured video.

Contrary to popular belief, Youtube (Google) actually pays per ad view and not per video view. However, you still make money if the user skips the ad. In the marketing industry, we talk about the number of ad impressions associated with a particular campaign. For YouTube, advertising can appear on the page where your video plays, and in many cases, there are several ads. Your potential viewer might land on the page, choose not to watch your content, and navigate away. Additionally, you would get money on every ad that they see.

Additionally, there are some videos where few, if any, ads are displayed. In this case, the content creator will get a lot less money for the same number of views than they would otherwise.

With that in mind, we can arrive at one answer to how much YouTube pay per views. YouTube pays 55% of the ad revenue to the content creator/publisher. The rest of that they keep for site maintenance and Google’s profit.

How much does YouTube Pay per Ad?

Of course, that 68% comes out of something — the rates paid by advertisers. For a technical explanation, most YouTube ads are paid for in increments of a thousand views. Advertisers call this CPM, or “cost per mille.” However, in the case of YouTube ads, the advertisers are paying 4000 impressions of a certain type on YouTube, not on a particular piece of content.

But, is there a number we can assign to how much YouTube pay per view? At the end of the day, it’s anywhere between $0.10 and $0.30 per ad view. Over time, experience shows that the average pay works out to be $0.18 per ad view. As you can imagine, this adds up quickly, especially if you have a larger YouTube channel or create content in a niche where advertisers pay high rates.

How much Money do YouTubers Make per 1,000 Views?

As pointed out above, we talk about ad revenue in terms of 1000 impressions. Since ad views are not equal to video views, the estimated earnings per 1000 views are between $3 and $5. If you have a small channel that’s just starting monetization, this doesn’t seem like a lot. On the other hand, if you create several videos per week, you’ll start seeing those numbers go up. In addition, earnings jump with channel views.

What are the Factors that Impact YouTube Pay Per View Earnings?

Naturally, not all YouTube videos make the same amount of money. This is true even when you consider the number of followers a YouTuber has and the topic. With that in mind, let’s look at some of the factors that determine how much YouTube pays per view.

Length of the Videos

First, video length is a major factor. Originally, you couldn’t monetize Shorts even if the rest of your channel was monetized. Even considering this extreme example, the longer your video is, the more it can make all other things equal. One reason for this is that longer videos can contain more ads. YouTube inserts advertising breaks at regular intervals during a video. They also have ads down at the bottom of each video. As the video plays, these banner ads are rotated, boosting revenue.

Type of Content

Another factor is the type of content. Certain industries and niches pay higher CPM rates than others. For example, beauty and grooming, travel, and video game companies face stiff competition and, consequently, pay a lot more than less competitive niches. Of course, if you are a YouTube or in these niches, you’re also working a lot harder to get those views.

Further Reading: YouTube Video Optimization: Simple Tricks Beginners Can Implement To Rank Their Videos

Engagement

The higher your engagement the more valuable ad space becomes on your videos, and in turn, the more advertisers will pay for it. Think about this in terms of television ratings. As most of us know, companies pay a lot more money to run an advertisement during the Super Bowl than they do during the nightly news.

Ad Quality

Sadly, content creators sometimes get penalized because an advertiser runs a poor-quality ad. That’s not to say that YouTube penalizes the creator, though, because this factor isn’t the creator’s fault. However, that advertising can discourage people from watching a creator’s videos. In addition, the viewer might watch for a file, hit a terrible advertisement, and decide not to watch the rest of the video. In this case, the creator loses potential advertising revenue from the rest of the video.

Unfortunately, this isn’t something that creators can fix easily, with one exception — if advertising quality starts driving the viewership away, a creator can create parameters that can help or discontinue that monetization method.

Ad Blockers

Finally, there’s the proliferation of ad blockers. These are relatively popular precisely because of bad ads and excessive advertising. Additionally, some people consider advertising to be an intrusion on their privacy. Unfortunately, that also means that a creator won’t get any ad impressions from that particular viewer. They might, however, get revenue from other places. We’ll talk about those alternatives later on in this article.

What are Some Other Ways of Making Money on YouTube?

Fortunately, the answer to how much YouTube pay per view is not completely dependent on the advertisers instead, there are other ways to get money for your content from YouTube itself. You can also select third-party monetization options. Let’s look at several of them.

Channel Memberships

One option that works well for a lot of creators is Channel memberships. These are where a few were “joins” a channel for a fixed monthly payment. Typically, content creators will provide perks in exchange for a sponsorship, such as specialized videos, a badge that shows other viewers they are a member, and other privileges. The best part about these for a content creator is that is consistent income, closely followed by the benefits of having a loyal community.

Affiliate Marketing

YouTubers will frequently do affiliate marketing from the channel. Often, this involves talking about a product or service, then giving viewers a special discount. An example I see often is in financial services. Many personal finance creators will talk about a certain type of financial product and then have a special offer for one of the examples mentioned in the video.

This technique is a bit different from a straight-up sponsorship because the item they’re an affiliate for isn’t always the only one mentioned. Also, the creator might mention the affiliation on other social media channels.

Patreon Memberships

Similarly, creators can make money from Patreon. This is a platform that lets creators interact with their fans in a more private setting. Often, there will also be special pieces of content exclusively for Patreon sponsors. As with YouTube memberships, the sponsor pays a flat monthly fee and provides a steady income for the creator.

Other Sponsorships

Often, an advertiser will sponsor a particular video. Then, the creator will talk about that product or service and mention that the company paid for the sponsorship. Again, this is similar to an old-school technique whereby a company will sponsor a sports game or something similar. Typically, sponsorship will be the only commercial content in the video itself.

Channel Monetization

Not all ways to get money directly from YouTube are based on direct advertising or sponsorships. If a creator wishes, they can enable other tools, such as Super Chats and Super Thanks. Both of these are a way for viewers to express their appreciation on a one-time basis. A Super Chat is displayed during a live stream, while a Super Chat is a paid message on videos that were either never live-streamed or are on replay.

YouTube Shorts

Until recently, you couldn’t monetize shorts. However, YouTube came to realize how much creators were contributing to the platform with these videos and decided to create a way to answer how much YouTube pays per view. Now, YouTube compensates creators for their work using the $100 million Shorts fund. Essentially, it’s a way to recognize the work creators do to make them and serve as a stopgap until more monetization options become available.

Further Reading: The 11 Types of Short-Form Video You Can Leverage TODAY

Influencer Marketing

Similar to video sponsorships, there’s influencer marketing. Briefly, this is when a content creator is paid to use their influence in a brand’s favor. This can be done in several ways, but on YouTube, the most basic options are a Livestream and a sponsored video. For instance, the influencer can do a contest or a live tutorial on product use. The advertiser might pay the influencer a flat fee or some kind of reward for results. You can see a more detailed explanation in this other post I wrote.

Further Reading: YouTube Influencer Marketing: The Definitive Guide of 9 Campaign Types [with case studies]

Sell Products or Merchandise

Often called a “merch shelf,” YouTube lets certain creators advertise branded products below their video headers. In addition, some creators use an external vendor, then post a link to the vendor in the description area of their video or as a comment. Both of these methods can make a significant amount of money, but the branded merchandise is just as effective for the community it helps nurture.

YouTube Premium

Finally, there’s YouTube Premium. Because one of the Premium perks is the lack of advertising, content creators don’t get ad revenue from these fans. However, YouTube gives creators a percentage of the Premium revenue based on how much time a subscriber spends watching that creator’s videos. This makes up at least some of the lost revenue from ads. Also, Premium doesn’t affect any other form of monetization.

How to Increase Your YouTube Earnings

Whether you monetize your channel only through advertising revenue or use other methods, there are effective ways to increase your YouTube earnings. In fact, failure to follow some of these tips can make it difficult, if not impossible, to monetize. That’s because your content must have value to consumers and be something they can find easily.

Do Proper Keyword Research

Keywords are like hashtags on many other social media networks. Specifically, they help people find the right content that will answer their questions or prove enjoyable. However, to maximize the benefits of keywords, you need to pick the right ones. Keep in mind that keywords can both describe the topic of your content and its type, such as “pets and animals.”

Luckily, it’s important to remember that YouTube is a Google product. For that reason, many of the keywords you use for similar content on the Google search engine will work on YouTube. Likewise, selecting keywords is easy. Simply use the same keyword research tools that you would otherwise. With YouTube-specific tools, as available.

Further Reading: 11 Tips on How to Grow Your YouTube Channel in 2022

Post Original Content

This tip should almost go without saying. Strictly speaking, only original content is eligible for monetization on YouTube. Furthermore, there are legal issues, such as copyright, that you need to consider when posting videos. While fair use and other rules allow you to borrow small amounts of content under certain circumstances, you need to make sure that your content always meets Google’s definition of originality. For example, commentary on footage from other sources is allowed if it adheres to fair use.

Make Your Titles Catchy

As with friends or blog headlines, your YouTube videos should always have a catchy title. Not only does a great title add personality to your thumbnail, but it also makes readers believe that the content itself won’t be boring. Who wants to watch the same thing in several different forms? As a rule, your audience won’t do this. If your niche involves analysis of world events or covers financial news, it might be a little bit different because of the many different perspectives.

However, no matter your niche, it’s important to differentiate your content from the competition. Catchy titles help to do this because they make people stop and think about what might be in the video. Over time, gaining an advantage over competitors’ content helps you to grow your audience and increase the answer of how much YouTube pays per view.

Create an Enticing Thumbnail

A great title or headline demands a great thumbnail. If you don’t specifically design a thumbnail or choose from YouTube’s options, then YouTube will choose the thumbnail for you. Unfortunately, random choices don’t often make the best choice for each piece of content.

Enticing thumbnails do one thing very well — encourage people to watch your video. As you get more views and more accurately, your number of subscribers and paid members will naturally increase. Over time, your videos will become more valuable to advertisers, and Google’s price to advertise on your videos will rise. So, in turn, will the amounts you receive per advertisement view.

Provide value or make it worth their time to watch

If you fail too badly in this area, you won’t get the large following needed to get significant revenue. In be able to monetize at all. That’s because Google requires channels to have a certain number of subscribers and video views before you’re eligible to monetize. Once you’ve met the monetization threshold, the size of your network will help determine the amount you get paid, on average, per video.

Provide enough value, and it gets better. Not only will viewers subscribe, but this is where you start getting more channel members, Patreon sponsors, and other opportunities. Top-earning YouTubers create a community where ideas or content are discussed and where most people feel that group participation is a worthwhile way to spend their time.

Further Reading: The Best 14 Thumbnail Makers for YouTube

Ask Your Users to Like and Subscribe

Finally, let’s look at this best practice in terms of the YouTube algorithm. When people like videos and subscribe to channels, it becomes more visible in the YouTube algorithm. In turn, your views and subscribers will increase. At the same time, potential viewers will see that other users consider your content to be high quality and be encouraged to watch it.

Essentially, a larger number of likes and subscriptions create a snowball effect that will increase your revenue. The answer to how much YouTube pay per view may rise for you is because of the higher cost of advertising your content. Either way, you’ll make more money when you have that higher level of engagement.

Conclusion

As you can see, there’s a new straight answer to how much YouTube pay per view. Not only do advertising rates vary based on factors such as niche and subscriber count, but there are other ways to get paid besides advertising. Most of those other methods are less dependent on content views. Fortunately, no matter how you think about YouTube revenue, all creators start out small. Over time, they gain the ability to monetize their content and then watch the revenue grow. In fact, an ever-larger number of people make a living from YouTube. While there is never a guarantee, following these best practices will help creators achieve their goals.

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