YouTube is one of the most important realities in the online entertainment world. Now some YouTubers have reached very high peaks of popularity, almost comparable to those of television stars, and users often ask themselves how their online work is financially supported. The most frequently asked questions are those about how YouTube pays for videos.
If you too are fully part of this slice of users and you want to discover the way in which the earnings of the video makers operating on the platform are calculated and the process that must be followed to activate the monetization of the videos on an account, then we are happy to let you know that you’re in the right place, or better on the right blog. With today’s guide I will try to provide you with all the explanations of the case on how YouTube pays the videos so as to dispel all your main doubts about it.
The topic – I will be honest – is very vast, should be deepened in more than one article. But today I will try to be equally exhaustive by making a general overview of the ways that a YouTuber can take to earn money through his videos.
If you’re really interested in finding out how YouTube pays for videos, I suggest you sit comfortably in front of your computer and focus on reading the information I am about to provide you. Of course, I do not promise you that at the end of this guide you will be able to enrich yourself with YouTube thanks to the concepts I am about to provide you, but you will certainly have much clearer ideas on what to do. So, let’s start?
Concepts and basics
Let’s start by clarifying a simple but fundamental concept: the main means of earning on YouTube are advertising, so the more views you have on a video and the more revenue that the latter brings to its author. Visit Youtube Storm to buy Youtube views.
To insert the advertisements into the videos, you need to activate the monetization on your channel, a procedure that can be completed in two ways: asking the official partnership directly to YouTube (which then collects the money from the sponsors and then runs a fee to the YouTuber based on the views of his videos) or by addressing third-party networks that – to put it simply – are intermediaries between YouTube and the creators of video avoiding unnecessary waste of time. But we will take care of this in a few moments.
First, it is good to clarify the criterion by which YouTuber is rewarded. This criterion is the CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and it is the sum that the sponsors pay to YouTube to display their promotional messages every 1000 videos. The figure is variable depending on the months but making an average relative to last year we can say that it stood at 7 euros, then 7 euros, gross, collected every 1000 views on a video with advertising.
At this point it would be natural to wonder if all the videos can be monetized and all the channels can get a partnership. The answer is, unfortunately, no. In order to be able to earn videos on YouTube, you must respect the rules of the portal, you must post their content frequently (say at least one video a week), do not insert music or fragments of videos covered by copyright in their productions ( unless you have permission), you should not copy videos from other channels, you must not publish violent or sexually explicit content etc. In a nutshell, we must behave well!
Official partnership
Having clarified these fundamental points, I would like to find out in detail how to activate video monetization through the official partnership. The procedure to get the “go-ahead” to monetization by Google is quite long and cumbersome, it is also for this reason that the networks of third parties have been successful, but still far from impossible to complete.
Before explaining step by step how to proceed, I want to tell you that in order to participate in the official YouTube partnership program, you have to meet specific requirements. Once it was enough to have 10,000 total views on your channel to participate; but from 17 January 2018 the requirements to be met have become much more stringent since you have to have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers to your channel and a good 4,000 hours of watchtime in the last 12 months.
To start monetizing with YouTube through official partnership with the online video giant, the first step you need to take is to click here in order to be connected to the management panel of your account.
Make sure now that the channel that you own enjoys a good reputation, both in terms of copyright and in terms of community standards. Then check that next to the Community Guidelines and Copyright entries there is a green dot. If it were not so, I’m sorry to tell you, but… you will not be able to request video monetization.
Then click on the Activate button next to the Monetization item to send your request to become a partner through monetization by posting ads on your videos.
If you can not access the Monetization section of YouTube to request the insertion of advertising in your videos you can click here and fill in all its parts the proposed form.
In the page that at this point you will be shown presses on the Enable my account button and then add the check to the three boxes at the end of the box displayed in the middle of the web page and then click on the button Accept >>.
At this point, choose the available ad formats and then presses the Monetize button. Personally I suggest you leave the checkboxes on the items In-video ads overlay and skippable video ads or in any case to press on the item Preview to see for good of what it is before performing the deactivation.
Following these steps, if everything went well and, as a result, you are accepted into the partner program, YouTube will automatically add ads to all your videos. If it is not possible for one or more videos you will be shown a special notification.
Then you can still activate the advertising banners in your videos by accessing your channel, by selecting the video management item located at the top left, putting the check mark next to the videos on which you want to activate the monetization, selecting the item Monetize from the menu Actions and indicating the types of advertising to display in the movies you have chosen.
Please note that before activating the advertising, YouTube will check the content of the videos through a procedure that could last 24-48 hours and, in special cases, may request the sending of information as proof of the fact that you have all the rights to use certain content on a commercial level. For more details about the possibility of becoming a YouTube partner you can take a look at the reference web page of the service guide you can access by clicking here.
Earnings from ads on videos uploaded to your YouTube channel are paid into your Adsense account (if you remember, I’ve talked about it in my guide on how to make money with AdSense ) and you can redeem them once the payment threshold for the service is over. For more information about this, I suggest you click here so that you can consult the appropriate informative web page attached to the official guide of Adsense and the Google page which explains how to become a partner of YouTube.
Third-party network
Now that you finally have clearer ideas on how YouTube pays for the videos, I think it is right to give you all the explanations of the case about the third-party networks, whose collaboration practices are definitely much more hasty. The external networks, as I have already told you, are in fact an intermediary between the user and YouTube “lending” their partnership with the portal to the collaborators deemed suitable.
In exchange for this speed (usually just a few days to get the partnership) you have to leave 20-40% of the profits derived from advertising on their videos to the network, but there are also bonuses from the collaboration that allow you to create more interesting content and increase the views.
Many networks, in fact, offer access to audio tracks or other audiovisual material protected by copyright for which they have obtained licenses for exclusive use, promote videos of collaborators on social networks and in some cases even provide products to review in videos. Not to mention the fact that they can provide assistance when there are reports by copyright or if you need technical support.
To find the most suitable network for your channel you can search for the services used by the most famous YouTubers using the SocialBlade platform that you can access by clicking here. Once you have viewed the main Web page of SocialBlade, just type the username of a YouTuber in the bar at the top right and click on the Search button. Alternatively, you can consult the Top 100 network ranking on the same website by simply clicking here.
There are many types of networks, both from your country and international. There are some generic and other thematic, such as those dedicated to gaming or technology. The important thing, if you decide to take advantage of this solution, is that you choose a reliable network and also carefully evaluate all the terms of the collaboration (primarily the duration of the contract).
With regards to payments, these are always based on the YouTube CPM through AdSense or other channels that may vary from one company to another.