YouTubers and YouTube – Ad Revenue

So if you’re a frequent visitor to the online world, you’ll know that ads take up a considerable amount of space on the web. It’s a viable means for people to make money, either by gaining revenue from ads or becoming sponsored. Now as fair as this sounds, it’s infuriating when you’re midway through a playlist on YouTube, and you’re interrupted by an obnoxiously loud ad for Trading 212 – if we’re going to name names – or the Go Compare opera singer that you want to mute by shoving a sock in his mouth.

Furthermore, we all know the feeling of getting the 29 second ad, and reloading the page so it goes away, and the exact same ad coming on. Okay, we understand you have an ad revenue to get, and have to market your product, but before and after playlists only. The system Google uses is AdWords, an algorithm that basically shows what certain people watch, then targets them with specific ads. So if you watch a lot of gaming content on YouTube, or visit a lot of gaming websites, you’ll find that more of your ads are related to gaming, and this would be the same for film or make-up – even if you show interest in a YouTuber’s channel, it is likely you will get trailers for other relevant channels.

Now, YouTube is seen by many as a way to make money, and a plausible job option. This can be verified by the many, many internet personalities becoming more famous, like Yogscast, Markiplier, Zoella, and, probably more notably, PewDiePie. It has become widely known that the more successful YouTubers make more money because of sponsors and ads, because of the amount of views they get on their content. We know that when Google partners with someone, they will be compensated per 1000 views they get on their video with ads on it, but because they cannot claim how much they earn publicly, it remains a mystery as to how much they actually rely on ad revenue.

Many gaming Youtubers turn to donations instead, such as Hat Films, a subsidiary of the Yogscast, and even some Polaris members. Live streaming is now a sure-fire way of gaining donations from fans. Twitch (a streaming service exclusively for gaming content) is often used for this, as it is accessible, and the subscription to a person is monetized. For example, a subscription to a Twitch user might cost you $5, and for this you gain recognition from the streamer and are able to access a sub-only chat box, which is often a lot better and more friendly than the normal Twitch chat box. Plus, you get access to certain perks like emotes (gifs or images being used in the chat), and prize draws in some cases.

For a time there was a problem with revenue, and many YouTube sensations had to rely on donations, and the support of outside sponsors. Then there was the whole mess with Google+, particularly with mobile users, and how, for a while, mobile views didn’t count toward views. Channels were mixed with others, with videos not appearing on subscribers’ feeds, so many videos went without views for days, which, in the life of a YouTuber, is vital. The first 24 hours of content is the most important, as if it does not surpass a healthy few thousand views, it is unlikely it will gain any more than that.

Quite a few times in the past, YouTube has been shaky in its payment process, with the rates changing constantly and often leaving partners without pay for a period of time. But, with YouTube being recognized as a platform for legitimate work, we will slowly start to see a more regulated payment system, one that even smaller channels can rely on.

Hopefully.