How Ad Revenue Works On YouTube

Those who contribute to YouTube may be curious why their video isn't getting them the same money from advertising as a video with a similar number of views. As it turns out, there are a few factors that negatively impact ad revenue, whether legal or simply the wrong time of year.

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Guest Post by Gray Gannaway on Quarterlab

Read part 1 of this article here.

YouTube creators often wonder why two videos with the same amount of views can earn drastically different amounts of money. In addition to the ad serving process we outlined in part 1 of this article, there are a number of additional factors that affect your ability to earn advertising revenue from your YouTube videos – so we’ve outlined a few of them below.

Channel Standing – Your YouTube account must be in good standing, so you should not have any Community Guideline strikes, Copyright strikes, or Content ID global blocks. Learn more about YouTube account standing here, including a list of features that are only made available to accounts in good standing. To check the standing of your channel, log into your YouTube account and go to the Features page.

Third Party Claims – If there are any claims on your video or your video contains musical or visual content owned by someone else, you may not be able to earn ad revenue on those videos. If you’re trying to resolve a claim that one of your videos has received, check out YouTube’s Copyright Help Center here.

Ownership – YouTube allows copyright holders to designate exactly which territories they own copyrights in for each video. If someone else owns the rights to your video in any geographic region, this may negatively impact the advertising revenue you earn on that individual video.

Ad Blocking – Some viewers choose to violate YouTube’s Terms Of Service by blocking advertisements from the site altogether. In those instances, you may not earn ad revenue from those views.

Autoplays – YouTube generally does not show ads on videos that are set to automatically play, so if your video autoplays in front of a viewer you will not receive ad revenue for those views.

Embedded Videos – When your YouTube video is embedded on a 3rd party site, the embedded video must not be customized and must be over 200×200 pixels in order for ads to reliably run on your video. If the embedded video does not conform to those specifications, you may not receive ad revenue.

Location of Audience – The geographic region of your audience has a big impact on how much revenue you will earn. Some countries have very desirable audiences that brands want to get their advertisements in front of, while other countries may be less valuable to brands. If a large amount of your video’s views and watch time comes from a less sought-after territory, your ad revenue will probably not be as high as if those views came from a more mainstream territory.

Seasonality – The time of year also has a big impact on the revenue earning capability of your videos. There are certain times of year when advertisers have a larger budget and are willing to spend more money to run ads on your videos, which results in YouTube creators earning more money. Generally, the last quarter of the year (October through December) will be the most valuable quarter for YouTubers since brands ramp up advertising for the holiday shopping season. On the other hand, the first quarter of the year (January through March) will often be the least lucrative quarter since advertisers need to be conservative with their budget early in the year. Tubefilter posted a useful guide to the best times of the day, week, month, and year to post your videos and you can check it out here.