Understanding the YouTube monetization ecosystem will allow you to best choose which ads to run and even how to market your content and your channel. It's helpful to think about your channel as you would a business: many creators want the work they put into their channels to pay off. All the content you put out is your work, so you not only want it to be appealing to your audience, but also to potential advertisers and sponsors. Most advertisers look for great channels with brand-safe content. Continuously creating videos that are advertiser-friendly may help put you in a good position to build business relationships with advertisers, PR firms, and sponsors.
How YouTube videos make money
Best practices
Are you spending a lot of time on your videos and starting to see your viewer and subscriber numbers grow? Congratulations! Is there a way to make the work you put into your channel sustainable?
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Monetization and YouTube
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The four key players
There are four key players in the YouTube monetization ecosystem (see image in Video examples, below):
- Viewers - people who like and watch your videos
- Creators - you and others like you who create the great videos on YouTube
- Advertisers - businesses looking for different ways to reach and target new or existing audiences
- YouTube - the video-hosting platform itself, helping this ecosystem to thrive
These four main players work together to provide a cohesive, sustainable entertainment platform. YouTube succeeds when you succeed - we want to help you achieve your goals. You upload the videos that viewers want to watch, and each view creates an opportunity for YouTube to sell advertising. When YouTube sells advertising and an ad runs on your video (and your viewers watch through that ad), YouTube shares part of that revenue with you, the creator.
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Benefits
So what are the benefits of this ecosystem? Well, it provides an environment for anyone to share their passion with the world and earn money making something that they love. Creating great videos, building your audience and engaging your community, meeting like-minded people, and generating a revenue stream by doing something you enjoy is all possible on YouTube.
Mastery checklist
- Who are the 4 stakeholders in the YouTube monetization ecosystem?
- How could monetizing your content benefit you?
- How can you ensure your content is friendly for advertisers?
Video examples
The YouTube monetization ecosystem
Community activities
Put your new knowledge to work! Answer the activity questions below. Then share your answer with the community to get feedback from other creators.
1. Name 3 goals you have when considering your strategy for monetizing your channel.
2. When might a creator not want to monetize their content?
3. Understanding your target audience is important for branding your content and determining strategies to reach and engage with your audience. What makes your content unique and interesting for an audience?
Check your knowledge
Measure success
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When I watch my videos, sometimes I don’t see an ad. What is going on?
Not every view will be accompanied by an ad. The reason is mostly around how YouTube spaces out ads for viewers so that they’re not watching too many ads in too short a time period.
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Can I find out approximately how much money I make every day?
Look at the Estimated earnings report to gauge how much money you are making everyday. The Ad performance report can help you understand which ad formats are contributing most to your bottom line.
Lesson checklist
Congratulations!
