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How Much Do You Get Paid for Views on YouTube? 25+ Channels Analyzed

March 8, 2024

How Much Do You Get Paid for Views on YouTube?

I analyzed 25+ YouTube channels to find which YouTube niche has the best pay in 2024. YouTube pays as low as $0.02 for 1,000 views, and as high as $61 for 1,000 views.

Another way to say this would be that the YouTube RPM is as low as $0.02, and as high as $61.

Quick definitions you’ll need to know:

  • CPM (Cost Per Mille): This metric represents the cost advertisers pay for 1,000 ad impressions on a video. It’s an advertiser-focused metric, indicating how much money is spent to display ads to viewers.
  • RPM (Revenue Per Mille): RPM represents the total revenue a creator earns per 1,000 video views, after YouTube’s revenue share has been deducted. It includes all revenue sources (ads, channel memberships, Super Chat, etc.). RPM will be roughly 55% of the CPM because YouTube takes a 45% cut of ad revenue and not all views will be monetized.

I’ll explain it all more, but if you want to skip around, here’s what I’ll cover:

But you probably don’t care about how much you can make if you don’t even know how to get monetized. So let’s start there.

How To Get Monetized on YouTube

To qualify for monetization on YouTube, your channel needs to meet the following criteria:

  • Minimum of 1,000 subscribers

And meet one of the following additional requirements:

  1. 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months.
  2. 10M Shorts views in the past 90 days.

YouTube Monetization Requirements

There’s multiple different ways to add up the numbers here, but here is potential breakdown of how you could meet the requirements:

  • 1 video with 48,000 views and an average watch time of 5 minutes
  • 10 videos with 12,000 views and an average watch time of 2 minutes
  • 50 videos with 2,400 views and an average watch time of 2 minutes

I would expect that if you end up getting that number of views, you’ll probably meet the subscriber requirement.

How much YouTube shorts pays per thousands views

The pay for YouTube shorts is consistently low. The average RPM is $0.015 - 0.06.

Here are 5 examples of YouTube shorts creators and their shorts’ RPMs:

#Channel NameViewsPayRPM
1TheInsanePatient253 million$827.14$0.015
2Kin Ryan1.1 million$29.73$0.027
3Oscar Owen58.9 million$1760$0.03
4TubeBuddy3.1 million$99.87$0.03
5Kin Ryan19.2 million$1037.54$0.054

How do you increase your YouTube shorts RPM?

Kin Ryan gave two factors in his video that affected his RPM:

  1. Copyrighted music
    • Kin Ryan’s video with a $0.027 RPM used copyrighted music, while his video with a $0.054 RPM did not.
  2. Audience Demographics
    • On Kin Ryan’s video with a $0.027 RPM, he had 13.4% US viewers and 40.1% Indian viewers.
    • On his video with a $0.054 RPM, he had 32.4% US viewers and 18.5% Indian viewers.

1. How copyrighted music affects your YouTube shorts RPM

Although you’re allowed to use copyrighted music within your shorts, it will decrease your RPM.

Part of the ad revenue is paid out to the copyright holder, and the rest is split between YouTube and the creator (you). Obviously, if you have to split the revenue from your video, you’re going to make less money than you would have otherwise.

Of course, you should consider that using a copyrighted song might make your video more compelling. If it does, it might be worth using copyrighted music to get more views, even if it means a lower RPM.

2. How your audience affects your YouTube shorts RPM

A good rule of thumb is that the higher the GDP per capita of a country, the higher the ad rates for viewers from that country will be.

The US had an estimated GDP per capita of $80,412 in 2023, while India had an estimated GDP per capita of $2,612 in 2023 (source).

The viewers from the US have more money to spend, so advertisers are willing to pay more to reach them.

How much YouTube (longform) pays per thousands views

Of the 25+ channels I analyzed, the typical RPM for longform YouTube videos was $2-5. The RPM range (excluding outliers) for the longform videos in this analysis was $1.98 - $16.09 RPM.

I’ll talk about the outliers in a bit, but first let’s look at the typical RPMs.

RPM by Channel/Niche

#Channel NameNicheRPM
1Oscar OwenMagic$1.98
2CyberCreatorRoblox$1.98
3Strat GamingStrategy Gaming$2.47
4Swamp N StompHunting$2.51
5Daniel OwenTech Reviews$2.75
6Frederik TrovattenPhotography$3.20
7ChrrismGaming$3.47
8Theo - t3.ggCoding/Programming$3.54
9CelineLifestyle/Blogging$3.69
10Ryan Maya CooksCooking$3.98
11MrBeastEntertainment~$5
12Ali AbdaalProductivity/Self-Help$5.06
13The02CumminsRamAutomotive$5.17
14Wick GamingAdvanced Strategy Gaming$5.30
15The Fast Lane CarAutomotive$6.50
16Jess SalemmeLifestyle/Productivity$8.16
17HomesteadyHomesteading$8.20
18Primal VideoYouTube/Video Production$9.26
19ExplorcationTravel$10.02
20Taylor BellFinance$10.39
21Alexis EldredgeLifestyle/Blogging$12.81
22Graham StephanFinance/Real estate$14.56
23Cathrin ManningLifestyle/Blogging$15.22
24Spinlight StudioMusic (Technical)$15.44
25BiahezaFinance/Drop Shipping$16.09

Outliers: What is the worst YouTube niche (by RPM)

Apparently the worst YouTube niche is “Boxing Education in Hindi” with a $0.20 RPM.

boxing education in hindi

Yikes.

Then again, with a population of 1.4 billion people, maybe targeting an Indian audience isn’t such a bad idea. India population

That’s a lot of potential viewers.

Outliers: What are the best YouTube niches (by RPM)

  1. Daytrading: $18.39 RPM
  2. Forex Trading: $27.75 RPM
  3. Dropshipping: $36.55 RPM
  4. Affiliate Marketing: $58.99 RPM
  5. Website Building / Web Design: $48.68 - $61 RPM

The main theme here is money and business. Advertisers for these videos are selling high-ticket courses and expensive, high-margin, recurring revenue products.

Padday Galloway said the web design video was from a channel with 3m+ subscribers, and that the video had over 1m views. At least $61k in ad revenue according to my quick math.

What are the factors that affect your YouTube RPM?

  1. Niche
    • Different niches attract different advertising rates due to the audience’s buying power, advertiser demand, and competition for ad space. For example, finance and technology generally attract higher CPMs due to the high-value products and services being promoted.
  2. Audience Demographics
    • Age: Older audiences (e.g., 25-44 years old) often have higher disposable incomes, making them more valuable to advertisers.
    • Location: Viewers in countries with higher GDP per capita (e.g., the United States, Canada, Australia) can lead to higher CPMs (and therefore RPMs)
  3. Seasonality and Economy
    • Seasonality: Advertising spending fluctuates throughout the year, peaking during certain seasons like Christmas or Black Friday.
    • Economic Climate: A strong economy means businesses are more likely to spend on advertising, while a recession can lead to decreased ad spending and lower CPMs.
  4. Video Engagement
    • Watch Time: Videos that retain viewers longer can attract higher CPMs because they offer more opportunities for ad placement.
  5. Ad Density
    • Number of Ads: Videos longer than 8 minutes can include multiple ad placements (pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll ads), increasing revenue per view.

How to increase your YouTube RPM

Make better videos.

Why?

As said before:

Longer view duration = more ads seen = more money

Check out this sweet graph from Paddy Galloway that shows the RPM by average view duration (AVD) for one of his clients:

RPM by average view duration Source: Paddy Galloway

You should note that this is for a single channel within a single niche, and it’s using the average RPM across multiple videos.

The videos with a 5-8 minute AVD have double the pay of a video with 0-3 minutes AVD. Viewers are watching twice as long, so they’re seeing twice as many ads.

Takeaway

There’s a wide range of pay for different types of content and different quality videos on YouTube.

In the end, if you make better videos and you’ll make more money.

Send me a message on Twitter if you have any questions or other topics you’d like me to cover.