In the world of online video sharing, YouTube certainly is the biggest platform and one easy way of earning is via Google AdSense on YouTube. With over 2 billion monthly users, it provides the perfect avenue for both business and marketers (YouTube channel owners) to showcase their products.
Businesses can use YouTube to reach millions of potential new customers through adverts. At the same time, affiliate marketers can partake in the advert process by leveraging on their audience to drive conversions for businesses. Ordinarily, when users are watching videos on YouTube, the YouTubers are earning money from the ads that are displayed.
Making money from YouTube today is as easy as uploading great content, amassing millions of views, and earning a share of advertising revenue. Coupled with that, content creators can monetize their content in multiple ways. Aside from advertising, this can include corporate sponsorships from a major brand, fan funding or merchandise sales.
The simplest way to earn money from your YouTube channel is by associating it with an approved AdSense account. However, not all videos are eligible for monetization. Make sure you meet video monetization policies and YouTube Advertising formats to use this service.
As of mid-2020, the YouTubers earning through ads was around $18 per thousand views. And with daily streaming of over 1 billion hours of videos, owners of channels on the platform can’t afford to ignore the potentials YouTube offers to earn.
In this article, I am going to examine one of the ways to monetize the platform; YouTube AdSense, which is basically YouTube’s advertising platform.
Google AdSense on YouTube or should we say YouTube AdSense
AdSense is a free and easy way to earn money by placing ads on your site. Google’s ad network helps advertisers looking to run their ads on the web connect with publishers who are willing to display such ads for a specified fee.
Google AdSense on YouTube simply brings together publishers and advertisers by creating an avenue for Google Ads advertisers to bid on ad space on websites and online content. If you chose to work with an ad network such as AdSense, you spend less time marketing and selling your advertising space and more time focusing on creating quality content for your audience.
And since Google is the parent company of YouTube, the platform utilizes AdSense to help monetize channels through its YouTube Partner Program.
Understanding the YouTube Partner Program
One guaranteed way of earning money through your YouTube channel is to earn via ad views. But you don’t just start earning the moment you open a channel. For you to earn with ads, you need to be accepted into the YouTube partner program.
The YPP allows users to earn money from:
- Advertising income
- Videos watched by YouTube Premium subscribers
- Channel memberships where members pay for perks
- Fans paying to have their messages featured with Super Chat and Super Stickers
- Branded item sales
Each earning medium has its own qualification criteria such as a minimum number of subscribers and views counts. The mediums are also subject to availability in your country or region.
The YouTube Partner Program (YPP) allows channels access to extra ways of earning possibilities as soon as such channels attain the qualifying criteria.
For a channel to be eligible for review to join the YPP, a channel must:
- Have more than 1,000 subscribers
- Exceed 4,000 valid public watch hours over the last year (private, unlisted, or deleted videos don’t count)
- Abide by YouTube’s monetization policies
- Be based in a country or region where the YPP is available
- Have a linked AdSense account
Alongside attaining eligibility for the YPP, the channel is also required to meet YouTube’s additional policies and guidelines. This is required to gain approval for the program. A key factor to hold dearly is that should your channel fall short of the threshold or is inactive for six months, it may be removed from YPP.
Setting up an AdSense account for YouTube
Joining the YouTube Partner Program requires you to set up an approved AdSense account to earn money and get paid. Keep in mind that you can only have one AdSense account under a payee name.
Primarily, there are two ways to set up an AdSense account for YouTube, content creators can use their pre-existing AdSense account or simply create a new one. Let’s walk you through each step.
Pre-existing AdSense account
First up is how to link your pre-existing AdSense account with your YouTube channel:
- Sign in to your YouTube account and go to youtube.com/channel/UC/monetization
- Click Start on the “Sign up for Google AdSense on YouTube” card.
- You’ll need to enter your YouTube account password and re-authenticate.
- Choose the Google account you want to use to sign in to AdSense. If you’re already an AdSense publisher, you must sign in with the Google account that you use to access your existing AdSense account. This may be different than the log-in credentials you use to log in to YouTube.
- You’ll be directed to an AdSense sign-up page. Verify that the correct email is at the top of the page. If the account that’s showing is the wrong one, click “Use a different account” to change accounts.
- Click Accept Association.
- You’ll be redirected back to the Monetization page in YouTube Studio.
- Once you’ve connected your AdSense, we’ll mark this step with a green “Done” sign on the “Sign up for Google AdSense on YouTube” card.
New AdSense account
Now, let’s discuss how to link a new AdSense account to your YouTube channel. Take care here not to create the account through AdSense. If you do, your account will be disapproved and monetization disabled for your YouTube channel. Instead, create the new AdSense account through YouTube. Follow the below steps to achieve this:
- Sign in to your YouTube account and go to youtube.com/channel/UC/monetization
- Click Start on the “Sign up for Google AdSense on YouTube” card.
- You’ll need to enter your YouTube account password and re-authenticate.
- Choose the Google account you want to use to sign in to AdSense. If you’re already an AdSense publisher, you must sign in with the Google account that you use to access your existing AdSense account. This may be different than the log-in credentials you use to log in to YouTube.
- Once in AdSense, verify that the correct email is at the top of the page. If the account that’s showing is the wrong one, click “Use a different account” to change accounts.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to create a new AdSense account. Provide your contact information and submit your AdSense application.
- You’ll be redirected back to YouTube Studio and will see a message saying that your AdSense application has been received.
Once you are through with the above steps, wait for AdSense to update you by mail. They do this as soon as your AdSense account is approved. Keep in mind that it may take several days to get approval.
How to make money with Google AdSense on YouTube on YouTube
Making money with Google AdSense YouTube on YouTube is pretty much easy. Both platforms take care of the heavy lifting for you. All you have to do is continue to create awesome content and get the audience to watch the ads in your videos.
YouTube monetizes its video content via pre-roll, display, and other advertising formats. Advertisers pay based on clicks or impressions. The amount of money that YouTube pays partners depends on several factors. Some of these include the number of views received by the video, the number of clicks on ads, the quality of the ads clicked on, and video length.
Also note that as of 2018, the median cost per thousand (CPM) ad rate charged to advertisers was $10. And since creators are paid only on monetized views, and not total views, the effective CPM they earn can be far lower. However, the actual rate that advertisers pay varies, usually around $0.10 to $0.30 per view. On average, an advertiser pays around $0.18 per view. This means that a YouTube channel receives $18 per 1,000 ad views, which roughly equates to $3 – $5 per 1000 video views.
Keep in mind that the more views, subscribers, and engagements you have on your YouTube channel, the likelihood of you earning more with AdSense increases. This is because the YouTube algorithm favors engagements more and would certainly push more traffic your way.
Getting paid with Google AdSense on YouTube
Getting paid with Google AdSense on YouTube is as easy as linking both accounts. Once you link both, you start receiving credit for each video’s monthly revenue.
Google AdSense on YouTube has a payment threshold of $100 in earnings and Google will issue a payment to your bank account. Content creators have the option of choosing how they get paid either via direct deposit or by check. Direct deposit is the fastest method and has no fee but is not available in all countries. Just select the option that works for you and start receiving your payments.
However, when sending payments to your account from a different currency, Google converts it to your local currency. This is usually done at the standard exchange rate and sends it to your bank account.
Note: There is a possibility of a mark-up being added to the conversion rate, either by Google or your local bank. This means that you would lose some of your money when receiving payment from AdSense.
Video Contents that Generate Massive Traffic
The truth is that there are almost infinite ways and formats you can use to create videos on YouTube. But not all formats generate traffic and views equally. Your best bet is to create content tailored in a manner that attracts views and engagements.
In general, each of these video formats has the potential to generate substantial traffic and by extension, ad views for you as a content creator. We at Daniels Hustle have taken the time to discuss just a few formats that have proven to be very useful and successful over the years on YouTube.
How-to videos
This type of video is the perfect example of videos that can be informative and educative as well as serving as means of recommending products.
With videos like this, content creators can easily place ads from Google AdSense on YouTube in their videos. The best part is ads are easily relevant to this content type and can rake in a decent amount of ads view revenue. Let’s face it; many people go to YouTube to learn how to use various products. And since you can show them this, why not add free relevant ads to make some cool cash for yourself.
Viewers of How-to guides consider the presenter as an expert on the product, who is offering insightful information that is valuable to the audience.
Product Review Videos
Statistically, 62% of consumers reportedly watch reviews online every single time they make a purchase. Also, 52% of customers are prone to purchase a product that has been featured in a YouTube product review video.
This simply translates to lots of viewers potentially watching ads on your video. This in turn increases your chances of earning some ad revenue bucks. Product review video contents rake in a high and healthy dose of engagement and views.
Sports and Entertainment
Sports and entertainment channels are one of the biggest earners of Google AdSense on YouTube ads revenue YouTube. Many users of YouTube use the platform to catch up on missed moments on a sporting event or an entertainment show.
It becomes easy to monetize such channels for ad revenue since you are guaranteed a steady flow of audience views. The only challenge is getting your channel upfront. This is because competition is high as many channels promote sports or entertainment-related content.
This brings us to our next topic, optimizing your content and channel.
Optimizing your channel
Earning with Google AdSense YouTube on YouTube requires you to create video content and then get your audience to view the ads placed in your videos. While this sounds easy, the truth is lots of users don’t watch ads on YouTube and many simply skip ads. Sadly, YouTube doesn’t pay for skipped ads.
To get more users to watch ads on your videos, you need to create compelling useful video content and balance the number of ads present in one video. YouTube allows for one ad per minute long video. This implies that for a 10-minute video, you can have 10 ads.
But this isn’t good practice since viewers don’t like having to be interrupted continuously by ads. Danielshustle has figured out through its years of using the platform that has 2-3 ads per 10 minute long video is optimal. While this can vary for the length of the ad and length of the video, the general principle is to develop a mindset of a viewer. Will you as a viewer like to be interrupted continuously with ads? Will you be ok with viewing few 2-3 ads as against 6-8 in a 10-minute video?
Alongside creating useful and unique content, you can increase your video views and by extension your ad views by optimizing your content as well as your channel. We will examine some of the few ways we can achieve this:
Recommended and Related Videos
The “recommended video” has to be the most sorts after ranking position on YouTube. It is the homepage of the platform. Your video is basically placed in front of a potentially large audience. Any channel appearing on the homepage should expect a significant surge in subscribers.
Also, the ‘Related videos’ sidebar is another way to drive traffic to your YouTube videos hosting ads. These videos appear to viewers because they are similar to the ones they interact with. But they are from creators the viewer isn’t currently subscribed to.
Getting into any of these two spots is a tough but yet achievable task. Here are some tips to help you:
- Create interesting titles but avoid using clickbait
- Optimize your title, tags, and video description for one keyword
- Consider linking your videos together via overlays or playlists
- Your thumbnails matter – design them with a book cover in mind
- Create engaging video content but keep your total video length around 10 minutes
Keep in mind that the goal of YouTube is for viewers to stick around and click on the ads they display in-between videos. If you capitalize on that and your videos generate enough sessions, with loads of engagement, YouTube will send you more traffic.
The higher the traffic you get, the more chances you get that visitors will view ads on your videos.
Subscribers
Quality content drive subscribers and the best way to get traffic to your ads is to build up a strong subscriber base. Subscribing to a YouTube channel is a one-time action and after that, it’s up to you to keep them entertained and informed with quality content.
Building a subscriber base is not easy as it takes time and lots of effort. A new channel if properly managed can grow from zero to 100k subscribers within a year and it can also take longer.
Keeping your subscribers has benefits. Every time you release a new video, your subscribers are notified in the YouTube browser interface. They will also receive a notification on their phone through the YouTube mobile app.
YouTube and Google Organic Search
YouTube organic search uses the same principle as Google search. Needless to say, YouTube is the second biggest search engine, just running shy of her sister company, Google.
To that end, ranking on YouTube can be a good source of targeted traffic to send to your affiliate links containing videos. There are various ranking factors that can help you outrank your competitors:
- Perform keyword research before creating content.
- Use the YouTube search autocomplete.
- Optimize your video description
- Encourage viewers to subscribe, like, comment, and share your videos.
- Increase viewer’s session time by engaging them.
Google is the parent company of YouTube so they naturally give it preference in the SERPs for a wide range of keywords. One sure way to drive traffic to your YouTube content is to rank it on Google.
Use other social media
We at Daniels Hustle can’t stress this enough. The possibilities that social media platforms offer are unimaginable. If you can promote your content well on other platforms, then you are sure of more ad views.
Share your content on Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram, and others. You can as well embed your content on blog posts.
Cons of earning with Google AdSense on YouTube
Every business has its own risk and I’m sure you weren’t expecting Google AdSense on YouTube to be risk-free. Here are a few issues that might arise while working with both platforms:
- Completion is high and requires a high level of ingenuity and creativity.
- Creators are only paid on ad views, not on total views obtained.
- Google AdSense can change its payment terms as they deem fit
- The YouTube Partner Program has rules that require content creators to adhere to. Breaching one can result in demonetization
- The YouTube platform is a rented space and doing business in a rented space is risky. And since YouTube is constantly evolving to better suit its audience, change in policy can occur at any time. Not all policy change will affect you negatively but some can hurt your pretty bad.
Conclusion
YouTube is a massive platform and is the world’s second-largest search engine after Google. And with Google including YouTube videos in its search results, traffic is endless. This means your earning possibilities with Google AdSense on YouTube are limitless.
If you were initially in doubt about using Google AdSense on YouTube to earn, I’m sure this article has cleared such doubts. Considering the fact that video content is now quickly becoming an integral part of marketing, you as a content creator cannot afford to overlook this lucrative avenue.
And since the benefits of reaching YouTube’s large audience plus having Google handle the heavy-duty aspects involved far outweighs the costs and risks, then this platform is an awesome avenue for turning videos into cash.
Besides chances are that you are already performing what you love doing most. So why not get paid for doing it. Just keep in mind to always create awesome video contents that drive engagements. Add a few ads in your videos but never overdo it.
