Thinking of becoming a YouTube influencer and content creator, but worried about the financial viability? A common question I often hear is, “How much does YouTube pay you for 1 million views?”

As the world's largest streaming platform, YouTube offers a fantastic opportunity for those looking to earn through video content creation. However, earning from YouTube views requires time, patience, and the right strategy.

Your earnings on YouTube are influenced by various factors, including ad types, audience demographics, and your video's engagement levels.

In this article, I'll break down YouTube's pay-per-view system and guide you on how to monetize your YouTube content effectively.

Quick Read: How Much Does YouTube Pay?
  • YouTubers who qualify to earn revenue from creating videos can expect to realistically earn anywhere from $1500 to $30,000.
  • There are plenty of factors that influence the amount you earn from your YouTube content, including your audience demographics, type of advertisements, and the advertisers.
  • There are other ways you can monetize your YouTube channel, including brand sponsorships and affiliate marketing.
Disclosure: This content may contain a few affiliate links, which means if you click on them, I will get a commission (without any extra cost to you).

Discover How Much Does YouTube Pay You for 1 Million Views

Embarking on the journey to understand how much does YouTube pay you for 1 million views requires a foundational knowledge of YouTube's monetization model.

The average YouTuber earns about $0.01-$0.03 per ad view, which means you can earn up to $18,000 for 1 million views on YouTube. However, that’s far from the reality.

You’d need to factor in engagement rates, the number of ad views, and how much they’re worth, as well as YouTube’s cut.

Here’s a table of the average amount you can expect to make on YouTube based on what the platform suggests:

Number of ad viewsAmount earned
1000 ad views$10 – $30
10,000 ad views$100 – $300
100,000 ad views$1,000 – $3,000
500,000 ad views$5,000 – $15,000
1 million ad views$10,000 – $30,000

Keep in mind that these are averages, and not realistic, as these numbers are based on ad-views, and not just video views. The earnings from 1 million YouTube views can differ greatly.

Not all viewers who click on your video will realistically finish the whole video, let alone view the ads in the video. For a detailed look into the differences between video views and ad views, check out Google’s About YouTube ads and view metrics.

In late 2022, Business Insider interviewed famous YouTubers to find out what their YouTube CPM rates (cost per 1,000 impressions) were.

Kaz Sawyer, known for his challenge videos on YT, earns $1.61 per 1,000 views on average. He focuses a lot more on short-form content, which is part of YouTube Shorts that has its own creators fund. It is safe to say that a big part of his earnings is coming from this fund. 

On the high end, we have Joshua Mayo, a personal finance YouTuber, who earns around $29.30 per 1,000 views. An interesting thing about Joshua’s channel is that his CPM rate grew higher when he changed his channel’s content category from lifestyle to finance.

Changing your content category not only helps you find your target audience but also affects the advertisements that are shown in your videos. This means that ad placement rates also vary per audience niche or content category. 

As per the numbers shared by YouTubers making money on the platform, here’s a more realistic range for how much you can earn on YouTube:

Number of ad viewsAmount earned
1,000 ad views$1.5 – $30
10,000 ad views$15 – $300
100,000 ad views$150 – $3,000
500,000 ad views$750 – $15,000
1 million ad views$1,700 – $30,000

As you can see, there is a high variability when it comes to how much you can earn from your YouTube videos. 

Let’s take a look at what factors could potentially influence your earning capabilities.

What Factors Influence How Much YouTube Pays You for 1 Million Views?

When it comes to earning revenue from YouTube, several factors come into play. Here's a look at the 5 most important factors that influence how much YouTube pays you:

1. The Type of Advertisement

YouTube makes all of its money from selling advertising space on its platform. But not all ad space costs the same, and it’s up to advertisers to choose how they’re willing to spend their marketing budget.

It doesn’t take long to notice that there are different types of ads on YouTube. For example, some ads allow you to skip them after a few seconds whilst others force you to watch the whole ad.

As of late, more ads have become 15-30-second ads that you cannot skip. Although there has been backlash over it, more businesses are choosing this option. 

As digital marketing becomes the main priority for businesses, more of the marketing budget is spent on creating ads for platforms like YouTube. These companies want you to watch these ads that they’ve put a lot of time and effort into.

Here’s an example of an ad that allows you to skip after 5 seconds:

youtube ad that you're able to skip example

There are mainly two ways to monetize ads on YouTube:

Pay-per-impression (PPM) – YouTube pays YouTubers for every 1,000 ad views. This number is much lower per view than what you’d get for an ad that’s clicked on. 

Calculating the cost of a view to set your budget for the campaign is difficult, and even YouTube offers only rough estimates. However, PPM ads are generally cheaper than PPC ads. 

If you’ve got a limited budget but are expecting thousands of views on your videos, you should opt for PPM ads.

Pay-per-click (PPC) – These ads rely on the user to click the ad. These are usually the types of ads that you can skip after 5 seconds. However, YouTube also accounts for users who watch the ad past the 5-second mark.

Advertisers prefer PPC ads because it’s easier to calculate the cost-per-click. What makes it less attractive than PPM ads is that it’s difficult to estimate how many users will click on the ad.

It could also happen that someone sees an ad, doesn’t click it but visits the site later.

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2. The Advertiser

Advertisements that are displayed on your channel are usually niche-specific, which means companies that advertise choose the video content they’d like their ads to be displayed in.

Depending on how large the audience is for the niche, as well as the audience’s worth, YouTube will charge advertisers different prices. Therefore the niche your content falls within will affect how much you’re paid.

You’ll quickly notice that if you view certain content more than any other, you’ll start getting ads related to that content.

As a digital marketing expert, I’m always watching new content related to digital marketing. And as you can see, most of the ads I get are related to the niche.

In this case, I received an advertisement from Namecheap, a web hosting platform.

youtube ad example

3. Your Audience Demographics

Certain countries/regions are considered higher value, especially to advertisers looking to target a specific audience. 

Advertisers are more likely to pay more to advertise in a country where they will get higher-quality leads, resulting in more sales.

For example, advertising a TikTok tool or app in a country where it is banned is pointless. But advertising in countries that have the highest number of TikTok users, like the United States (113 million users), is much more valuable.

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4. Your Engagement Rate

Speaking about quality leads, the engagement rate of your videos has a large impact on how much you can earn from your content.

This is particularly apparent when you see large YouTube channels get paid over $20,000 for a million views, and a smaller channel gets less than $5,000.

The higher your engagement rate, the more valuable your million views become.

Advertisers want to see that those million views you get are worth their money. This means that your viewers are watching the videos and finishing them. They also look at the comments, number of likes, and how much the content is shared across social media platforms.

youtube engagement rate

5. The YouTube Partner Program

To be eligible for running ads on your YouTube channel, you need to join the YouTube Partner Program.

To be eligible, you need at least 1,000 subscribers, as well as 4,000 public watch hours. YouTube updated these terms in October 2022 to include the eligibility of their users to run ads if their YouTube “Shorts” had over 10 million views in the last 90 days.

This is in response to short video content creators that prefer to use other competing platforms like TikTok (which specializes in short-form content) because they can run ads on their content.   With YouTube, they can now create Shorts and also benefit from the program.

youtube partner program eligibility
Image via Google

Looking to start a career on YouTube or want your business to reach a larger audience on the platform? Check out my YouTube marketing guide.

How Can You Qualify for Getting Ad Revenue on YouTube?

Qualifying for YouTube income involves joining the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), which facilitates earning money per view on YouTube. You should ensure that your YouTube account is verified; otherwise, you won’t earn any ad revenue from the platform.

To be eligible for the YPP, you must:

  • Adhere to YouTube's channel monetization policies.
  • Reside in a country/region where the YouTube Partner Program is accessible.
  • Abide by YouTube’s Community Guidelines to avoid disqualification due to channel strikes.
  • Activate 2-Step Verification for your Google Account.
  • Have advanced features access on YouTube.
  • Establish or possess an active AdSense account that can be linked to your channel.
  • Attain 1,000 subscribers along with 4,000 valid public watch hours in the past 12 months.
  • Attain 1,000 subscribers and accumulate 10 million valid public Shorts views within the last 90 days.

Need some inspiration to increase your video views? Check out the 25 most-watched YouTube videos.

How to Successfully Make Money on YouTube (Other Than Ad Revenue)

Smart YouTubers don’t just rely on ads to make money. If you're looking to make some serious money on YouTube, you need to dig deeper.

There are many different options available to you, and in this section, I’ll go over seven of them.

1. AdSense Ads

This is the most obvious way, but it’s not the most reliable or easiest way to make money. Especially if you’re a micro-influencer.

To get started with monetization on YouTube, you can set up your own AdSense account. Once you get a higher number of views on your videos and ads, you can earn money through it.

2. YouTube Channel Memberships

Creating a channel membership for your most loyal fans is not only a great way to earn extra income from your YouTube channel but also a great way to engage with your followers.

Your main channel followers can opt-in for a monthly subscription to your membership, which comes with a host of perks depending on what you’d like to offer.

Most YouTube channels that offer subscriptions have “member only” videos and custom emojis for the comment sections, and they host “member only” Live streams.

earn from youtube memberships

3. Sponsorships

Creating sponsored videos is another way to earn money on YouTube. This is how it works — A brand hires you to promote their products or service to your target demographic, and you get paid for doing so. With the aid of sponsors, the more followers you have, the more money you'll make.

YouTube now allows content creators to add a small tag at the top of a video to show that the video contains sponsored content.

youtube sponsorships example

4. Affiliate Marketing

Promote a product through affiliate marketing on YouTube and easily earn a commission from the sale of that product.

As an affiliate, you are assigned a unique link that takes your audience to the sponsored product or service. You can also embed your affiliate link in the video description.

youtube affiliate-marketing example

Some popular types of content to promote affiliate links are how-to videos, reviews, and unboxing sponsored videos.

If you intend to use this marketing tactic, make sure to add a disclaimer stating that you're going to get paid for every purchase made. You can add it in the description or in the video.

5. Merchandise Sales

You can also take advantage of your million views on YouTube by selling items. This is one of the most popular methods of generating money on YouTube.

T-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, and other products with your logo or name on them can be all put up for sale.

A good example is PewDiePie, one of the most popular gaming influencers. He launched a unisex apparel brand, Tsuki, with his wife Marzia Bisognin in 2021. Tsuki is the Japanese word for “moon.”

Their obsession with Japanese fashion, art, and culture is what led them to create the clothing brand.

pewdiepie tsuki example
Image via Tsuki

6. YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts are short, vertical videos that may be shot on a smartphone and immediately uploaded to YouTube, much like Instagram Stories. A video can have a maximum duration of 60 seconds on a YouTube Short.

So, as a content creator, how can you profit from this?

In February 2023, YouTube stopped the creator's pool fund for YouTube Shorts. Instead, they’ve allowed advertisers and eligible YouTube creators to opt into their new revenue-sharing model.

The way YouTube shows ads for shorts is through short ads that will show up in between two different shorts as a user scrolls through the shorts.

1. Every month, YouTube will add up all revenue gained from ads displayed “Shorts”, which is then used to pay music licensing fees and the creators via a creator pool.

2. From the Creator Pool, revenue is then distributed based on the total share of views a creator had that month.

For example, if a creator gets 3% of all eligible Shorts views, they’ll be allocated 3% of the revenue in the Creator Pool.

3. From there, YouTube takes its cut, and creators receive only 45% of their allocated amount.

shane barker youtube shorts revenue distribution works

YouTube also sets aside 45% of the net revenue of YouTube Premium to monetize YouTube shorts. This strategy helps them compete with other platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

Payments to creators are allocated based on how many views their shorts received from premium accounts.

7. Third-Party Paid Membership Websites Like Patreon

You can also monetize YouTube content using outside services like Patreon and other paid media platforms.

On average, creators can convert 0.15%-0.75% of YouTube subscribers into paying Patreon contributors.

You can make money by giving your Patreon subscribers exclusive material against a small monthly fee. This includes early access to videos, behind-the-scenes footage, or even personalized messages to your biggest fans.

patreon membership examples

FAQs

How much are 1 million views on YouTube worth?

If you get 1 million views on YouTube, you can easily earn anywhere between $500-$30,000. However, factors like industry, location, audience demographics, and others also impact your earning potential.

How much does a YouTuber with 1 million subscribers make a year?

The average YouTuber with a million subscribers earns roughly $60,000 a year. That doesn’t make it a quick way to make cash though, as it can take years before you reach a million subscribers.

How much money can you make from YouTube?

The amount of money that you can make from YouTube depends on a lot of factors, including:

– The quality of your content
– The popularity of your channel
– How well you monetize your videos

On average, a YouTuber with a million subscribers earns roughly $5,000 a month.

How much money does a YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers make?

Depending on their niche and audience engagement, a YouTuber with 100K subscribers can earn anywhere between $600-$1,000 a week or $2,000-$4,000 a month.

Now You Know How Much YouTube Pays You for 1 Million Views

Achieving a million views on YouTube might not turn you into an instant millionaire, but it certainly lays the foundation for how much money you can make on YouTube. It's important to remember that while understanding how much does YouTube pay per million views is crucial, reaching this milestone also unlocks additional revenue streams like sponsorships and product endorsements.

Remember, earning significant income on YouTube isn't just about the views; it involves dedication and effort to grow your channel and audience. However, the financial rewards, once you surpass that million-view threshold, can be transformative.

So, why wait? Begin your journey on YouTube today and start unlocking the potential earnings that await you!

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