Running a YouTube channel doesn’t have to be only a hobby. Now more then ever during this covid pandemic people are searching for other sources of income due to loss of job, or cut hours, or sheer panic.

It can also be a nice source of income!

There are several ways of monetizing your content and finding the one that’s best for you is crucial!

In order to maximize your earnings, you need to do thorough research on everything related to making money and monetization on YouTube.

One of the words you’re bound to come across pretty often is YouTube CPM.

What Does CPM Stand For on YouTube?

CPM is one of the basic stats in the world of YouTube advertising. It’s the one that’s super-important for advertisers, but knowing more about it can certainly benefit the creators as well.

CPM is actually an acronym, standing for “Cost per Mille“.

The word “Mille” in this case refers to the Latin term for a thousand.

In the world of YouTube, this basically means that CPM is the cost per one thousand views!

This is the amount of money the advertiser has to pay each time their advertisement reaches a thousand views.

Note that the money goes to Google or YouTube, not directly to the creator.

The bad news is that YouTube Adsense takes quite a lot.

You will probably be disappointed to hear that they take almost half of your earnings. But, this doesn’t mean that you should give up.

There’s still plenty of money to be made in venues other than ads, from things like affiliate marketing, YouTube multi channel networks and sponsorships.

How Much You Actually Make per 1,000 Views?

As already explained, CPM refers to the amount advertisers pay to YouTube for every 1,000 views of their ads.

This raises the question:

How much goes to the creator?

YouTube takes 45% of the CPM, meaning that if the advertiser pays, for example, $7 for every thousand words, you will get $3.85.

NOTE: Check out how much money you can make for 1 million views

The amount the creators get from CPM is called RPM – Revenue per Mille!

Still, this doesn’t mean that the creators shouldn’t care about eCPM. On the contrary! The rule is simple – the higher the CPM, the higher the RPM!

Of course, even the highest CPM rate won’t do you any good, unless your videos are getting enough views. However, in order to get the most of it, it’s necessary to do your best to pump up the eCPM. In order to see if that’s possible, first, you need to calculate your current Cost per Mille!

What Hurts My CPM?

If you make inappropriate content, it always hurts the youtube CPM. The content which is not friendly or has any hate speech is going to down your CPM. The adult and abusive content that families cannot watch is also going to hurt your CPM. 

Youtube is always ruling out for their strict policy. They are very restricted to inappropriate content makers and block their video if they had any report on that video. Youtube has systems like anti-bullying hate speech, which will stop the users with that type of content.

Even the appropriate description, tags, and thumbnail can hurt your CPM. Youtube strictly blocked all the users with that type of content. 

The copyright also hurt your CPM. If you’re going to use any video of anyone else, youtube detects that video and cannot allow the ad on that video or ban it. If you want to be successful on a youtube platform, make your good quality content, and succeed in the future.

It is essential to work on every basic youtube algorithm to earn some money from youtube. 

Alternatives to CPM

Most of the YouTubers are not happy with their CPM. They are not delighted with youtube earning because 45% dreaded goes to youtube. So, they can use different methods to make their CPM. 

They earn from affiliate marketing by inserting the product link in their youtube description of the video. Whenever a user clicks on a link and opens the product, they will get paid. Most Amazon products use affiliate marketing. Most brands also pay YouTubers for their promotion and links to online stores.

Youtube also gets highly paid sponsorship for different sponsors. They will spend the money on YouTubers for interesting links or ads in the video. The sponsors can increase more of YouTuber’s CPM. When any of the users buy that product from the link, the YouTuber gets the sponsor’s portion. It is a type of online business with sponsors. 

The YouTuber also gets money from promotional merchandise and clothing brands by making videos on their products and adding their video links. They also promote different types of games and applications and get paid from owners. 

In this way, the YouTuber can earn more CPM. There are lots of other ways to make money from youtube.

Calculating Your Channel’s CPM

In order to calculate the value of CPM, you first need to calculate your channel’s RPM.

Calculating the Revenue per Mille is a bit tricky, although not impossible.

All you got to do is follow these 3 steps:

1. Check your monthly earnings! To do that, simply go to your AdSense account and click on “Payments” in the Settings section.
2. See how many views your Youtube videos have received in the last month. To find that out, simply go to YouTube Analytics and take a look at the Monetized Playbacks (not on the number of views). In order to see the data for the previous month, just choose that option in the drop-down menu on the right side. The reason why you should take Monetized Playbacks into account is that not all of the views your videos get are monetized. In fact, a large percentage of them are not! For example, the views made on mobile devices are not monetized. The same goes for those made by the viewers who are using ad-blockers.
3. Now it’s time to take the amount you earned in a month and divide it by the number of views your videos made in the same time period; then multiply it with 1,000. The number you get is your RPM!

Video Views vs. Monetized Views?

The truth is that the number of views is the most important factor when it comes to making money on YouTube. However, it’s not the only one! In fact, in the world of YouTube, quality is equally important as quantity.

What this means is that in some cases, more views does not mean more money. The number of Monetized Playbacks is what really counts!

So, at this point, you are probably wondering what counts as a Monetized Playback. Well, each time an ad is shown to a viewer, YouTube will add it to the number of Monetized Playbacks. But, the condition is that the viewer has actually seen the advertisement!

Basically, this means that if the viewer skips the ad that runs before a video, it won’t count as a monetized view!

On top of that, there are a few other reasons why your channel might not be getting enough Monetized Playbacks. For example, if you’re a newbie vlogger, your YouTube channel might not be interesting to the advertisers. If there’s no one willing to pay for your ad space, you won’t earn anything!

Furthermore, YouTube is also careful about the convenience of the viewers. They pay special attention to ruin their viewing experience by overloading the videos with ads. What this means is that if a user is watching multiple videos, they won’t be getting too many advertisements at once.

So, how are you supposed to increase the number of Monetized Playbacks? Unfortunately, there’s no ultimate answer to this question. However, there are some things you could try!

Common Reasons for Low Number of Monetized Playbacks

In most cases, the reason for the low number of monetized views is a bad job done by the channel’s owner.

If your channel doesn’t have enough views, you can’t expect to earn a lot of money out of it. But, sometimes, this is not the fault of the YouTuber. If your channel is new, you simply have to wait and work hard in order to see results.

Of course, even that might not be enough. You also need to make sure that the SEO is done properly. If the viewers can’t find your videos, your channel won’t get enough views – it’s simple as that!

But, even if your videos are being watched by a decent number of people, it still doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll earn big money. Weak audience retention might be the cause of it!

The good news is that all of these issues can be solved. The bad news is that fixing them requires not only your time and energy, but also a lot of technical skills. Luckily for you, you’re at the right place! Our site is a great source of information that can help you learn how to run a successful YouTube channel!

Boosting the Number of Monetized Views

The key to increasing the number of monetized views is in improving the quality of your vlog. You can start by taking care of the search engine optimization. By using proper keywords in titles and descriptions of the Youtube videos you will be able to increase their visibility. The same principle applies to your channel’s description.

Speaking of the description, you need to match it to the content of videos. Some might think that writing false descriptions and using click-bait titles will bring more traffic, but that’s just not good advice. The viewers you get will go away as soon as they realize they’ve been tricked.

Instead, you need to focus on making the content as interesting to the viewers as possible. Whether that means providing them with the information they seek or simply entertaining them, you need to do your very best.

By this, we mean that you need to eliminate every factor that could make the viewers bored with your videos. So, try to make them shorter and more dynamic. Another good idea is to use interesting locations for shooting your videos. Also, you could try experimenting with video editing, trying new angles, and adding background music.

All of this may help you gather a massive following, made of viewers who will come back to watch your videos again. By doing that, they’ll be presented with more adverts, which in turn, will increase the number of Monetized Playbacks.

Unfortunately, even if you manage to improve the number of monetized views, it still doesn’t have to mean that you’re gonna make a lot of money. Your channel’s revenue depends on another important factor – the location of your viewers!

YouTube CPM Rates

In order to ensure a high eCPM (and RPM) rate, you need to target the audiences for whose views the advertisers are ready to pay a lot of money. This is something that differs from country to country, depending on a number of different factors.

Basically, the only thing that the advertisers worry about is whether their investment will pay off. That is why they will pay more money for the views coming from the countries with a large potential for their business.

Although this is something that depends a lot on the business niche, in general, some countries simply have higher YouTube AD rates.

The United States is the country that the advertisers focus the most. It’s not a surprise, given the fact that this is the world’s largest economy. On top of that, more than 50 percent of all Americans are using YouTube on a regular basis.

Average YouTube CPM Rates

At the moment, the average CPM (Cost per Mille) for the views coming from the United States of America is between 6 and 8 dollars.

Rather surprisingly, the United States is not the country with the highest YouTube CPM. The United Arab Emirates tops the list with a CPM that’s 8% higher than the one of the USA.

Other countries with high CPM rates ($5-8) include:

• Canada
• Australia
• New Zealand
• UK
• Austria
• Germany
• Switzerland

When it comes to the countries with the worst CPM rates, those include:

• Serbia
• Moldova
• Ukraine
• Liberia

You can check the data by going to YouTube analytics. That’s the place where you can see the current eCPM rates, but also the estimated number of monetized playbacks by county.

Other Factors that Determine Your Revenue

The Revenue per Month is something that doesn’t depend only on you, the creator, but the advertisers as well. That is why the RPM rates can differ quite a lot on a weekly basis. Here are some of the common factors that can have a strong impact on your channel’s revenue:

Season

Some months simply aren’t great for YouTubers. The reason is that advertisers have less demand in certain parts of the year, such as the post-holiday season. After spending a lot of money on Christmas and New Year’s marketing campaigns, some advertisers need to take a break in January.

Type of Advertisement

Depending on their preferences, some advertisers may be ready to pay more for certain types of advertisements. For example, some of them might be interested in getting ad clicks, not just views.

Final Word of Advice

Running a YouTube vlog can be a lucrative business if you do your job right.

Unfortunately, that implies investing a lot of time and work in making it successful.

It’s not just enough creating good content, but you also need to pay attention to many other details, regardless of how insignificant they might seem.

One of them is the YouTube eCPM rate, which can mean a real difference between a successful channel and one that’s destined for doom. Hopefully this article has helped you come up with a good CPM-boosting strategy!