- We've heard all of the rumors, right?
If you monetize your videos,
YouTube will give you more views, but does it actually work?
Well, I decided to test it out and the results were-
(cash register ringing)
Pretty surprising.
Got a question for you.
I know there's a lot of variables to this,
but roughly, how much do you think you would make
from AdSense revenue on 100 million YouTube views?
Let us know in the comments below.
Right then. Down to business.
If monetization means more views, that's a problem,
especially if you're a smaller channel.
If a YouTube algorithm favors bigger channels over yours,
all because those bigger channels are making money
for YouTube, that's not really fair, is it?
How would such a system cultivate a creator community
where there are opportunities for all?
I think we all agree that it wouldn't,
but there is anecdotal evidence dotted around YouTube,
which seems to support this belief.
For example, YouTube recently started putting adverts
on videos, even if the channel isn't monetized.
And typically, those videos tend to have loads of views.
That can't just be a coincidence, right?
Also, if you look on Quora, the top answer to this question
appears to support the notion that YouTube is a business.
It's going to put monetized channels
in front of more people,
but YouTube do have a right to reply
and this is what they previously said
about monetization being linked to views.
- Does monetization impact video discovery?
No, our recommendations system does not know
which videos are monetized and which are not.
- I think you can tell about a tone of Rachel's voice
that she's been asked this question many times before
and is fed up of answering it.
So who's right on this one?
Well, the only way to find out is through good, solid data
and it just so happens.
(gentle electronic music)
That vidIQ is in a perfect position
to put this to the test.
We monetized the vidIQ channel all the way back in 2017
and since then, we made over 1000 videos
and we haven't monetized a single one of them
except for this random $2 that to this day,
I still cannot explain.
With over 1 million subscribers
and almost 100 million views, not monetizing our videos
doesn't seem to have held us back, does it?
But how do we know for certain if we don't switch it on?
And perhaps more importantly,
how much money have we left on a table already?
Well, if we class vidIQ as an educational channel
with an average at CPM of $9.89, remove YouTube's at 45% cut
and then match it up against our views.
That's $500,480.
Now joking aside, monetization is a little bit
of a sensitive subject for me.
When I joined vidIQ, I didn't want our content
to be influenced by financial gain,
chasing views for money's sake,
and I didn't want to create any sort of barrier
to your YouTube education,
even if it was just a 15 second ad.
But I didn't realize that we were gonna get
a hundred million views
and earn potentially half a million dollars!
I could have retired by now!
So in the interest of scientific YouTube research
and after your overwhelming support to turn on monetization
and because I am truly sick and tired
of this makeshift microphone stand that doesn't work
and I deserve a new one, we're gonna turn on monetization
and find out what happens to the channel.
You know, it's actually been a while
since I visited this screen on YouTube
with any sort of intent and completely forgot
you had to go through all of this self certification stuff.
I'm pretty sure our content is quite safe
for all advertisers, though.
As for what type of ads to display,
I decided to turn completely to the dark side
and just turn absolutely everything on,
including non-skippable and middle-roll ads.
After all, if we're gonna put this theory to a test,
we wanna make out monetized videos
as desirable as possible, right?
Next, which video to monetize?
I decided on a solid performer
that's been bringing views of a channel for years.
Content that is typically known as evergreen.
The numbers on this video have been fairly solid
over two years, so it should be pretty easy
to spot if monetizing it makes a huge difference.
So with a little bit of fear, a little trepidation,
but a bunch of excitement that I'm finally gonna get paid
to make videos, I switched on monetization
and gave it a month to get some data.
(dramatic whooshing) (mouse clicking)
(upbeat rock music)
First of all, some good news.
It appears that YouTube education runs at a pretty hot CPM.
More microphone stands for me, but anyway,
let's get to the reason you're all here.
(bell dinging)
This is when I turned monetization on for the video
and this was the range of views
we were getting pre-monetization
and this is a range of views we're getting now
post-monetization on the video.
Since monetizing the video, views and watch time are up 30%
and subscribers gained are up a whopping 45%.
Based on that single video experiment,
if we monetize the entire channel,
we would go from approximately 2.8 million views per month
to three and a half million views per month.
Let the good times roll.
(money gun buzzing)
Yeah, I'm afraid just like this money gun,
not everything is quite as it seems.
Gotta pick all this rubbish up now, as well.
There was a key part of this data I neglected to explain.
The two weeks just before we monetized the video.
That's because we made another change right here.
Would you just look at this mess?
Crying out loud!
This change had absolutely nothing to do with monetization
and everything to do with re-optimization.
It is one of all these tricks in a book
and it's probably gonna annoy you.
How to get 1000 subscribers on YouTube,
a video published in 2020, but titled,
"How to get 1000 subscribers on YouTube in 2021".
Yeah, we'd simply forgot to update the year on the title
and when we did that, the effect on views
was far more impactful than turning monetization on.
Digging deeper into the data, when we updated the title,
the click through rate jumps significantly
over the next two days, which then caused YouTube
to share the content with more impressions.
This is a perfect example of a YouTube algorithm in action.
Now, some of you may argue that this is cheap
and easy click bait, but the engagement analytics show
that people are watching it just as long as they did
before the title was changed.
Put simply, if the viewer is satisfied by the content,
it's not click bait for that target audience.
And with that in mind, we did it again!
How to get 100 subscribers on YouTube.
Again, we updated the title
and exactly the same thing happened,
at least for a little while.
And here's a really interesting thing.
When we turned on monetization for this video,
views actually went down.
So it is interesting to see how both videos gained traction,
but only one of those videos sustained traction.
I was trying to figure out why that could be
and the one difference I found was traffic source.
For the more successful 1000 subs video,
all the views plowed into search traffic.
Whereas for the 100 subs video,
it was a combination of browse and suggested traffic.
I think, ultimately, the moral of this data story
is that if you do have evergreen content
that is starting to lose a little bit of traction,
you can re-energize it with some very simple changes
to your titles, but anyway, back to monetization.
What else can we test?
How about launching a video with monetization turned on?
No. That didn't work.
The video underperformed and brought in less than $10.
How about not updating a title, but turning on monetization?
Nope, no change whatsoever and a single dollar in revenue.
What about monetizing a really long video,
so YouTube can stick loads of mid-rolls on it?
And that's another big fat no.
I'm starting to see a pattern here.
Here at the hard facts.
Over the last month, we have monetize 30 videos
on the vidIQ channel and not a single one of them
has seen any significant change in views
because of monetization.
What we can say is just before we started
these monetization experiments,
the channel did see a significant increase in daily views
and I honestly think that's down to simply making
better content, more targeted towards our core audience.
So, categorically from the test we've done so far
and the data we've received back,
no, monetization does not impact YouTube views,
but we will continue to test
and if you have any creative ideas
on how we can experiment with this,
let us know in the comments below.
And what do we do with all of this newfound ad revenue?
Well, here's our commitment to the vidIQ community.
We're gonna pull a Mr. Beast
and reinvest all of that money back into the channel.
Be it equipment, resources, people.
We're gonna make better quality content for your benefit.
With one small disclaimer.
I think my shelves need a few more trinkets,
but how did we earn that money?
Well, it's all down to this. (cash register ringing)
CPM.
Why is yours less or indeed more?
What affects CPM and why is January the worst month
to get paid on YouTube?
You get all the answers in this video over here.
Oh, and YouTube, if you wanna prove me wrong
by giving me a million views because I made this video
over eight minutes long and put on non-skippable
and mid-rollads, you have my permission.