- You and I, we're YouTube friends
if not family, right and family share personal things.
SO if I was to ask you what's your YouTube CPM
you'd happily go into your analytics, get the information
and tell me that you're YouTube CPM is say $4.29.
But you know what my response would be?
Frankly I just don't care anymore.
- [male Whisper] VidIQ - [Female] VidIQ
- [Narrator] VidIQ.com
(upbeat music)
- That's because there is a new money
metric in town called YouTube RPM.
And to get to it you'll need to click on your profile
image in the top right hand corner
(mouse click)
of most YouTube screens and go to the YouTube studio.
From here click on the (pen drawing)
analytics section from the left hand
(mouse click) menu bar and then
assuming of course that you do have a monetized
YouTube channel, (pen drawing)
click on the revenue tab at the top.
Slap bam in the center you'll now see an RPM box.
Click it to display your RPM over the last 28 days.
(mouse click)
Or use the see more link to drill down
(pen drawing) into the numbers.
When you do this one of the columns will
display the RPM for individual videos.
Which can really help you determine
which content generates the most books for you.
(mouse click)
Now usually when I talk about YouTube analytics
(upbeat tone)
at this stage of a video I'd ask you to share
your, whatever it is, is the comments below.
But I think on this occasion it's
probably best if you keep those numbers to yourselves.
Yeah, I've shown you some numbers here
from my old YouTube channel, but
I haven't made any videos on it
for over two years, and it's still earning me money.
If you want to know the full story
on that one, check out the video over here.
But right now, what we all need to do
is pause for a second, take a deep breath
(Intake and exhale)
and ask a very simple question, what the hell is RPM?
(upbeat music)
(mouse click) - [Female Voice] Mille
- All right, means one thousand, does it?
Fancy YouTube for using a trending term
from the early eighteenth century.
Really helpful, all right first of all we
got an important distinction to make
because there's already one of these
- [Female Voice] Mille - floating around
It's CPM or cost per - [Female Voice] Mille
- This is gonna get really frustrating.
CPM is the average amount of money that
advertisers pay to show ads in your videos.
It only takes into account the revenue from ads
and the views from the videos that were monetized.
This may come as a shock to some of you,
but just because you monetize your content
doesn't always mean that ads are applied to every
single video view on your channel.
Explaining this would take a video
in itself, but suffice to say, CPM
is liked to your estimated monetized
playbacks, which is never truly accurate.
While RPM reflects the actual view count on your channel.
Furthermore, CPM shows you what advertisers are paying,
not what you are actually earning.
And this is where we have to broach one
of those uncomfortable truths about YouTube ad revenue.
Cost per - [Female Voice] Mille
- Thank you, doesn't take into account
YouTube's cut of that ad revenue.
Now again this may come as some of a shock
to you because YouTube doesn't really tell
you this information in the YouTube studio.
You have to go find it out, the average YouTube
channel will take 55% of the ad revenue generator
while YouTube takes the other 45%.
CPM doesn't take into account any of that.
It is your raw value as a channel to advertisers on YouTube.
So yes, at a surface level the RPM will look
terrifyingly grim when compared to your CPM.
But it does reflect the actual truth
of your ad revenue income on your channel.
And YouTube do stress themselves that RPM is a ratio
that includes revenue that is calculated
after YouTube's revenue share and the
total number of views on your channel.
This is a new analytic, but you shouldn't
see any difference in the actual amount
of revenue you make on your channel.
(camera beep)
All right, I'm in the middle of editing
this video and I just realized that I may not have
explained something explicitly
and that is "Mille" because I was too busy
trying to make a joke out of it.
(high tone) it obviously means thousand
so when we talk about CPM or RPM
(bell ding)
it's cost per thousand, or revenue per thousand views.
Got that, good let's carry on (clap)
(upbeat music)
(light switch clicks off)
Does that look better?
Like ad revenue itself, CPM is an analytic
that's been around on YouTube forever, so that
presents a problem, it's antiquated, it's out of date.
YouTube has transformed significantly in the last decade.
In 2020 there are multiple ways for a monetized channel
to make income from YouTube products and services.
And that includes YouTube premium, channel memberships,
super chats and super stickies.
CPM doesn't take into account any of that.
But RPM does, as we've already said,
CPM is a measure of a value you
are worth to YouTube advertisers.
What RPM does is value your channel
(light beep)
with your community and that is significantly
more important and potentially more
powerful and lucrative than any CPM you
could get from your YouTube videos.
As a very simple example, the RPM on this channel
is relatively stable over 28 days,
but there are three distinct spikes
that each last a single day (bells ding)
these represent super chats donated
to a channel during live streams.
Its clear here, the value of the creator.
The community of the channel is able
to raise RPM of a channel by 50 - 100%.
Now of course this doesn't happen overnight.
With ad revenue it literally is flicking on a switch.
And all of a sudden you're receiving all of
these micro payments of a couple of dollars
for ads that are appearing on your videos.
But none of that can compare to a
mobilized community unique to you.
When you provide ultimate value
that they can't get anywhere else.
When you inspire people, you bring
positivity to their lives.
The moment that they start to care about you
as an individual (light dings)
and the creator is a moment when they will
start investing in you for all of the right reasons.
In a previous video we looked at how Travis,
who runs his own tech channel, was able to run
45 minute live streams with 150 people
watching them and generate over $200 in super chats.
- We got super chat, watch out now
(excited fog horn) $5.04
(upbeat music)
- That is incredible, you're not gonna get $200
from 200 views through ad revenue.
Now of course, super chats are very much an
instant gratification single shot in the arm
type of bonus to your ad revenue.
Now what if you were able to create a
membership program out of your YouTube channel?
You are providing so much value that
people are wiling to pay for extra content.
You raise your RPM on a consistent basis, every single day.
And just as a reminder, these are not advertisers
taking a bet on your advert hitting the right person.
These are people (upbeat ding)
who care about you and want to invest
on a consistent and reliable basis
on what you have to offer your community.
That over the long term is what RPM
is going to be able to tell you over CPM.
Now just a couple of things to be clear about here.
RPM does include more of your YouTube revenue,
but it doesn't include everything.
That being YouTube merge, also any brand
deals sponsorships, affiliate links
and products and services that you sell
outside of YouTube will not be reflected in this RPM.
With that being said, if you are able to identify
that your CPM (bell ding)
is staying fairly static while your RPM is
beginning to rise, that means people are investing
more in you rather than advertisers.
And that is a key thing that we
always try and encourage creators.
Ad revenue is just the icing on top.
If you want to make this a business,
than you want to be in control of
your income revenue sources and one of the
worst ways to do this is to rely on CPM.
RPM is the future of your YouTube channel.