Best Practices for YouTube Video Brightness and Contrast

How To Light Your YouTube Video

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Evaluating Earnings From One Million YouTube Watches

How much does YouTube pay for 1 million views? As a YouTuber, you become a business, and it helps to know the YouTube views to money earned.

If you are trying to earn a living on YouTube, one of the most excellent marks of a successful creator is often earning 1 million views on the platform (click here for tips on how to do that ). It usually serves as a benchmark for a time at which a channel is relatively sustainable. However, rather than meaning a YouTuber has made it big financially, reaching 1 million views is more likely to say they can expect to start making real money.

When you hit 1 million views on any video on YouTube, you’ll have a nice paycheck. You’ll likely have to hit 1 million views on at least a few other videos before you could consider quitting your full-time job and doing YouTube as your primary source of income. This article will explore what 1 million views mean for your YouTube channel. We will look more into how revenue is calculated on YouTube and what you can expect to earn-out of a video with 1 million views.

In this article

01 $2000 for 1 million views

02 How is the revenue calculated?

03 CPMs and CPCs

04 How monetization is changing

$2000 for 1 Million Views

In a case study performed by Standupbits and Josef Holm, a YouTube channel is created with over 3500 comedy clips that a comedian and stand up actor had put together over the years. The YouTube clips took extensive time to upload, and the library was prevalent. The YouTube ad revenue only equated to around $2000.

Although StandUpBits had uploaded thousands of clips and received over 1 million views on their channel, their library was only able to earn around $2000 from the ad revenue sharing. It’s estimated the group had spent approximately $25,000 to finish off the clips, edit them, and upload them, which means they invested far more in the channel than they earned.

If you are thinking about a career on YouTube, reaching 1 million views might seem like an excellent target for making a successful page, and it is, but reaching 1 million views doesn’t magically guarantee financial success.

How Revenue is Calculated

In order to understand how revenue is calculated over the YouTube marketplace, a YouTube user needs to first understand what the partnership program entails. Basically, a YouTube partner has the ability to monetize their videos and serve ads on their content.

In order to join this program you need to be able to commit to uploading ad-friendly (nothing controversial) content that is completely original and high quality and which also adheres to all of the community guidelines and YouTube’s Terms of Service (YouTube actually just introduced a couple of stricter rules - click here for YouTube Monetization 2018 ).

As of February 2018, to qualify for ad revenue, the YouTube channel must have:

1. You will need to have 1,000 subscribers.

2. You will need to have accumulated 4,000 hours of watch time over the last 12 months.

The AdSense revenue that you earn through YouTube will vary depending on a large number of factors related to the specific ads running and what type of content you produce.

Understanding CPM and CPCs

What is CPM?

CPM stands as the ‘cost per mille’ or ‘cost per thousand.’

Your CPM is the amount you earn for 1000 ad impressions (1000 viewers clicking on an ad or watching a skippable ad). Your CPM is usually related to the demographics of your users, the content you regularly post, the length of time on the videos that you post, and the gender of your viewers. YouTube CPMs can vary depending on the advertising bid the company has submitted with Google. The lowest bids can be around .33 cents per thousand views, and other advertisers can spend as much as $10 for 1000 views.

For example, gaming is the most prominent genre on YouTube, and there are many gaming-related ads to go around, but most of them are very low-paying (i.e., ads for free online games). Only YouTube gamers with extensive subscriber bases get higher-paying ads.

What is CPC?

CPC means ‘cost per click.’ A CPC ad interprets an ‘ad impression’ as a click on an ad rather than a viewer merely seeing it. Most YouTube ads are CPC ads, but skippable video ads are CPV (cost per view), and impressions are based on viewers watching the ad instead of skipping it.

Changes on YouTube and How You Can Earn More

Changes that have affected the way that revenue is calculated are the ability to skip ads and the lower click rates on advertising through YouTube. A huge portion of viewers uses ad blockers, which eliminates them as potential sources of revenue.

Ultimately earning ad revenue is a big game of reaching targeted demographics and achieving ongoing viewership for your videos. It does matter where your viewers are going to be viewing from, and the audience that your viewers are in (viewers from areas with more disposable income to spend on the products advertised to them are worth more to advertisers, as are viewers who are interested in higher-cost items).

Forming relationships with brands and doing product placements or sponsored videos can be a great way to earn more revenue than you will through AdSense. Just make sure the brands you build relationships with are relevant to your audience and that you incorporate the advertising in ways that don’t annoy your viewers.

Use the right keywords in your titles, descriptions, and tags. Without this keyword information, YouTube may pair your video with advertisers that aren’t right for your audience. First, using the wrong keywords won’t put your content in front of the viewers who want to see it, and, second, the ads that run won’t be a good fit and thus are less likely to be clicked on. It’s also imperative that you focus on the metadata of every video. It can take some extra time to add in all of this information for each video, but it is well worth it if you are trying to get paid from YouTube.

Click here for 4 ways to start growing your channel faster.

So, how much does YouTube pay for 1 million views? Not as much as you might think. But don’t give up, because ad revenue is not the only way to make money through YouTube. Here are4 alternative ways to make money as a YouTuber .

Wondershare Filmora

Get started easily with Filmora’s powerful performance, intuitive interface, and countless effects!

Try It Free Try It Free Try It Free

02 How is the revenue calculated?

03 CPMs and CPCs

04 How monetization is changing

$2000 for 1 Million Views

In a case study performed by Standupbits and Josef Holm, a YouTube channel is created with over 3500 comedy clips that a comedian and stand up actor had put together over the years. The YouTube clips took extensive time to upload, and the library was prevalent. The YouTube ad revenue only equated to around $2000.

Although StandUpBits had uploaded thousands of clips and received over 1 million views on their channel, their library was only able to earn around $2000 from the ad revenue sharing. It’s estimated the group had spent approximately $25,000 to finish off the clips, edit them, and upload them, which means they invested far more in the channel than they earned.

If you are thinking about a career on YouTube, reaching 1 million views might seem like an excellent target for making a successful page, and it is, but reaching 1 million views doesn’t magically guarantee financial success.

How Revenue is Calculated

In order to understand how revenue is calculated over the YouTube marketplace, a YouTube user needs to first understand what the partnership program entails. Basically, a YouTube partner has the ability to monetize their videos and serve ads on their content.

In order to join this program you need to be able to commit to uploading ad-friendly (nothing controversial) content that is completely original and high quality and which also adheres to all of the community guidelines and YouTube’s Terms of Service (YouTube actually just introduced a couple of stricter rules - click here for YouTube Monetization 2018 ).

As of February 2018, to qualify for ad revenue, the YouTube channel must have:

1. You will need to have 1,000 subscribers.

2. You will need to have accumulated 4,000 hours of watch time over the last 12 months.

The AdSense revenue that you earn through YouTube will vary depending on a large number of factors related to the specific ads running and what type of content you produce.

Understanding CPM and CPCs

What is CPM?

CPM stands as the ‘cost per mille’ or ‘cost per thousand.’

Your CPM is the amount you earn for 1000 ad impressions (1000 viewers clicking on an ad or watching a skippable ad). Your CPM is usually related to the demographics of your users, the content you regularly post, the length of time on the videos that you post, and the gender of your viewers. YouTube CPMs can vary depending on the advertising bid the company has submitted with Google. The lowest bids can be around .33 cents per thousand views, and other advertisers can spend as much as $10 for 1000 views.

For example, gaming is the most prominent genre on YouTube, and there are many gaming-related ads to go around, but most of them are very low-paying (i.e., ads for free online games). Only YouTube gamers with extensive subscriber bases get higher-paying ads.

What is CPC?

CPC means ‘cost per click.’ A CPC ad interprets an ‘ad impression’ as a click on an ad rather than a viewer merely seeing it. Most YouTube ads are CPC ads, but skippable video ads are CPV (cost per view), and impressions are based on viewers watching the ad instead of skipping it.

Changes on YouTube and How You Can Earn More

Changes that have affected the way that revenue is calculated are the ability to skip ads and the lower click rates on advertising through YouTube. A huge portion of viewers uses ad blockers, which eliminates them as potential sources of revenue.

Ultimately earning ad revenue is a big game of reaching targeted demographics and achieving ongoing viewership for your videos. It does matter where your viewers are going to be viewing from, and the audience that your viewers are in (viewers from areas with more disposable income to spend on the products advertised to them are worth more to advertisers, as are viewers who are interested in higher-cost items).

Forming relationships with brands and doing product placements or sponsored videos can be a great way to earn more revenue than you will through AdSense. Just make sure the brands you build relationships with are relevant to your audience and that you incorporate the advertising in ways that don’t annoy your viewers.

Use the right keywords in your titles, descriptions, and tags. Without this keyword information, YouTube may pair your video with advertisers that aren’t right for your audience. First, using the wrong keywords won’t put your content in front of the viewers who want to see it, and, second, the ads that run won’t be a good fit and thus are less likely to be clicked on. It’s also imperative that you focus on the metadata of every video. It can take some extra time to add in all of this information for each video, but it is well worth it if you are trying to get paid from YouTube.

Click here for 4 ways to start growing your channel faster.

So, how much does YouTube pay for 1 million views? Not as much as you might think. But don’t give up, because ad revenue is not the only way to make money through YouTube. Here are4 alternative ways to make money as a YouTuber .

Wondershare Filmora

Get started easily with Filmora’s powerful performance, intuitive interface, and countless effects!

Try It Free Try It Free Try It Free

02 How is the revenue calculated?

03 CPMs and CPCs

04 How monetization is changing

$2000 for 1 Million Views

In a case study performed by Standupbits and Josef Holm, a YouTube channel is created with over 3500 comedy clips that a comedian and stand up actor had put together over the years. The YouTube clips took extensive time to upload, and the library was prevalent. The YouTube ad revenue only equated to around $2000.

Although StandUpBits had uploaded thousands of clips and received over 1 million views on their channel, their library was only able to earn around $2000 from the ad revenue sharing. It’s estimated the group had spent approximately $25,000 to finish off the clips, edit them, and upload them, which means they invested far more in the channel than they earned.

If you are thinking about a career on YouTube, reaching 1 million views might seem like an excellent target for making a successful page, and it is, but reaching 1 million views doesn’t magically guarantee financial success.

How Revenue is Calculated

In order to understand how revenue is calculated over the YouTube marketplace, a YouTube user needs to first understand what the partnership program entails. Basically, a YouTube partner has the ability to monetize their videos and serve ads on their content.

In order to join this program you need to be able to commit to uploading ad-friendly (nothing controversial) content that is completely original and high quality and which also adheres to all of the community guidelines and YouTube’s Terms of Service (YouTube actually just introduced a couple of stricter rules - click here for YouTube Monetization 2018 ).

As of February 2018, to qualify for ad revenue, the YouTube channel must have:

1. You will need to have 1,000 subscribers.

2. You will need to have accumulated 4,000 hours of watch time over the last 12 months.

The AdSense revenue that you earn through YouTube will vary depending on a large number of factors related to the specific ads running and what type of content you produce.

Understanding CPM and CPCs

What is CPM?

CPM stands as the ‘cost per mille’ or ‘cost per thousand.’

Your CPM is the amount you earn for 1000 ad impressions (1000 viewers clicking on an ad or watching a skippable ad). Your CPM is usually related to the demographics of your users, the content you regularly post, the length of time on the videos that you post, and the gender of your viewers. YouTube CPMs can vary depending on the advertising bid the company has submitted with Google. The lowest bids can be around .33 cents per thousand views, and other advertisers can spend as much as $10 for 1000 views.

For example, gaming is the most prominent genre on YouTube, and there are many gaming-related ads to go around, but most of them are very low-paying (i.e., ads for free online games). Only YouTube gamers with extensive subscriber bases get higher-paying ads.

What is CPC?

CPC means ‘cost per click.’ A CPC ad interprets an ‘ad impression’ as a click on an ad rather than a viewer merely seeing it. Most YouTube ads are CPC ads, but skippable video ads are CPV (cost per view), and impressions are based on viewers watching the ad instead of skipping it.

Changes on YouTube and How You Can Earn More

Changes that have affected the way that revenue is calculated are the ability to skip ads and the lower click rates on advertising through YouTube. A huge portion of viewers uses ad blockers, which eliminates them as potential sources of revenue.

Ultimately earning ad revenue is a big game of reaching targeted demographics and achieving ongoing viewership for your videos. It does matter where your viewers are going to be viewing from, and the audience that your viewers are in (viewers from areas with more disposable income to spend on the products advertised to them are worth more to advertisers, as are viewers who are interested in higher-cost items).

Forming relationships with brands and doing product placements or sponsored videos can be a great way to earn more revenue than you will through AdSense. Just make sure the brands you build relationships with are relevant to your audience and that you incorporate the advertising in ways that don’t annoy your viewers.

Use the right keywords in your titles, descriptions, and tags. Without this keyword information, YouTube may pair your video with advertisers that aren’t right for your audience. First, using the wrong keywords won’t put your content in front of the viewers who want to see it, and, second, the ads that run won’t be a good fit and thus are less likely to be clicked on. It’s also imperative that you focus on the metadata of every video. It can take some extra time to add in all of this information for each video, but it is well worth it if you are trying to get paid from YouTube.

Click here for 4 ways to start growing your channel faster.

So, how much does YouTube pay for 1 million views? Not as much as you might think. But don’t give up, because ad revenue is not the only way to make money through YouTube. Here are4 alternative ways to make money as a YouTuber .

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02 How is the revenue calculated?

03 CPMs and CPCs

04 How monetization is changing

$2000 for 1 Million Views

In a case study performed by Standupbits and Josef Holm, a YouTube channel is created with over 3500 comedy clips that a comedian and stand up actor had put together over the years. The YouTube clips took extensive time to upload, and the library was prevalent. The YouTube ad revenue only equated to around $2000.

Although StandUpBits had uploaded thousands of clips and received over 1 million views on their channel, their library was only able to earn around $2000 from the ad revenue sharing. It’s estimated the group had spent approximately $25,000 to finish off the clips, edit them, and upload them, which means they invested far more in the channel than they earned.

If you are thinking about a career on YouTube, reaching 1 million views might seem like an excellent target for making a successful page, and it is, but reaching 1 million views doesn’t magically guarantee financial success.

How Revenue is Calculated

In order to understand how revenue is calculated over the YouTube marketplace, a YouTube user needs to first understand what the partnership program entails. Basically, a YouTube partner has the ability to monetize their videos and serve ads on their content.

In order to join this program you need to be able to commit to uploading ad-friendly (nothing controversial) content that is completely original and high quality and which also adheres to all of the community guidelines and YouTube’s Terms of Service (YouTube actually just introduced a couple of stricter rules - click here for YouTube Monetization 2018 ).

As of February 2018, to qualify for ad revenue, the YouTube channel must have:

1. You will need to have 1,000 subscribers.

2. You will need to have accumulated 4,000 hours of watch time over the last 12 months.

The AdSense revenue that you earn through YouTube will vary depending on a large number of factors related to the specific ads running and what type of content you produce.

Understanding CPM and CPCs

What is CPM?

CPM stands as the ‘cost per mille’ or ‘cost per thousand.’

Your CPM is the amount you earn for 1000 ad impressions (1000 viewers clicking on an ad or watching a skippable ad). Your CPM is usually related to the demographics of your users, the content you regularly post, the length of time on the videos that you post, and the gender of your viewers. YouTube CPMs can vary depending on the advertising bid the company has submitted with Google. The lowest bids can be around .33 cents per thousand views, and other advertisers can spend as much as $10 for 1000 views.

For example, gaming is the most prominent genre on YouTube, and there are many gaming-related ads to go around, but most of them are very low-paying (i.e., ads for free online games). Only YouTube gamers with extensive subscriber bases get higher-paying ads.

What is CPC?

CPC means ‘cost per click.’ A CPC ad interprets an ‘ad impression’ as a click on an ad rather than a viewer merely seeing it. Most YouTube ads are CPC ads, but skippable video ads are CPV (cost per view), and impressions are based on viewers watching the ad instead of skipping it.

Changes on YouTube and How You Can Earn More

Changes that have affected the way that revenue is calculated are the ability to skip ads and the lower click rates on advertising through YouTube. A huge portion of viewers uses ad blockers, which eliminates them as potential sources of revenue.

Ultimately earning ad revenue is a big game of reaching targeted demographics and achieving ongoing viewership for your videos. It does matter where your viewers are going to be viewing from, and the audience that your viewers are in (viewers from areas with more disposable income to spend on the products advertised to them are worth more to advertisers, as are viewers who are interested in higher-cost items).

Forming relationships with brands and doing product placements or sponsored videos can be a great way to earn more revenue than you will through AdSense. Just make sure the brands you build relationships with are relevant to your audience and that you incorporate the advertising in ways that don’t annoy your viewers.

Use the right keywords in your titles, descriptions, and tags. Without this keyword information, YouTube may pair your video with advertisers that aren’t right for your audience. First, using the wrong keywords won’t put your content in front of the viewers who want to see it, and, second, the ads that run won’t be a good fit and thus are less likely to be clicked on. It’s also imperative that you focus on the metadata of every video. It can take some extra time to add in all of this information for each video, but it is well worth it if you are trying to get paid from YouTube.

Click here for 4 ways to start growing your channel faster.

So, how much does YouTube pay for 1 million views? Not as much as you might think. But don’t give up, because ad revenue is not the only way to make money through YouTube. Here are4 alternative ways to make money as a YouTuber .

Wondershare Filmora

Get started easily with Filmora’s powerful performance, intuitive interface, and countless effects!

Try It Free Try It Free Try It Free

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