In this video, Matt explains how YouTube monetization works and what creators can realistically earn per 1,000 views (RPM). He outlines the eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Program (4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers) and describes the ad formats (pre‑roll, mid‑roll, post‑roll). Based on his research of his own channels and others, he reports an average RPM of $15.50, with most channels earning $5‑$10 per 1,000 views and a range of $1‑$30 overall. He shows how niche selection influences RPM, listing high‑paying niches (finance, tech, health, travel, legal, etc.) and lower‑paying but high‑volume niches (pranks, gaming, top‑10 lists). He advises creators to make videos longer than eight minutes to enable multiple mid‑roll ads, explaining how to set them up in YouTube Studio and recommending spacing to preserve viewer experience. Matt then reveals that his own channel earns over $200 per 1,000 views by selling a digital product (the Tube Mastery and Monetization course), noting that ad revenue alone is a small fraction of his $100k‑per‑month earnings. He walks through three case studies—Chills (scary niche, ~6.5 M monthly views, $2‑$3 RPM), New Money (investing niche, ~1.9 M views, $20‑$30 RPM), and Tech Zone (technology niche, ~46 M views, $10 RPM)—calculating monthly ad revenue for each. The video concludes with a call to watch related videos on best niches and digital product ideas.
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YouTube shows ads on the videos that you upload at the beginning, sometimes in the middle, and at the end of your videos. Once you get 4,000 hours of watch time and 1,000 subscribers, then you can join what's called the YouTube Partner Program. Then YouTube will pay you a cut of the revenue, and that's what we're gonna be talking about in this video, how much you actually make. Now, I personally run a ton of different YouTube channels, and I did some research into both my own channels and other people who've uploaded videos talking about how much money they make per 1,000 views. And the answer is that channels make between $1 $30 per 1,000 views. So the average channel based on my research makes $15.50 per 1,000 views. But with that being said, most channels from my personal experience only get around $5 to $10 per 1,000 views that you make. Now in order to make more money per 1,000 views, you can do a couple things. First of all, you can create a channel in what's called a high RPM niche. Now RPM is how much you actually make per 1,000 views. And depending on the niche that you're in, some advertisers pay more money to put ads on videos than others. For example, Apple is one of the top advertisers on YouTube, and they're likely gonna be putting their ads on technology videos. And Expedia is another one of the top advertisers, and they're likely gonna be putting their ads on travel videos. Now here's a list of some of the highest CPM niches, so feel free to pause this and screenshot if you want. They include finance, make money online, technology, health, investing, travel, legal, insurance, makeup, marketing, real estate, cars, movies, and DIY and tutorials. But with that being said, some channels in lower CPM niches can get more overall views. Some examples of low RPM niches include pranks, scary videos, gaming videos depending on the game that you're playing, and general top 10 videos. Another way to make more money per 1,000 views is to create videos longer than 8 minutes. Then you can go to your YouTube Studio, then go to Content, and then go down here and select any of your videos once you're monetized Go down here to the monetization tab, and then from here you can add multiple different ad breaks if you click manage mid-rolls right here, and you can put multiple different ad breaks throughout your video. As you can see in this video right here, since it's longer than 8 minutes, we have 1, 2, 3, 4 ad breaks instead of just 1 if the video was shorter than 8 minutes. And I recommend spacing out your ad breaks at least every couple minutes so it doesn't interrupt the viewing experience too much. With that being said, don't just make videos for the sake of them being long so you can put multiple ad breaks. Because there's a trade-off if you make long videos without actually providing value. So if you make a longer video, make sure to only make it longer by providing more value to the end viewer. And remember, value can be either educational or entertainment value. And keep in mind, videos at every length can go viral. Now I'm gonna let you in on a little secret, and that secret is that this channel that you're watching right now makes over $200 per 1,000 views. Now you might be saying, Matt, how in the world is that possible if channels typically only range from $1 to $30 per 1,000 views? And let me let you in on a secret. This is by selling a digital product with my channel, which is my YouTube course, Tube Mastery and Monetization. And we average around $100,000 per month with this channel, whereas ad revenue only brings in like $6,000 to $12,000 per month. Make sure to check out my video on 12 different digital product ideas that you can sell from your channel. I go over a bunch of different digital product ideas that you could potentially use to make even more money per 1,000 views. And link to that video will be down in the description below. Now let's break down how much YouTube channels could be earning. This channel right here called Chills uploads videos within the scary niche, and I'm using an extension called vidIQ to see how many views per month that they get. So if I click this, they're getting 6.5 million views per month. Now if we copy this number and open up a calculator, I'll show you exactly how to do the math on this. You take the number of views per month they're getting, divide it by 1,000, and this will show you how many thousands of views per month they're getting. And then we multiply this by their likely RPM. And in my opinion, their RPM is probably $2 to $3 per 1,000 views. So let's say $3 per 1,000 views since this is a little bit of a low CPM niche. This channel would be making about $20,000 per month. And this channel called New Money uploads videos in the investing niche and related to finance. And if we see how many views per month they're getting, they're getting 1.9 million. If we do that same exact calculation where we take this, divide it by 1,000, and then multiply by their CPM, which I would estimate to be around $20 to $30 per 1,000 views. Since investing, make money online, and finance is a really high CPM niche, let's say $20 per 1,000 views, that means this channel would be making $39,000 per month, and that's just from ad revenue, not counting if they sold a digital product. So as you can see, this channel could be making more money per month than that first channel we looked at, even though it's getting less views. This channel, Tech Zone, uploads technology videos, and the channel pulls in 46 million views per month. And if we do the same exact calculation, but this time putting in an RPM of, say, $10 per 1,000 views, That means this channel would be making almost half a million dollars per month, which is crazy. And in this video, I used RPM and CPM kind of interchangeably, but RPM is how much you actually make per 1,000 views. And when I say CPM, I really mean RPM. Check out this video next to me right here to see some of the best niches to do YouTube in, in my personal opinion, and why they're the absolute best for making money on YouTube. So if you wanna make money on YouTube, check out this video right here, and I will see you there.
