How Much Does YouTube Pay for 1 Million Views? Key Tips to Maximize Your YouTube Earning Potential

In many ways, getting started on YouTube is quite simple. All you really need is a camera, a computer, and an internet connection. However, just because YouTube makes it easy to create a channel and upload a video, it doesn’t make it as easy to start earning money.

Moreover, YouTube doesn’t give many details about how much it pays its creators for the ads it shows on your videos. Furthermore, suppose you’re starting a YouTube channel for the first time. In that case, there’s actually a lot more that you’ll need to know to make sure that you don’t violate any of YouTube’s rules and guidelines, which could instantly disqualify you from making any money on the popular video sharing platform.

So, if you’re curious to learn more about this process, we’re here to help not only answer some of your questions about how much YouTube pays for 1 million views but also give you everything you need to start monetizing your YouTube content and growing your channel into a lucrative brand on YouTube.

How does YouTube monetization work?

So, before we explore exactly how much does YouTube pay for 1 million views, let’s first go over some basics of how YouTube monetization works in the first place. In the realm of video content creation, YouTube stands tall as one of the world's most lucrative social video platforms. This is because YouTube does it bigger, better, and more streamlined than anyone else. 

If you just look at the sheer amount of traffic the site gets and the staggering amount of money it sends back to creators (plus other built-in benefits like access to its huge audience), it really starts and ends with YouTube.

Suppose you’re looking into YouTube monetization for the first time. In that case, it’s important to note that you must meet certain standards with your channel to be eligible to join the YouTube Partner Program and monetize your content. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Follow YouTube’s monetization policies, which should be easy if that’s your goal. 
2. Live in a country where the Partner Program is available. That's a pretty long list, so we doubt you’ll have anything to worry about.
3. Get your public YouTube watch hours up to more than 4,000 in the last 12 months in order to get monetized. It might seem like a lot, but remember: Users watch a combined 5 billion videos every day. You just need to find the right audience for your content.
4. For new channels, having more than 1,000 subscribers can seem impossible. Just remember that people always end up finding great content, so you’ll need to keep creating awesome videos that attract people.
5. Set up an AdSense account, which gives Google permission to manage ad content, track statistics, and pay you for it.
   
   

You can read further about YouTube monetization in our complete guide to video monetization.

How much does YouTube pay per view?

To answer the most direct questions, let’s review how much YouTubers get paid per view. In short, while there are plenty of caveats to explore below, creators eligible for YouTube monetization can expect to earn anywhere between $0.003 and $0.005 per view.

To be technical, these aren’t paid to watch your videos but rather to watch the ads YouTube displays during them. These numbers can vary depending on various variables, including when and where you’re allowing YouTube to place ads in your videos, the type of niche your content occupies, and other metrics of interaction with your content and channel.

While, sadly, YouTube doesn’t offer any sort of calculator for judging a video’s earning potential, you can get a rough idea of how YouTube calculates earnings based on the company’s Google AdSense Calculator, which will tell you the average earnings for a website based on industry and region.

How much does YouTube pay for 1 million views?

Expanding on the numbers above, if you can earn around $0.003 and $0.005 per view, creators can expect that YouTube will pay roughly between $3,000 and $5,000 per one million views.

Again, though, these numbers are very rough estimates, and creators can see much different results based on a number of factors that are both inside and outside of their control. However, knowing these numbers can help you generalize your potential return on investment for your efforts creating YouTube videos and growing your channel.

Furthermore, these numbers don’t reflect the many other ways creators can earn money on their content, as many YouTube creators earn more from outside sponsorships and partnerships than directly from YouTube ads.

How to maximize your YouTube earning potential

While there are many tactics for maximizing your earning potential with your YouTube videos, most of the advice will come down to finding the right niche for your content and developing your methods for building an audience and following.

To provide some more insights, here are the top 10 most profitable YouTube niches ranked by CPM, which should give you a good starting point for exploring the more lucrative genres of content on YouTube.

From there, your best bet will also be to simply ensure that your videos are free of any terms of service violations and not in danger of being taken down. The best way to ensure that your content is in good standing with YouTube’s guidelines is to ensure that you’re using properly licensed, royalty free music in your YouTube videos.

The best royalty free music for YouTube videos

If you aren’t sure what royalty free music is and how music licensing works, here’s our full guide to what royalty free music is here.) In short, royalty free music is music that’s been fully licensed and cleared for you to use not only on YouTube but across all social platforms and for other marketing purposes.

We have some hand-picked royalty free music tracks that would be great options to add to your YouTube videos to give you an idea of what we're talking about. Check out some of our top picks here below:

• Description: A medium-energy, electronic song that is best described as fun and happy. Bass and bass guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
• BPM: 111
• Key: F Major
• Listen and license here.

• Description: A low-energy, electronic song best described as chill and reflective. Synth and piano are the primary instruments in this track.
• BPM: 108
• Key: B Major
• Listen and license here.

• Description: A medium-energy, electronic song that is best described as chill and happy. Ambient tones and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
• BPM: 102
• Key: E Major
• Listen and license here.

• Description: A medium-energy, hip-hop song that is best described as happy and hopeful. Bass and bass guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
• BPM: 96
• Key: A Major
• Listen and license here.

• Description: A medium-energy, electronic song that is best described as chill and fun. Synth is the primary instrument in this track.
• BPM: 140
• Key: Eb/D# Major
• Listen and license here.

You can further check out some of the best royalty free music for YouTube videos here. If you’d like to further explore some tips and tricks for creating great YouTube videos with these resources below:

• Understanding YouTube's Algorithm Updates in 2024 - A Primer for Boosting Your Content
• Royalty Free Music for YouTube Intros and Outros – 10 Top Tracks to Boost Your Channel's Vibe
• Why Were Adele, Green Day, Bob Dylan, and More Music Videos Removed from YouTube? Will YouTube Renew SESAC?