YouTube announced it will provide more direct monetization options for Shorts creators, which could make YouTube the platform of choice for more creative talent. This move is one of the latest attempts from YouTube to compete with TikTok, which continues to dominate the social media landscape.
As explained by YouTube:
“Starting in early 2023, Shorts-focused creators can apply to the YouTube Partner Program by meeting a threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views over 90 days. These new partners will enjoy all the benefits our program offers, including the various ways to make money like ads on long-form and Fan Funding.”
Monetizing short-form video is hard, because you can’t add pre- and mid-roll ads into clips into clips that are only 30 seconds long. This wouldn’t matter, except for the fact that short-form clips are the current trend in the space, thanks to TikTok. As a result, YouTube is promoting a new process for Shorts with the aim of providing an equitable revenue share.
“In Shorts, ads run between videos in the Shorts Feed. So, every month, revenue from these ads will be added together and used to reward Shorts creators and help cover costs of music licensing. From the overall amount allocated to creators, they will keep 45% of the revenue, distributed based on their share of total Shorts views. The revenue share remains the same, no matter if they use music or not.”
This means the monetization is a combined pool of revenue that will be split based on video view counts. The 45% revenue split is also different to the usual YPP rev share, which allocates 55% of overall ad revenue to creators.
YouTube’s VP of Creator Products Amjad Hanif explains why the revenue split is different for shorts:
“Most folks who are in short-form today are earning through a fixed fund, and a fixed fund doesn’t commit a specific percentage to the creator. In fact, it’s up to the platform to determine each and every month how they’re going to divide that up […] In short-form, we’re gonna’ share with all creators who are part of the feed. As a part of that, that means spreading it out across all the creators, whether it was right before the ad, or three videos away from the ad. Shorts is also an area where we’re investing a lot of product and engineering time into things like creation tools, as well as trust and safety. And so, part of that rev share is being aware of the investment we need to make.”
Due to the added costs of video creation – music licensing in particular, YouTube’s taking a bigger cut, even as more advertisers look to tap into Shorts, which are now being viewed by 75% of YouTube’s active user base.
As YouTube puts more emphasis on short-form content, advertisers will pay attention. If you need assistance leveraging YouTube or any other social media or paid media platform, please contact us today. We are here to help.
