Every creator wants to know what types of YouTube channels and videos make the most money on YouTube?

In this post we will look into what factors may affect your YouTube earnings and will give your some practical tips as to what videos you should (and should not) make to maximize your YouTube earnings.

Keep reading!

How to make more money on YouTube

In order to answer this question, we need to understand how YouTube calculates ad revenue for monetized videos.

Related: How ads work on YouTube

Advertisers pay YouTube to insert their ads and commercials into your videos.

The advertisers typically use cost per thousand (CPM) to asses their costs. CPM is a marketing term that determined how much the advertiser needs to pay for 1,000 ad impressions.

The actual CPM value depends on many factors, including the location of your audience, the product, and the type of the ad.

Typically it falls between $2 and $5 for most ads but can be substantially higher. Note that Google / YouTube keeps 45% of the ad revenue, so your actual earnings will lower.

So instead of asking how to make more money on YouTube, you should be asking:

How can I increase my CPM on YouTube?

To answer that question, let’s see what factors affect the RPM rate:

How to increase CPM on YouTube

As mentioned, the country / location of your audience (hence, their buying power), the product, and the type of the ad are the most important factors.

While you may have some control over the location (by making the videos in English, for example), the other two are generally out of your control.

But there is another factor that is completely within your reach and can instantly help you grow your YouTube earnings – the content of your videos!

The trick here is to make videos that are considered advertisement friendly.

What videos are considered advertiser friendly?

A wide range of videos can be considered advertisement friendly.

Generally speaking, any video that appeals to wide audiences and does not fall into a restricted category can be considered advertiser friendly.

Let’s look more closely at the restricted topics that can make your videos not suitable for YouTube ads or result in severely lowered CPM.

8 video topics you should avoid if you want to maximize your YouTube earnings

If you want to make the most money by monetizing your channel avoid making videos that contain any of the following:

👎 1. Obscenity and inappropriate language

Videos that frequently use profanity may not be suitable for advertising. You still should be able to use mild profanity like “hell” or “damn” but start paying attention when you start using words like “sh.t”. The “F” word will most likely make your videos not suitable for ads.

If strong language is really needed for creative purposes, sometimes you can get away by censoring profanity with beeps.

👎 2. Violence and shocking content

As a rule of thumb, any violent or shocking content with strong graphic focus or blood, fighting, human or animal suffering or injury, both real or staged, isn’t suitable for advertisement.

However, game play videos or educational videos discussion violence in non-graphical manner still can be considered suitable for ads, though extremely violent games may fetch a lower CPM.

👎 3. Harmful acts and stunts

Any situation that may endanger participants or the viewers (if you’re making a challenge video, for example) isn’t suitable for ads.

While challenges and pranks are super popular, your YouTube revenue may go down due to lower CPM, as advertisers don’t want to be associated with any unsafe practices.

👎 4. Hate speech

Not much to add here. If you publish videos containing hate speech or derogatory content, you’ll be lucky if you’re not banned for good, left alone monetizing your videos.

News coverage, discussions, or comedy may be exempted but you should be very careful around any topic that deals with race, religion, disability, nationality, or gender. Use your best judgment and try not to offend anyone if you want to boost your YouTube revenue.

👎 5. Drug, tobacco, alcohol use

Be careful when publishing any content related to recreational drug, tobacco, or alcohol use.

While discussing the effect of drugs from the medical point or vlogging about wine testing tours should be OK, glorifying drug / alcohol use or promoting illegal substances will certainly make your video ineligible for advertising.

👎 6. Firearms use

Videos about firearms, especially related to the sale, assembly, unsafe use, or misuse of real or fake weapons, may be considered not advertisement friendly. For example, showing or using guns in any public place will be a huge red sign for any advertiser.

If you’re making guns videos, like shooting or hunting videos, make sure the firearms are used in a safe manner and in safe locations, like a shooting range.

👎 7. Sensitive events and controversial issues

Pay close attention when making videos related to sensitive events or controversial and polarizing issues, like war, pandemic, or civil unrest. Our suggestion is to stay away from such topics if your goal is to maximize your YouTube revenue.

👎 8. Adult videos

Generally speaking, adult videos related to sexual behavior or expressions, vulgarity, or depicting well known characters in some kinky situations are not eligible for advertisement. This applies to real, as well as animated or computer generated footage.

There are some limited exceptions for non-graphic sexual education videos or sensual music videos. However, keep in mind that it’s still best to avoid any topic that can potentially lower your CPM by turning down some advertisers.

👎 9. Videos that are mainly made of reused content

Reused content applies to videos created largely from third party content, without adding significant original commentary, creative input, or value.

YouTube defines reused content as “videos that contain content from other sources repurposed without original commentary or added value.”

A video that consists solely of stock footage clips or excerpts from other YouTube videos stitched together is a good example of reused content.

Learn more what counts as reused content and why it’s bad for monetization.

Want to know how much you can earn on YouTube?

Use our free YouTube money calculator to see realistic YouTube earning projections by the number of views or to estimate the value of a specific video or channel.

See more free YouTube optimization tools.

Questions? Comments?

Hope this post will help you to maximize your YouTube earnings and to boost your CPM by making videos that appeal to all and every advertiser!

Tell us about your monetization experience. Post a comment