How YouTube ad revenue actually works
YouTube sells ads against your videos through Google AdSense and pays you 55% of that ad revenue — YouTube keeps the other 45%. The number that determines your payout is RPM (revenue per mille, i.e. per 1,000 views), which already accounts for that split, how many viewers skip ads, and how many views come from regions with lower ad rates.
RPM varies enormously by niche because it tracks what advertisers will pay to reach your specific audience. Finance and business content commands the highest RPMs on the platform — often $12–$25 per 1,000 views — because advertisers (banks, trading apps, insurance) pay premium CPMs to reach viewers making financial decisions. Gaming and general entertainment sit at the other end, often $2–$7, because the advertiser pool is thinner and more price-sensitive.
To join the YouTube Partner Program at all you need 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 watch hours in the past year or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days. Below that threshold, ad revenue isn't available regardless of view count.
Sponsorships out-earn ads for most channels
Once a channel passes roughly 10,000–20,000 subscribers, brand sponsorships typically exceed ad revenue — often by 3–5x. A dedicated integration (60–90 seconds mid-video, scripted around the product) commands $20–$50 per 1,000 subscribers, well above TikTok's per-follower rates, because YouTube's longer format and higher watch-through let advertisers make a real pitch rather than a quick mention.
Niche relevance and audience retention matter more to sponsors than raw subscriber count. A 15,000-subscriber finance channel with an engaged, high-income audience routinely out-earns a 100,000-subscriber general vlog channel on a per-sponsorship basis — pitch your audience's buying power, not just its size.
Worked example
An 8-video-a-month finance channel with 20,000 subscribers averaging 12,000 views per video: ad revenue lands around $144–$300 per video, or $1,150–$2,400/month. One sponsorship at that subscriber count adds $400–$1,000. Two sponsored videos a month plus ad revenue puts total monthly income around $1,950–$4,400 — which is why most full-time creators treat AdSense as a floor and sponsorships as the ceiling.