So I tried out YouTube Promotions (ads) for my Youtube Channel

[SSimz]

So as a quick background I post educational how to tech videos on my Youtube channel and I decided to try out Youtube promotions (ads) and here were my results over a two week period after spending $200. I had no real goal and just decided to throw some money at it to see what would happen.

 

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[SSimz]

Unfortunately any subscribers and views you get through the ads don't count toward the requirements for the YouTube Partner program. I'm not sure how they count that, though. If I get a subscriber, will all their views forever not be counted toward the requirements or only of that one promoted video?

I also thought it wouldn't count until I checked the Earn tab in Youtube Studio. Not exactly sure how Youtube is checking this but looks like the subscribers count but watch time seems to be another story.

 

[MTF]

Am I reading this right? 4000 subscribers for $200?

 

[Lex DeVille]

Lol no. I'd rather have 10 organic subscribers from the US than 4000 from India and Bangladesh. I wouldn't even take them for free because it's a fantastic way to ruin any online project you have.

That's been my experience.

 

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[SSimz]

Update:
I haven't ran anymore Youtube promotion ads since my initial experiment and I've been posting more educational how to content. Since my last post I've lost net new 17 subscribers which I find strange. I thought I would've lost a lot more since I only gained them running the promotion. I've added an additional 94 new watch time hours to the channel but still a long way to go before being eligible for monetizing.


Speaking of monetization. I finally got my first taste of internet money through the Amazon Affiliate program ($1.80 CAD). Commission and conversion rates aside (not the best). I can't believe someone actually clicked one of my affiliate links and bought something! Will continue to see how this goes and might start looking into digital products / services I can sell to my Youtube audience directly

 

[Andy Black]

Am I reading this right? 4000 subscribers for $200?

Awesome. I see @MTF slowly getting into YouTube Ads...

 

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[MTF]

Awesome. I see @MTF slowly getting into YouTube Ads...

Lol no. I'd rather have 10 organic subscribers from the US than 4000 from India and Bangladesh. I wouldn't even take them for free because it's a fantastic way to ruin any online project you have.

 

[Andy Black]

Lol no. I'd rather have 10 organic subscribers from the US than 4000 from India and Bangladesh. I wouldn't even take them for free because it's a fantastic way to ruin any online project you have.

I didn't mean get subscribers from markets you don't intend serving. Just that you can get traction by putting ad spend behind videos. YouTube Ads aren't really my thing but when we've run them for clients we've managed to get super low cost-per-views here in Ireland. Daisy chain your videos together and put ad spend behind the first video in the series. One day I'll dig deeper into YouTube Ads, but not yet.

 

[SSimz]

Am I reading this right? 4000 subscribers for $200?

Yes, previous viewers of my channel were from India and Bangladesh so I decided to continue targeting that market but selected English as the preferred language.

 

[Lex DeVille]

So as a quick background I post educational how to tech videos on my Youtube channel and I decided to try out Youtube promotions (ads) and here were my results over a two week period after spending $200. I had no real goal and just decided to throw some money at it to see what would happen.

View attachment 54408

What did you promote? Videos that were already live on the channel?

 

[SSimz]

What did you promote? Videos that were already live on the channel?

I promoted existing videos on the channel

 

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[SSimz]

Thanks for sharing, I've always wondered whether it would be beneficial to a channel for the longer term or not.

What do you mean by another story for watch time? Do you mean not a lot of watch time is coming from these promoted videos or it is simply not taken into account in the statistics of the channel?

I don't believe it's taken into consideration; prior to the promotion my watch time would hover around 433 - 436 hours. My eligible watch time seem to have only increased by 2 hours

 

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[MTF]

I didn't mean get subscribers from markets you don't intend serving. Just that you can get traction by putting ad spend behind videos. YouTube Ads aren't really my thing but when we've run them for clients we've managed to get super low cost-per-views here in Ireland. Daisy chain your videos together and put ad spend behind the first video in the series. One day I'll dig deeper into YouTube Ads, but not yet.

Unfortunately any subscribers and views you get through the ads don't count toward the requirements for the YouTube Partner program. I'm not sure how they count that, though. If I get a subscriber, will all their views forever not be counted toward the requirements or only of that one promoted video?

 

[Cybom]

I also thought it wouldn't count until I checked the Earn tab in Youtube Studio. Not exactly sure how Youtube is checking this but looks like the subscribers count but watch time seems to be another story.

View attachment 54414

Thanks for sharing, I've always wondered whether it would be beneficial to a channel for the longer term or not.

What do you mean by another story for watch time? Do you mean not a lot of watch time is coming from these promoted videos or it is simply not taken into account in the statistics of the channel?

 

[SSimz]

Here are some quick updates:

I started posting more tech related content related to North America and my viewing audience now shifted to America / Canada over the past 28 days.

My eligible watch Time has now increased by 5 hours (~442 hours)

I also got accepted to the Amazon Influencer program. I'll be reviewing this in more detail to determine how best I can use it for generating income.