YouTube Video Length For Monetization

Mar 14, 2022

Are you confused about the video length of videos that can be monetized? Your video length for monetization is a pretty important aspect when you want to make money on YouTube.

So, how long should your videos be for monetization?

There is no exact answer to this question. The answer depends on the type of ads you want to run. The main purpose of a video ad on YouTube is to promote products or services. That means that various ads would be played at the beginning or throughout your video content.

Hopefully, by the end of this post, you’ll have a clear picture of video length for YouTube monetization.

What is the YouTube monetization policy?

The YouTube channel monetization policy outlines what content is suitable for advertising. If your video is flagged for containing prohibited content, you may not be able to earn money on it. You can monetize content that falls within YouTube’s advertiser-friendly guidelines and policies. However, YouTube reserves the right to determine if your videos meet the criteria for monetization for every specific case.

To preserve a positive viewing experience, some videos may not be eligible for ads. Here are some examples of content that is not eligible for advertising:

• Content intended to harass, bully or threaten
• Content that is already monetized by other YouTube creators
• Graphic content involving violence
• Inappropriate language, including harassment, profanity, and vulgar language
• Nudity or sexually suggestive content

If you break the rules of YouTube monetization policy it may lead to striking or permanently blocking your channel from this platform.

How to become eligible for YouTube monetization

If you are a member of the YouTube Partner Program, you can set your videos to generate revenue. To join the program, your channel will need:

• 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months
• 1,000 subscribers
• Live in the country that is eligible for YouTube Partner Program
• An approved AdSense account

If your channel is still in review and has less than 1,000 subscribers, check back once your channel reaches more than 1,000 subscribers.

If your channel is in review and has more than 1,000 subscribers, the review process can take several weeks because dozens of creators apply every day for YouTube Partner Program. Please check back at a later date when you meet all of the requirements.

Keep in mind that YouTube can monetize all videos on its platform whether you approved it or not. Back then small creators had a competitive advantage because their channels were ad-free.

They focused on channel growth, but now YouTube forces creators to claim the YouTube Partner Program and start monetizing content.

What is the minimum YouTube length for video monetization?

Whether your videos are short or long you can still make money from video monetization. But be careful, your audience won’t like a bunch of ads that pop out and interrupt their watching attention. Try to understand the behavior of your audience through analytics of your channel.

Have you ever wondered what is the shortest video that is monetized? Well, maybe we found it. Aman Narula claimed that a 20 millisecond test video was successfully monetized.

Of course, the better question would be: “Does this video make a single penny out of its content?” Well, the creator didn’t share details, but as you can see there is no official rule that strictly points to the relationship between video length and monetization.

What is the optimum YouTube length for video monetization?

Creators have different opinions about YouTube video length for monetization and views. Some think short videos are ideal for attracting more viewers, while others think long videos are better than short ones. But, the truth is that there is no specific length of a video that works best for all types of content. The optimum length of a YouTube video depends on several factors including:

• Your business niche
• Your target audience
• The topic you are covering in the video

Note that you can place pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads.

The first thing you should do is to explore your YouTube competitors. For example, if you want to cover fact topics one of your competitors could be the [101Facts]{.underline} channel. This channel has 600K+ subscribers and rich video content in its stock. But can you see something interesting in their videos?

Well, their videos are mostly 20+ minutes. They have great storytelling and consequently good watching time. These videos allow them to have mid-roll ads since videos are longer than 8 minutes.

But how can you beat them and still cash in your video content?

Well, sacrifice these mid-roll ads revenue and try to do a better story for this type of content in less than 8 minutes. It’s very difficult to keep the attention of the audience regardless of the video topic. They are more likely to click on your videos if they see a shorter-length time on the same topic in advance.

So, explore your competitors all the time and try to offer your audience a balance between quality content and a video monetization program.

The monetization of YouTube Shorts

Did you know that YouTube Shorts reached 5 trillion views by the beginning of 2022?

If you’re not familiar with YouTube Shorts, here’s a brief rundown. It’s a new way to create and share up to 60-second videos – which are called “Shorts.” It can consist of a few 15-second videos or one continuous video. The format of YouTube Shorts is vertical and the best part is that creators can use audio from YouTube’s audio library or other videos for up to 15 seconds.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki wrote a letter for 2022 priorities:

“We’re working every day to improve how we help creators get started and reach an audience faster on Shorts… Over 40% of creators getting paid through this fund were not part of YouTube Partner Program.”

So, how does monetization work for this YouTube video format?

According to YouTube’s Shorts Fund, it is a $100M fund specifically intended for Shorts creators that don’t need to be necessarily part of the YouTube Partner Program or affiliates that work with Multi-Channel Network.

Every month, YouTube informs creators to get a bonus from the Shorts Fund based on their video content performance. The Shorts count performance continues through each month regardless of the month when it was initially uploaded.

YouTube claims that creators can receive between $100–$10,000 monthly. Bonuses vary based on the location of an audience.

Use Narakeet to create videos quickly

There is no hard and fast rule on the ideal length of a Youtube video for YouTube ads. Even if you have a video that is 2 minutes long one day, it could be 4 minutes long the next day. So when making video content for advertisers (or for your own brand) test different length videos. See which length performs better than the others and adjust your strategy from there.

Narakeet can help you to create videos for YouTube quickly. At the moment we cover a few different content types:

• Educational videos
• Employee compliance and corporate training videos
• Language lessons
• Promotional videos

This way you won’t spend much time creating videos, but try to figure out what is the best length for video monetization and pivot your content strategy accordingly.

The media on this page includes images and videos by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash