Just like all the other social platforms, YouTube has been leaning hard into short-form video content, with a Shorts tab on the main menu and a prominent Shorts feature on the watch page. So, it’s no surprise that YouTube Shorts reached two billion monthly logged-in users as of July 2023.

In this post, we talk specifically about YouTube Shorts monetization, a.k.a. how to make money from your YouTube Shorts. If you’re looking for a more general primer on this format, check out our blog post on how to make YouTube Shorts.

Can you monetize YouTube Shorts?

Yes!

It’s been possible to monetize regular long-form YouTube videos for more than 15 years now. In that time, creators, artists, and media companies have earned more than $50 billion from their YouTube content.

But Shorts are a much newer format, and they weren’t originally part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). Fortunately for all those who found themselves wondering, “When will YouTube Shorts be monetized?,” the platform announced YouTube Shorts monetization options in late 2022. Since then, creators who focus on YouTube’s short video format have been able to earn money from their work.

How does YouTube Shorts monetization work?

YouTube Shorts monetization is, well, a little complicated. The sources of monetization are:

YouTube Shorts ad revenue sharing
YouTube Premium subscription revenue sharing for Shorts
YouTube Shopping
YouTube fan funding

YouTube first launched Shorts monetization through the YouTube Shorts fund in 2021. It was a $100 million fund intended to encourage the adoption of the new format by rewarding Shorts creators who made the most engaging content. It was always meant to be a stopgap measure while YouTube worked on a long-term model for monetizing Shorts. This fund was discontinued when the Shorts ad revenue sharing model launched in February 2023.

YouTube Shorts ad revenue sharing

In this method of seeing your YouTube Shorts monetized, you get a share of the revenue generated from ads between videos in the Shorts feed. Your share is based on a four-step formula.

Source: YouTube Help

YouTube adds together all the revenue from ads shown between videos in the Shorts feed.
YouTube calculates how much of the revenue associated with Shorts is needed to cover music licensing for tracks used in Shorts. That money is paid directly to music partners. The rest of the ad revenue goes into the Creator Pool
YouTube allocates a percentage of the total Creator Pool to each monetizing creator based on their share of total views in each country.
YouTube applies the revenue share formula: They take 55% of the allocated revenue and you get 45%.

YouTube Premium subscription revenue sharing for Shorts

Like ad revenue sharing, this method of seeing your YouTube Shorts monetized allocates payments based on your share of views within your country. In this case, the formula only applies to subscription Shorts views.

Here’s how YouTube describes the formula:

“YouTube will pay 45% of the net revenue from YouTube Premium that is allocated to monetizing creators for Shorts. A portion of YouTube Premium revenues are allocated to help cover costs of music licensing.”

You can see your estimated daily Shorts Feed ad revenue in YouTube Analytics.

YouTube Shopping features

In addition to revenue sharing from ads and Premium subscriptions, you can monetize your YouTube Shorts using YouTube Shopping to promote your products.

If your Short features products, you can tag them during the upload flow. A product overlay will then show on your content, which allows users to browse and purchase your products without leaving YouTube while continuing to watch your Short.

YouTube Fan Funding

Once you turn on YouTube monetization, you’re eligible for all YouTube fan funding options, including:

Super Thanks
Super Chat
Super Stickers, and
Channel Memberships

The most relevant to creators focused on YouTube Shorts are Super Thanks and Channel Memberships.

Formerly known as Viewer Applause, Super Thanks is a way for your biggest fans to show appreciation for your content. Through Super Thanks, a viewer purchases a one-time animation that only they see over the top of your Short. They also get to post a customizable and colorful comment in the comments section of the Short.

Super Thanks is available at four price points, ranging from $2 to $50. You get 70% of the Super Thanks revenue after taxes and fees.

Source: YouTube Official Blog

Meanwhile, channel memberships is a fan funding program that allows you to reward paid members with perks like badges, emojis, exclusive content, and live streams.

You can set your membership tiers as low as $0.99 and as high as $499. You can have up to five tiers with different monthly price points and perks. Creators keep 70% of that amount, while YouTube takes a 30% commission.

Who is eligible for YouTube Shorts monetization?

To be eligible for full YouTube Shorts monetization, you need to have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers. You also need to have either 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days or 4,000 valid public watch hours of long-form videos in the last 12 months.

Public watch hours from Shorts in the Shorts Feed don’t count towards the watch hour threshold, so the Shorts views requirement is the better target if you focus primarily on Shorts.

Source: YouTube Help

Can you monetize YouTube Shorts before you hit these thresholds? Yes, but in a limited way. In June 2023, YouTube launched an expanded program to allow newer creators and those with a smaller following to monetize through YouTube Shopping and fan funding.

However, you will not have access to Shorts ad revenue sharing or YouTube Premium subscription revenue sharing.

To apply for this expanded program, you need to have 500 subscribers. You also need three valid public uploads in the last 90 days and three million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days. (Or 3,000 valid public watch hours of long-form videos in the past year.)

Source: YouTube Help

For both programs, you must also:

Understand and comply with the YouTube Channel Monetization policies.
Live in a region where the program is available. (The expanded program is for now only available in these countries.)
Ensure your channel doesn’t have any active Community Guidelines Strikes.
Turn on 2-step verification for your Google account.
Have access to advanced features on YouTube based on your channel history or by verifying your identity (not applicable for the expanded program).
Have an active AdSense account.

You can log into YouTube Studio at any time to see how close you are to eligibility, and request notification when you’re eligible.

Source: YouTube Studio

How to start monetizing YouTube Shorts

Here’s how to become part of the YouTube Partner Program and start monetizing your YouTube Shorts.

Sign in to YouTube.
Click your profile picture in the top right and then click YouTube Studio.
Click Earn in the left menu.
If you’re eligible, you’ll see an Apply button. Go ahead and click it. If you’re not yet eligible, click the Get Notified button to come back and finish the process once you meet the requirements.
Click Start to review and Accept the Base terms.
Link your existing AdSense account, or click Start to set up a new one if you need to.
Wait for YouTube to review your application. (This usually takes about a month, so be patient.)
Once you are approved, go back to the Earn section of YouTube Studio and accept the Shorts Monetization Module.

Note: These are the instructions for applying from your computer. The specific instructions are slightly different for Android and iOS, but in both cases, you start by opening the YouTube Studio app and tapping Earn in the bottom menu.

To start monetizing with Super Thanks fan funding, go to the Earn tab in YouTube Studio and click Supers. Click Get Started and follow the prompts.

For Channel Memberships, go to the Earn tab, then click Memberships and Get Started.

How much can you earn through YouTube Shorts monetization?

Unfortunately, the earnings from YouTube Shorts are – at least so far – not spectacular. The consensus among YouTube Shorts creators is that revenue per thousand views (RPM) is coming in around $0.05 to $0.07. That’s about $50 to $70 for a million views.

For those of you curious about YouTube Shorts monetization updates, here is Feb2-Feb 8th earnings from approx 35 Million views. pic.twitter.com/kMyjW6KB0b

— Zach King (@zachking) February 10, 2023

YouTube Shopping revenue will depend entirely on how well you promote your products and the price point of those products. Keep an eye on Revenue in your YouTube Analytics to see how much you earn through your YouTube Shopping tags in Shorts.

Likewise, Super Thanks will depend on how much your fans value your content, and how close a connection you form with them. Super Thanks is, after all, like a digital tip.

So: Are YouTube Shorts monetized? Yes. But, the earnings are not going to replace what a creator would typically earn from long-form YouTube videos.

However, as you’ll see below, the YouTube Shorts monetization features are not the only way to earn money with your short-form content on YouTube.

4 other ways to make money with YouTube Shorts

1. Join an affiliate program

There are two ways to make money on YouTube Shorts with an affiliate program, depending on how big your channel is and where you live

YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program

If you have more than 20,000 subscribers and are based in the United States, you may be eligible for the official YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program. This program allows you to use YouTube Shopping to promote products from other brands in your Shorts and earn a commission.

Just like regular YouTube Shopping, you can tag the products directly in your content and use a call to action to let viewers know where to shop. You can also request product samples from select brands to help you plan and develop future YouTube Shorts.

External affiliate programs

You can also use YouTube Shorts to promote affiliate programs that you join directly. There’s no set number of subscribers for this, or any required amount of watch time.

You simply find an affiliate program that relates to products you mention in your Shorts, and then earn an affiliate commission for sales you refer to that retailer. In this case, you get paid by the retailer that runs the affiliate program (or their affiliate network), rather than by YouTube itself. So how do you actually direct viewers to your affiliate link?

This YouTube creator uses a pinned comment on his Shorts to direct viewers to his profile for links to specific products. Think of it as the YouTube Shorts equivalent to an Instagram link in bio.

 

Source: @SimontheSiameseCat

He is promoting products using the Amazon Associates program. Since this is one of the largest affiliate programs out there, we’ve got a whole blog post on everything you need to know about Amazon Associates.

Shorts that include affiliate content must follow Google’s Ad Policies and Community Guidelines. You also need to disclose that there is paid promotion in the Short. During the upload workflow, tap Yes, it includes paid promotion, then tap Yes.

Your Short will then show a label to let viewers know that the video includes paid promotion.

If you’re interested in this approach to YouTube Shorts monetization, check out our post on how to use affiliate marketing.

2. Work with brands

Rather than applying for affiliate programs, you can reach out to brands to work with them directly. If you have a large enough following, brands may even start to reach out to you.

Working with a brand as a YouTube Shorts influencer could mean anything from free products to getting paid a fee to create and post brand-specific content.

As with affiliate marketing in YouTube Shorts, you need to disclose the brand relationship using the paid promotion disclosure option in the upload workflow.

3. Patreon

If you were an artist living in Renaissance Europe, you’d likely have a patron to fund your work. Patreon brings this concept into modern times by allowing content creators to monetize their content through paid subscriptions.

Video is the top content format on Patreon, so it’s a good fit for monetizing YouTube Shorts. You could use Shorts to share an excerpt of a deep-dive video and let viewers know the full story is available through one of your Patreon membership tiers.

Or, you could use the Community tab on Patreon to chat with your patrons and develop a community.

So, what’s the advantage of using Patreon over YouTube channel memberships? First off, you can create a Patreon with no minimum subscriber or watchtime threshold.

Beyond that, you’ll need to explore each program to see which makes more sense for your specific situation and the perks you want to provide.

For more ideas, check out our full blog post on how to earn money with Patreon.

4. Use Shorts to grow viewership for long-form videos

While this is not strictly speaking a direct form of YouTube Shorts monetization, it’s an important thing to think about when calculating ROI for your YouTube Shorts.

Sure, the YouTube Partner Program payouts for YouTube Shorts are not spectacular. But, especially for new YouTube creators, Shorts can be the one of fastest ways to build your audience. You can then create and monetize regular long-form YouTube videos, which earn ad revenue at a much higher RPM.

Stay ahead of the social media game with Hootsuite. Schedule posts, analyze results, build your audience, and grow your business. Sign up today for free.

Get Started

The post YouTube Shorts Monetization Guide [How Much Can You Make?] appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.

Originally posted on September 27, 2023 @ 2:41 pm

B2B social media marketing can be an effective way for brands to build awareness, strengthen relationships, and close sales. But B2B social marketers face unique challenges when it comes to tone and content mix.

So, how do you use social tools to bring in (and keep) followers, create engagement, build brand awareness, and fill your funnel? Read on for all the tips you need to build an effective B2B social media strategy.

What is B2B social media marketing?

B2B social media marketing is the use of social channels to market products or services to business clients and prospects. (B2B stands for business-to-business, as opposed to business-to-consumer or B2C.)

Marketers at B2C companies use social channels to reach consumers and influence purchases. Effective B2B marketing requires a different approach. B2B marketers have to think more strategically to reach business owners and decision-makers. They then nurture relationships that can lead to large purchase agreements.

All social channels can have a place in B2B marketing. But the balance and type of content will look different for a B2B social media strategy than for a consumer-focused plan.

How to build a successful B2B social media strategy

B2B social media success begins with a sound B2B social media strategy. Here’s how to build one for your brand.

 1. Align goals with business objectives

Just like a good B2C strategy, every B2B social media plan should answer the following two questions:

What are the company’s business objectives?
How will B2B social media marketing help achieve them?

But the similarities mostly end here. B2B and B2C social media marketers use social platforms for different purposes. B2C social media campaigns drive sales, while B2B social is more “top of funnel.” Social media goals for B2B marketers should likely focus on longer-term business objectives.

In fact, the top 3 overall goals for B2B companies are:

Create brand awareness
Build trust and credibility
Educate audiences

Generating sales or revenue comes in at number 8.

Those top three goals all contribute to social media B2B lead generation. Successful B2B marketers also use content marketing to nurture subscribers, audiences, or leads.

Our blog post on goal-setting can help you establish the right goals and objectives for your B2B social media plan.

Don’t forget to include internal objectives and goals within your plan. According to research published in the Journal of Business Logistics, social media can help account managers increase both product and competitor knowledge.

2. Know your audience

Your corporate structure probably caters to various client personas. Or, at least, different client categories.

For instance, a design firm might work for commercial, public, and residential customers. It likely has team members or verticals that specialize in each category.

Your B2B social media marketing strategy should do the same. Focus on building fleshed-out buyer personas of your ideal customers. These will allow you to create social media content that speaks to real people.

Understanding your audience also means understanding which social channels they use. As a general rule, you should be where your customers are. Not sure where that might be? Start with the overall social media demographics. Then, dive into some audience research.

Almost all B2B content marketers (96%) use LinkedIn. They also rated it as the top-performing organic platform.

Source: Content Marketing Institute

For paid social media posts, the picture for B2B social media platforms is similar but not identical. LinkedIn again comes out on top (78%). But Instagram outranks YouTube and Twitter (a.k.a. X) is down at the bottom of the pack.

Source: Content Marketing Institute

Separate channels may also be relevant for different verticals, products, and markets. Depending on the industry and size of your business, you might want to consider:

a news channel
a careers channel
a customer service account

Or any other account that speaks to a specific audience within your niche. Make sure you’re delivering the information your target audience wants in the right place and at the right time.

Keep in mind that B2B social marketing will likely become even more personalized in the future. Account-based marketing (ABM) will become the norm. In ABM, sales and marketing teams work together. They personalize outreach and marketing to decision-makers at target companies.

Social media is a prime tool for ABM. For instance, social listening allows you to keep tabs on your most important prospects.

3. Understand the competition

While you never want to copy the competition, it’s always useful to know what they’re up to. Understanding what the competition is doing helps you understand your own specific niche.

Start by benchmarking your current social media performance against your competitors. Hootsuite Analytics has a built-in benchmarking tool that shows how you stack up against others in your field.

Try for free

You can get an even better understanding of the competition by using social media listening to monitor their social media activities, so you can gain insights from their B2B social media examples. Such as:

When and how often they post
What kinds of voice and tone they use
What kind of content gets the most engagement
Specific customer pain points that may be unaddressed

You can use this information to guide your own social strategy. Especially before you have enough data to get meaningful insights from your own social posts. (More on that later.)

Want more details on competitor research? We’ve got a full blog post on how to conduct a competitor analysis on social media.

4. Create a content calendar and content library

Once you understand your customers and the competition, it’s time to think about what and when you will post on social media.

First, you need to plan your content calendar: What you will post on each of your social accounts and when. Deciding on the right content mix is an important part of this step, as no one will want to follow you if all you do is promote your products. We’ve got some content ideas for you later on in this post.

A social media management platform organizes your content calendar so you can create and schedule content in advance. And 76% of the most successful B2B businesses do so.

Hootsuite’s Composer allows you to schedule all of your social media channels from one screen. You have a holistic view of your content distribution. This advance planning gives you time to use the built-in content approval workflows. Composer also recommends the best time to post on each platform based on your past performance and selected goals.

Start free 30-day trial

Hootsuite’s content library is another important feature for B2B marketers. You can use the library to store pre-approved content and brand assets.

This protects your brand identity and reputation while making life easier for all members of the content creation team.

5. Analyze and refine

??Almost all (87%) of the most successful B2B content marketers say they measure their content performance accurately. Compare that to only 19% of the least successful.

This makes sense. How can you know how well your social content performs if you don’t measure with clear metrics and KPIs?

What metrics and data should you monitor? This depends on your business goals. You might focus on response time, impressions, engagement rate, conversions, sales, and more. The important thing is to set benchmarks and achievable goals.

Don’t ignore barometers like customer satisfaction ratings, qualitative reviews, and your Net Promoter Score. Look at reductions in recruitment and customer support costs as well. All of this contributes to return on investment.

Be realistic about what efforts you’ll have hard numbers for and which will be trickier to quantify. Remember, just because you can measure something doesn’t always mean you should. And just because you can’t measure something (easily) doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile.

Your best ally in building out a performance measurement plan is a good social media analytics tool. Hootsuite Analytics gives you one-screen access to performance data from every social network, including easy-to-understand graphics and charts.

Try it now

B2B social media best practices

Speak to humans, not businesses

Remember that you’re not talking to brands – you’re talking to the people behind those brands. Likewise, they want to do business with the humans behind your brand.

In the LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact study, 64% of executives said they prefer “a more human, less formal tone of voice” over “an even-toned, intellectual voice.”

And you’re not just talking to CEOs and purchasing officers. Younger people will move up the ranks and be making purchasing decisions within a few years. It pays to nurture relationships with industry pros at all stages of their careers.

One simple way to break out of the boardroom with your content is to get your employees involved. Tell their stories. Highlight their accomplishments. Real people make your social media presence and brand voice appear more human and boost your recruiting efforts.

Tip: You can easily build a streamlined employee social program using Hootsuite Amplify.

Help your audience do their jobs

Think about ways you can make your followers’ (work) lives easier or more enjoyable. Provide content and resources that delight them in some way. Think how-to information, industry news, trends, tips, strategy, and so on.

Thought leadership is particularly important. 61% of decision-makers say thought leadership can be ”moderately or a lot more effective at demonstrating the potential value of its products/services compared to traditional product-oriented marketing.”

In content that does specifically promote your product, focus on how it will directly benefit the customer in real business terms. The latest Linked-in-Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report found that non-business-critical suppliers can best increase their chances of making a sale by:

Proving they will increase a prospect’s profit margins or minimize losses
Showing they can increase the likelihood of the prospect retaining customers and clients during a downturn
Showing they can help the prospect outperform competitors

Use humor your followers will understand

B2B social media is about starting conversations and building relationships that lead to sales in the long term. That “long term” part is key, though. Followers aren’t going to stick around if your content doesn’t interest them.

So don’t let B2B’s reputation for boring content hold you back. Humor is an import tool in your content-creation toolbox. You just have to find the right tone.

What kind of humor speaks directly to your audience? Is there an inside joke that only industry pros will understand? A pun that will amuse your followers while highlighting your product benefits? Signal to your audience that you understand social media is primarily a platform for content that entertains and delights.

Respond to DMs and comments

If we were to highlight the most important component of a B2B social media strategy, this would probably be it. Anyone who comments on your content or sends you a DM is expressing interest in your brand. They’re practically raising their hands and shouting, “Hey! I’m a lead!”

That said, it’s easy for comments and DMs to get lost when you’re juggling multiple social platforms, each with its own inbox. A consolidated social media inbox like the one built into Hootsuite makes sure you never miss a thing.

Hootsuite Inbox also speeds up your response time by automatically routing messages through to the most appropriate person on your team. This ensures potential sales don’t get bogged down in the customer service queue.

B2B social media tactics and content ideas

1. Share a free resource

A free resource like a white paper or report can be a valuable way to earn the trust of your B2B social media followers. But only if the report provides quality information backed up by reliable data and research – and offers real-world suggestions for how to incorporate that information into operations.

Two of the main qualities business leaders look for in thought leadership content are “robust research and strong supporting data” and “concrete guidance on how to respond to the issues or opportunities discussed.”

For example, here’s the primary and secondary data information for the Hootsuite 2023 Social Media Career Report:

And here are some of the ways Hootsuite shared the report on social media:

But how much asking is too much?

All kidding aside, this is why you must ask for the damn raise already! You deserve it for so many reasons.

Discover the most convincing reasons, and build up the courage to ask with insights from our career report: https://t.co/khvqGRv9m1 pic.twitter.com/yzD3sPLZ4k

— Hootsuite (@hootsuite) September 19, 2023

2. Crack a joke

We talked about humor earlier in this post. Here’s where the rubber hits the road. From a tongue-in-cheek play on words, to a funny meme, to a straight-up dad joke, tickle your followers’ funny bones from time to time to keep them coming back for more.

The level of humor can vary with the platform, and should be based on audience research. For instance, you can likely skew a lot more silly on TikTok than on LinkedIn.

@adobe

@artandsuchevan finds creativity in the tiniest and most unexpected places

? original sound – Adobe – Adobe

Keep a close eye on your analytics after posting anything outside the norm for your brand to see how your audience responds. If they love it, give them more. If the response is tepid or you see an unusual number of unfollows, rethink your strategy and try a different approach to humor.

3. Join a relevant conversation

We talked about social listening above in the context of competitor research. But it’s also a great way to find conversations relevant to your industry and your brand.

Simply add relevant hashtags and industry terms to your Hootsuite streams. When you find a relevant conversation, pop in with helpful information (never a hard sell). This is all about building relationships and creating brand awareness.

For example, when Patrick Mahomes was caught correcting an awkward grammar mistake on Twitter (shout out to the edit button!), both Grammarly and Merriam-Webster jumped in.

Source: @PatrickMahomes

The edit deserves a touchdown.

— Grammarly (@Grammarly) September 12, 2023

Proud of this edit.

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 12, 2023

4. Share some stats

We’ve talked about the importance of thought leadership already. Quick stats and infographics are an easy and effective way to share thought leadership on social media without requiring followers to dive deep into a long report.

Infographics are snackable and highly shareable, meaning they can help your content spread well beyond your own social followers.

5. Empathize

Business can be tough, and you can gain a lot of brand loyalty by showing you understand the difficulties employees face. Remember, you need to win the hearts and minds of future business leaders, not just those who are making purchasing decisions today.

We hope this message finds you well. Unless you’re on PTO. In that case, we hope this message does not find you; we hope you find yourself with a fully recharged battery.

— Slack (@SlackHQ) September 19, 2023

Easily manage all your social media profiles using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts, engage your followers, monitor relevant conversations, measure results, manage your ads, and much more.

Get Started

The post 5 B2B Social Media Marketing Tactics That Actually Work appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.

Originally posted on September 26, 2023 @ 1:40 pm