How to Make Your YouTube Videos More Profitable (Any Niche!)

What if I told you that a YouTube video with 300,000 views can make significantly more than a video with 1,300,000 million views?

Shocking, but true.

When it comes to ad revenue from YouTube videos, all niches and topics are not created equal. The type of content you create on YouTube can determine whether you’re getting paid an average of $2 per 1000 views or upwards of $12.

The best topics for making money on YouTube probably won’t surprise you. But insight into these topics can help you craft more profitable videos within your own niche, whatever it may be.

For this article, we’re discussing Google AdSense revenue — as opposed to profit from sponsorships, affiliate marketing, and selling digital products.

While very few video creators rely solely on AdSense revenue, it provides a helpful picture of the amount of passive income a creator can expect to generate from YouTube.

Sponsorships are lucrative, but this source of income is only reliable when a creator is making content.

When that creator takes a break, those checks stop coming. But the income their videos generate from AdSense revenue continues to payout — providing income even years later for searchable, highly niche, or popular topics.

How to Make Money From YouTube

Once a YouTube creator has reached 1,000 subscribers or accumulated 4,000 watch hours within a 12-month time window, they are eligible for the YouTube Partner Program.

This allows the creator to place Google’s ads on their videos and receive ad revenue in exchange. The creator is paid at varying rates per 1,000 views — the CPM (Cost Per Mille).

Thing is, not all niches are created equal when it comes to maximizing the profitability of a YouTube video’s CPM. Educational content generally has higher CPMs, while gaming content and music hold a fraction of the profitability.

The True Value of a YouTube Channel

Unsurprisingly, the most profitable YouTube niches often focus on helping other people make money or teaching them to learn something new.

For many small business owners and side hustlers, a YouTube channel has the potential to be both a marketing channel and stream of revenue.

While this article focuses on the income from AdSense revenue, it is important to remember that the true value of a YouTube channel cannot be captured with this data.

A YouTube channel is one of the best ways to share your ideas and knowledge. Even with minimal AdShare revenue, creators can leverage their audience and promote their brand.

What Makes a YT Niche Profitable? High CPM VS. Most Views

There are two ways to determine the most profitable YouTube niches: consider the topics that garner the highest viewership, or consider the topics that cost the most for a company to display an advertisement (high CPM).

Neither approach is inherently superior. You will need to consider the competition and how to set yourself apart from the competition — whatever the niche.

What is true, however, is that advertisers quite literally place a higher value on the views from certain niches.

A great example of this is music. While “20% of the top 100 YouTube searches in the US are Music related,” the niche has an average CPM of just under $2 per 1000 views.

If you consider the way that users passively engage with music on the app, this makes a lot of sense. Meanwhile, the topic of how to make money? Not surprisingly, it has an average CPM of $13 per 1000 views.

This suggests that viewers watching videos about highly profitable topics are more likely to purchase products featured in the video. This is good for you too!

That same logic can be applied to the digital products you sell.

If companies with huge advertising budgets are competing to invest their dollars in your content to get results, you are also likely to get results when promoting your own products (granted they solve pain points).

The Most Profitable Niches & Topics on YouTube

We’re borrowing our CPM averages from Jack Cao, who reached out to various YouTubers within each category to compile this information that would otherwise be impossible to research.

Unfortunately, the information in each category doesn’t include the specific videos that produced the higher CPM. Instead, these numbers represent an average CPM for the categories.

It’s important to note that some videos make significantly more than $13 for 1000 views.

There are many factors that contribute to a video’s CPM, including the number of ads displayed, where the viewers are located, overall quality and family friendliness, and of course, the niche.

With Cao’s data compiled from various YouTube creators, here is the average profitability of each YouTube niche per 1000 views:

1. Make Money Online: $13.52
2. Social Media Marketing: $12.41
3. Finance & Investing: $12.25
4. Educational Videos: $9.89
5. Photography & Film Making: $7.31
6. Cars: $4.23
7. Lifestyle: $3.47
8. Fashion & Clothing: $3.13
9. Entertainment: $2.74
10. Cooking: $2.50
11. Tech & Gadgets: $2.39
12. Reviews & Reactions: $2.03
13. Bodybuilding & Fitness: $1.60
14. Music: $1.46
15. Video Games: $1.40
16. ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response): $0.29
17. Dance Cover: $0.035

That means, the same video with 300,000 views could make anywhere from $10.50 to $4,056, depending on the niche.

A Note on Monetized Playbacks vs. Video Views

Not all views on a video are monetized. This is for a few reasons:

Overall, this is simply something to monitor in your analytics and keep in mind when estimating your CPM based on a video’s views alone.

To view your RPM (Revenue per Mille): open YouTube Creator Studio, click on Analytics, then Ad Rates.

Other Factors That Affect YouTube Niche Profitability

Topic is not the only thing that affects how profitable a video can be. Although it is one of the biggest factors, there are a few more to consider:

The Number of Ads Displayed

The number of ads a video displays is often directly related to the length of the video. If a video is ten minutes long, it might display an ad at the beginning, the end, and at least one at the middle. While no creator wants to bombard their viewers with advertisements, it’s important to keep up with standard industry practices so as to not leave money on the table.

Aside from the bookend ads of the video, a creator should aim to display an ad about every 10-15 minutes of content.

While varying creators will choose to display more or less, this rhythm of ads is one viewers are accustomed to and therefore do not find to be too obtrusive.

Location of Viewership

Where the majority of your viewers are located will have a significant impact on your channel’s average CPM as well. YouTube has not shared the CPM for each country.

However, a random YouTube creator shared their inconsistent payouts by country with Digital Music News. While this is a sample size of one channel, the information reveals that Western countries with a high GDP (gross domestic product) generally payout the highest CPM.

Overall Quality & Family Friendliness

Quality is always going to be king. Even more so when you’re creating content for highly competitive niches and keywords. Luckily on YouTube, quality doesn’t necessarily mean using the fanciest camera and editing software.

This is especially true when the content you’re creating is educational in nature. Creating high quality content is first and foremost about the content. Are you answering the promised query? Have you considered all the angles and researched potential blind spots?

Similarly, family friendliness is an important part of making your content suitable to advertisers. Generally, an advertiser isn’t going to display ads on videos that would damage the reputation of the brand. Therefore, creating content with general family friendliness in mind is important for CPM. YouTube has a page that covers these guidelines.

Bringing It All Together

YouTube creator, Shelby Church discussed the topic of what YouTube pays creators with other YouTubers back in 2019. She spoke with Kevin David who makes content about ecommerce and making money online. He shared a video’s analytics from the prior 28 days:

In that month, the video received only 27,000 views — but those views generated $1,700 of revenue. That’s $63 CPM!

How is that possible?

Kevin’s video combines all of the factors that contribute to a high CPM:

This is a long video designed to allow the viewer to follow along. The video’s title promises to deliver certain information and it does so in abundance.

Alongside the high quality information, what’s the main reason this video is highly profitable?

There are ads throughout the hour-long video and viewers are likely to watch most of them because it is a tutorial.

Creating longer videos simply to display more ads will hurt quality. But with this topic, the length is necessary and even appreciated by viewers.

The takeaway? If you can offer immense value on a topic that requires more time, don’t be afraid to make long-form videos.

How to Find Highly Profitable Topics for Your Channel

Companies pay a certain amount each time an advertisement is displayed on a video. This amount is determined partially by the keyword competition.

Keywords with higher competition (meaning other advertisers also want to show their ads on that video), cost the advertiser more to display an ad. Which means the video creator (you!) also receives more money.

Therefore, find YouTube topics with competitive and valuable advertising keywords to increase your video’s CPM.

Here’s how.

In order to determine what keywords to target with advertisements, companies use the Google Keyword Planner. This tool shows how much advertisers are paying for keywords.

When using the Keyword Planner, remember that advertisers are searching based on what they have to sell. Therefore, use the planner to find keywords that can be profitable and hone in on specific topics to cover therein.

In Google’s own words, “Try not to be too specific or general. For example, "meal delivery" is better than "meals for a food delivery business.”

Let’s compare topics from a few different categories.

Keep in mind: This is not the amount you would receive per ad displayed. This is simply what the advertiser might expect to pay when bidding on a spot.

Music

Topic: Best Midi Keyboards

Ecommerce

Topic: Shopify for Beginners

Cooking

Topic: Vegan Meal Prep

How to Make Money

Topic: SEO Content Writing

Tech & Gadgets

Topic: iPhone Case

Should I Change My YouTube Channel’s Niche?

Probably not. If you have an abundance of passion and experience in a different niche that you want to explore, by all means create a new channel.

But do not try to make content in a profitable niche that isn’t a good fit for you.

Ultimately, AdSense revenue is not going to be the main source of income for any YouTube creator.

The most important thing is that you are able to consistently create content and monetize your skills in a joyful & useful way.

How to Make Your YouTube Niche More Profitable

Let’s say you want to increase and maximize your CPM for the niche that you already have. Let’s also assume that your content is already high-quality, displaying a good balance of ads, and family friendly.

How do you find topics within your niche that are more profitable than others?

A combination of using the Google Keyword Planner, as instructed above, and doing some SEO (search engine optimization) research to see what people are searching for will go a long way.

I’m going to use a YouTube channel that discusses creative writing as a niche example.

A quick search of “creative writing” on YouTube yields the following general topics:

There’s also a section labeled, People Also Search For. Related topics include:

Depending on my own experience as a writer and YouTube creator, I can also dive into these other topics and explore what’s popular in those categories.

For even more in-depth information, you can explore these topics with a Google Search.

When you search for a query, the “People Also Ask” section will populate more questions as you click on others. This provides a wealth of related content people are looking for. Answerthepublic.com is another fun resource for discovery.

With a list of general topics, I can open the Google Keyword Planner.

When doing keyword research, consider the different angles from which the same topic might be posed. For example, I began my search with the two main results YouTube presented:

Improve Creative Writing

Creative Writing Exercises

But what if I framed this topic more broadly?

Better Writing

How to Write Better

The Keyword Planner also provides suggestions for broadening my search; including: writing resources, writing course, better grammar, better communication, better literacy. Let’s search for “creative writing courses”.

Creative Writing Courses

Look at that! We went a few levels into the research and found a topic with some serious profitability potential. Some potential video topics to create from this information would be:

Furthermore, there’s a good chance that some of the courses you feature have affiliate programs. Meaning, when your viewers buy the course, you will make a percentage of the profit.

Make sure you plug your own digital products too!

Even if you don’t have a writing course, viewers of this type of video will be looking for more information — which is a large part of why the CPM is high.

Note: Not all of your content has to be optimized for a high CPM. Rather, use these types of videos to buoy your other content, increase subscribers, and broaden your reach.

Leverage Your YouTube Channel To Generate the Most Profit

While this type of research can be dry, I hope it will be inspiring and motivating. Instead of plucking ideas from thin air or jumping on other trends, this method of evaluating topics allows you to determine the potential profitability of your content.

While not every piece of content needs to be optimized for profit, this research is likely to improve your content’s overall searchability across both Google and YouTube.

That additional traffic doesn’t just translate into more AdSense money. It also presents opportunities to build your community, offer unique digital products, and create multiple streams of sustainable revenue.

YouTube creators who want to make feature-length films or create valuable video projects the algorithm simply won’t give the platform it deserves: consider SendOwl. Secure video streaming — no downloading needed.

Customers purchase access and receive your high-quality video content directly and automatically. There’s no limit to what you can sell with SendOwl.

Conner Carey