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How much money a creator earns from a YouTube video varies depending on a number of factors, from where the viewers are located to which advertisers the video attracts.
Some top YouTube creators have specific strategies for earning the most money from a single video, including looking at the back end of their channels to determine where the best ad placements are for them. Others simply get lucky, with videos promoted by YouTube's algorithm and recommended to viewers.
But generally, when a video goes viral, the creator is in for a serious payday. Business Insider spoke to two YouTube influencers, Shelby Church and Alyssa Kulani, who broke down how much they earned from videos with 4 million views.
"I really thought the video would get 100,000 views, not 4 million," she said. "Once I saw that it hit a million, it honestly scared me."
Her ad placement strategy:
Church said she usually includes one pre-roll ad before the video, which she said is the default on YouTube, and two ads within the video, three or four minutes apart. Her videos are typically about 10 to 12 minutes long.
The key to earning the most from these ads is to place them before your viewers will typically "drop off," or click off from your video, she said, and she's noticed viewers will often drop off early if there's a long intro.
Kulani's video, titled, "Telling my best friend I like him...*PRANK*," was picked up and recommended by YouTube's algorithm, which prompted the video to go viral and gain 4 million views.
"I posted that video, and I think it was around January when my first paycheck came," she told Business Insider. "My jaw dropped because of how much money I made off just AdSense."
Why she earned so much:
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Kulani has a relatively high CPM (cost per 1,000 views) rate - usually between $5 and $10, she said - because she doesn't use profanity or songs that are copyrighted.
She also said she optimized her ad revenue by sometimes placing an ad break before something suspenseful is about to happen.
