Reinvesting adsense revenue to further growth.

AquariumCoop

AquariumCoop

Active Member
So I want to reinvest my channel's revenue into advertising. I'm looking to have healthy discussion and hear from those who are doing the same/share experiences of what is working etc.

Currently my channel is at 33k, and growing by 3k a month. I feel like I have spent lots of time learning about titles, tags, descriptions, algorithm and what type of content my viewers like. I'd now like to focus on maintaining the foundation that is there and learn how to advertise to increase reach. I feel that with a solid foundation and 350+ videos under my belt, if I can drive new viewers to my youtube channel I have a decent chance at converting them to stick around.

Schedule Wednesday, Friday, Sunday videos, Sundays are live streams of 1-2 hours.
Current stats.
Last 7 video average of views: 7350 views per video on average.
Live Stream retention: 20ish percent / 19-20 minutes watched
Normal Videos: 54% average 5-10 minutes watched
Last 28 Day Channel Stats.
9 minutes average duration
20% viewed
4.6 million watch minutes
515k views

So with that, barring I release a smash hit video that gets picked up by the algorithm while testing, I'd like to invest channel revenue back into advertising. Currently it's over 1k a month so I think 1k a month is enough to start finding where it would be beneficial to advertise.

Things I have tinkered with in the past.
Facebook Advertising
Youtube Advertising
Give Aways
Sending free products to other youtubers

Here is a list that I haven't really tried.
  • Promoting a new release video hard on youtube. Best practices to pull it off? Unlisted video while it gets approved? Can you get a private video approved etc?
  • Promoting a new release video hard on facebook. Native upload to facebook with call to action to youtube? Just promote youtube link itself there? How much to invest? I think the largest I've ever spent on a single video is probably like $50.
  • Buying a shout out from someone in my niche if I can find it?
  • Twitter paid promotional post? I'm new to twitter and am very uncertain of returns of paid advertisement there.
  • Attempting to sponsor things like facebook groups. This could be with product or money etc.
  • Public Speaking, I could schedule events and fly myself out etc. Currently I have some lined up where I'm being flown out to speak etc.
  • Invest $1,000 into content. Meaning, buy a plane ticket/ things that will make for extra good content.
I'm looking for other options too. I'm not sure what type of metric I'm looking to use as an indicator. Cost per view? Cost per subscriber etc. I know that subs are basically just a visual, but need to choose some type of metric to judge what is performing better than another action.

I'll be glad to share my results, and appreciate hearing from anyone who is already employing some of these tactics.
 
I'm not sure about most of that, but I had an Adwords worker contact me and say to make five 30-second cuts of my videos and have about $3,000 to spend and then she'd help me make the most of it from there. I never took her up on it, but it sounds pretty solid. I wonder how much it would help to do that.

You have awesome watch time. How much are you making for the last 28 days? I'm surprised at your revenue for your watch time. Here are my current stats for comparison:

20k subs. 1k subs a month.

Last 7 video average of views: 1,974 views per video on average.
No Live Streaming

Last 28 Day Channel Stats.
34% average retention
43 seconds watched
1.2 million watch minutes
1.6 million views
$1,415 estimated revenue
 
I'm at $1410 estimated for the last 28 days. It's interesting that you have so many more views, but less time, and essentially it's the same payouts.

I know that the live streams kill my retention time etc. But they build such a great community. I am focusing on growth and actual viewer experience even if I feel like I might do better algorithm wise without the live streams.

I'm leery with an adwords worker. When I talked to them in the past I felt like I knew more than the rep did when it came to it. I feel like they are there to get people to advertise who have never done it before, not people who are actually trying to measure ROI on it etc. I could be completely wrong and maybe they can do some magic voodoo on their end to get extra oomph etc. I've just always strayed away from it.
 
Another interesting thing is that the algorithm seems to rate my channel and determine a daily quota of views I can get based on it. This theory comes from 2 things. The first is that I read someone explaining something like this on an article, likely on here.

The second comes from some weird happenings on my channel. See, I have a gateway video. My channel effectively started when this video got suggested on a really popular video on a really popular channel in April 2015, presumably because my video was up 4 months before it and had accumulated 15,000 views already. For a while almost all my views came from this video. Then it waned in popularity and leveled off. It is still responsible for about 18% of my monthly views and 25% of my monthly revenue, as well as about 1% of my other views from my other videos being suggested on it.

Well, back in October, that video was taken down because I got a copyright claim on it and wouldn't back down on it. I was dreading the hit my channel would take from this video being down. Turns out there was a slight dip initially, then my total views were back to normal levels after a day or so. A lot of it was from 2 really well-performing videos I had recently uploaded, so I looked forward to when my gateway video came back up. When it did, there was no noticeable change in overall view levels.

Now I have 2 videos down, and both of them are in the top 5 for views-per-month. No difference in total daily or weekly views before or after them going down, besides the normal December increase. It could all be coincidence, but it seems mighty fishy.
 
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My battle plan for tomorrow's video:

It is same content type as my most viewed video, which is at almost 500k. I'm pinning a comment there to link to this one. I'll do the same in the new video to link back to it, End Cards will link to each other etc. When the video launches, share it to facebook, promote that post to targeted keywords around my channel. Spend $300 for 48 hours. Share to twitter and spend $100 there and see how that goes as well.

I'll do the normal amount of promoting for all videos that I would normally do otherwise.
 
AquariumCoop said:
My battle plan for tomorrow's video:

It is same content type as my most viewed video, which is at almost 500k. I'm pinning a comment there to link to this one. I'll do the same in the new video to link back to it, End Cards will link to each other etc. When the video launches, share it to facebook, promote that post to targeted keywords around my channel. Spend $300 for 48 hours. Share to twitter and spend $100 there and see how that goes as well.

I'll do the normal amount of promoting for all videos that I would normally do otherwise.
Click to expand...
You have inspired me to look into Adwords again. I think I'll try putting a portion of my Adsense earnings toward this and see how it goes. I'll make several short videos that contain scenes from videos of my different playlists, set them as unlisted, and see what kind of impact it has.
 
Idec Sdawkminn said:
You have inspired me to look into Adwords again. I think I'll try putting a portion of my Adsense earnings toward this and see how it goes. I'll make several short videos that contain scenes from videos of my different playlists, set them as unlisted, and see what kind of impact it has.
Click to expand...

I don't get it - why run ads on unlisted vids? This only makes sense if you run them as in-stream pre-roll ads, is that what you plan on doing?
Why not make a 30 second compilation and run with that, the vid will get regular traffic on your channel, and can also serve as a pre-roll.[DOUBLEPOST=1482519188,1482518625][/DOUBLEPOST]
AquariumCoop said:
So I want to reinvest my channel's revenue into advertising. I'm looking to have healthy discussion and hear from those who are doing the same/share experiences of what is working etc.

Currently my channel is at 33k, and growing by 3k a month. I feel like I have spent lots of time learning about titles, tags, descriptions, algorithm and what type of content my viewers like. I'd now like to focus on maintaining the foundation that is there and learn how to advertise to increase reach. I feel that with a solid foundation and 350+ videos under my belt, if I can drive new viewers to my youtube channel I have a decent chance at converting them to stick around.

Schedule Wednesday, Friday, Sunday videos, Sundays are live streams of 1-2 hours.
Current stats.
Last 7 video average of views: 7350 views per video on average.
Live Stream retention: 20ish percent / 19-20 minutes watched
Normal Videos: 54% average 5-10 minutes watched
Last 28 Day Channel Stats.
9 minutes average duration
20% viewed
4.6 million watch minutes
515k views

So with that, barring I release a smash hit video that gets picked up by the algorithm while testing, I'd like to invest channel revenue back into advertising. Currently it's over 1k a month so I think 1k a month is enough to start finding where it would be beneficial to advertise.

Things I have tinkered with in the past.
Facebook Advertising
Youtube Advertising
Give Aways
Sending free products to other youtubers

Here is a list that I haven't really tried.
  • Promoting a new release video hard on youtube. Best practices to pull it off? Unlisted video while it gets approved? Can you get a private video approved etc?
  • Promoting a new release video hard on facebook. Native upload to facebook with call to action to youtube? Just promote youtube link itself there? How much to invest? I think the largest I've ever spent on a single video is probably like $50.
  • Buying a shout out from someone in my niche if I can find it?
  • Twitter paid promotional post? I'm new to twitter and am very uncertain of returns of paid advertisement there.
  • Attempting to sponsor things like facebook groups. This could be with product or money etc.
  • Public Speaking, I could schedule events and fly myself out etc. Currently I have some lined up where I'm being flown out to speak etc.
  • Invest $1,000 into content. Meaning, buy a plane ticket/ things that will make for extra good content.
I'm looking for other options too. I'm not sure what type of metric I'm looking to use as an indicator. Cost per view? Cost per subscriber etc. I know that subs are basically just a visual, but need to choose some type of metric to judge what is performing better than another action.

I'll be glad to share my results, and appreciate hearing from anyone who is already employing some of these tactics.
Click to expand...

It's a good strategy to reinvest revenue back into a channel. I've done last year's taxes with my accountant that included several months of Yt revenue. His biggest advice was reinvest into the business - upgrade equipment, do advertising, business trips, etc, run it at 30% (based on our channel projected revenues) to offset tax. Otherwise the $ you could have spent improving the channel/business will just go to the IRS/ATO/Your Local Friendly Tax Collector with no benefits to you.

As to where to spend advertising dollars, I would say find out where your audience is. Compare the costs of reaching them. $100 on Tw vs Fb vs Yt will get you different returns in terms of views, subs, earned views, flow on effects. Your content bids well to start a dedicated Fb group, not sure if there are any there already. Definitely public speaking, that would work well to build you up as an expert in the area.

What do you mean in $ terms promoting a video hard? Have you experimented with this?
 
KiddieToysReview said:
I don't get it - why run ads on unlisted vids? This only makes sense if you run them as in-stream pre-roll ads, is that what you plan on doing?
Why not make a 30 second compilation and run with that, the vid will get regular traffic on your channel, and can also serve as a pre-roll.
Click to expand...
I was going to do a 30 second compilation, but I thought those would look weird on my channel, like having a trailer for a show be one of the episodes of the show.
 
KiddieToysReview said:
I

What do you mean in $ terms promoting a video hard? Have you experimented with this?
Click to expand...

Well today's video I have spent $400 promoting it. Typically I'd spent maybe at most $25 on facebook etc. The paid advertising has always been a "i'll learn to do that later". I've decided that later has come and the time is now.[DOUBLEPOST=1482528173,1482527173][/DOUBLEPOST]
KiddieToysReview said:
I don't get it - why run ads on unlisted vids? This only makes sense if you run them as in-stream pre-roll ads, is that what you plan on doing?
Why not make a 30 second compilation and run with that, the vid will get regular traffic on your channel, and can also serve as a pre-roll.[DOUBLEPOST=1482519188,1482518625][/DOUBLEPOST]

It's a good strategy to reinvest revenue back into a channel. I've done last year's taxes with my accountant that included several months of Yt revenue. His biggest advice was reinvest into the business - upgrade equipment, do advertising, business trips, etc, run it at 30% (based on our channel projected revenues) to offset tax. Otherwise the $ you could have spent improving the channel/business will just go to the IRS/ATO/Your Local Friendly Tax Collector with no benefits to you.
Click to expand...

I realize this should go in a different part of the forum. But it is my understanding that if say you made 100k from youtube, you'd have 100k income. Then you would deduct your expenses, which would be trips, advertising etc. So lets say you spent 30k. You'd still be taxed at a normal rate with the remaining 70k. The higher the income the more tax you pay on the higher income. Essentially I look at things my business purchases as being discounted roughly 30%. So at the end of the year, I could choose say to take 7k cash and put it in the bank, and 3k to the government. Or I can buy a 10k car. They would net the same. However if I spend 3k on a car, and take 7k in cash, 30% of that 7k will still go to the government.
 
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