YouTube extremely low earnings, revenue in 2016, huge drop in AdSense RPM

[TimothyParker]

Since January 2016 my page RPM has dropped from an average of $1 in 2015 to $0.35 in the first half of 2016. I've change nothing on my channel, but I'm seeing that fewer and fewer of my videos get suggested. My average retention time if about 1 minute, 40% of the views came from US and Canada, 70% of my views are from embedded. Like I said before this data is the same in 2015.

The data as a whole, then per each type of device:

1. In 2015 I had: CPC=0.04; CTR=2.8%; Impressions/View ratio=77%; RPM= $1. In 2016 I had: CPC=0.03; CTR=2%; Impressions/View ratio=52%; RPM=$0.35

2. Tablets, I'm going to show the drop in 2016 from 2015: Impressions: 50% Drop; CTR:30% Drop; CPC:25% Drop.
Mobile Devices (Phones): Impressions: 40% Drop; CTR is the same; CPC: 33% Drop.
Desktop: Impressions: the same; CTR: 60% Drop; CPC is the same.

Conclusions: That extremely low RPM in 2016 ($0.35) was generated by 3 factors: 30% drop in CPC and 50% drop in ads displayed on Tablets and Phones and a 60% drop in CTR on Desktop.
Also if in the past, earnings from South Korea and Japan were pretty good, now they are at the same level with South America. Let's say this: earnings from South America, Asia, East Europe and Russia are about $1-$2/10K of view. They rarely exceed that value.

Have you experienced this drop in page RPM in 2016 ?

Other people are complain about this on YouTube Analytics - Earnings - Community - Google+, but I don't think this drop affected everyone, because there would be much more partners complaining.

If you have any idea about what is going on please share your thoughts !

 

[Larten]

" My average retention time if about 1 minute"

What do you expect ? Youtube no more want to monetize video with little average retention time.

 

[TheAwkwardFamily]

I haven't experienced this because I haven't been that active on Youtube until recently. However I did see that endcards are slowly making their way out to youtubers maybe this will increase it again as they are tablet and mobile friendly?

 

[Lightsen]

2016 earnings started lower, but i got a spike that boosted it.

I have noticed a decrease in PC usage, and a decrease in traffic from youtube search, everything else is doing better than last year for me.
- average watch time around 2:30

 

[TimothyParker]

" My average retention time if about 1 minute"

What do you expect ? Youtube no more want to monetize video with little average retention time.

That was always my retention time (the same in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016). Something had to happened after the usual drop.

The drop happened in one day 26 December 2015 and continued until today. I know that after Christmas advertisers pay less, but earnings should've return to normal until now. I'm on YouTube since 2013 and I have never seen something remotely similar with what is happening in 2016.

I think YouTube change something in their algorithm in 2016, something that affected only a type of partners.[DOUBLEPOST=1466164842,1466163632][/DOUBLEPOST]

I have noticed a decrease in PC usage, and a decrease in traffic from youtube search, everything else is doing better than last year for me.
- average watch time around 2:30

I also noticed that decrease in PC usage, 30% to be more exact. But my $0.35 RPM is quite bad and nothing, but a change in algorithm can explain this. Half of my views are from PC and my CTR for this type of views has dropped from 2% in 2015 to 0.85% in 2016. That is a 60% drop in clicks !!! Why ? The hell if I know. The impressions/ads displayed haven't drop on PC views.

Other people are complain about this on YouTube Analytics - Earnings - Community - Google+ (I can't post links, so search that on google), but like I said, if this affected everyone there should be much more people complaining about this.

 

[Lightsen]

That was always my retention time (the same in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016). Something had to happened after the usual drop.

The drop happened in one day 26 December 2015 and continued until today. I know that after Christmas advertisers pay less, but earnings should've return to normal until now. I'm on YouTube since 2013 and I have never seen something remotely similar with what is happening in 2016.

I think YouTube change something in their algorithm in 2016, something that affected only a type of partners.[DOUBLEPOST=1466164842,1466163632][/DOUBLEPOST]

I also noticed that decrease in PC usage, 30% to be more exact. But my $0.35 RPM is quite bad and nothing, but a change in algorithm can explain this. Half of my views are from PC and my CTR for this type of views has dropped from 2% in 2015 to 0.85% in 2016. That is a 60% drop in clicks !!! Why ? The hell if I know. The impressions/ads displayed haven't drop on PC views.

Other people are complain about this on YouTube Analytics - Earnings - Community - Google+ (I can't post links, so search that on google), but like I said, if this affected everyone there should be much more people complaining about this.

i know for sure my CPM is a lot lower, but im also sure this thing has been going down for years now,

 

[TimothyParker]

i know for sure my CPM is a lot lower, but im also sure this thing has been going down for years now,

Prior to 2016 my lowest RPM/month was $0.45 and that happened just in one month in 3 years. I never got a RPM lower than $0.5 and that was usually for January. But this year is just awful with an average of $0.35.

I change nothing in the way I post videos, so YouTube must have change something. But like I said the changes they made only affected a portion of YouTubers, sadly I'm one of them.

Do you know what is your revenue from regions like South America, Asia, East Europe and Russia (Africa it's not worth mentioning), because mine is about $1-$2 for 10K of views ?!

 

[Shane]

I haven't experienced anything similar, CPM in Q1 is always fairly low but CPM for Q2 so far has been higher than that of Q3 last year and the highest CPMs of a Q2 I've seen so far.

 

[Lightsen]

CPM for:
south america is about 0.3 same as yours
asia is incredibly varied, but in general pretty good.over 1.0
East Europe is very low, around 0.3 again
Russia about 0.5
(im going by a dollar estimate of my GBP currency.)

 

[TimothyParker]

I haven't experienced anything similar, CPM in Q1 is always fairly low but CPM for Q2 so far has been higher than that of Q3 last year and the highest CPMs of a Q2 I've seen so far.

I think only some channels were affected by the changes they've made. I can't find any other answer besides that.

May was the worst month with a $0.25 RPM. It's like never ending nightmare !