How YouTube’s Recent Clamp Down is Hurting Creators

May 12, 2017 - Published by: Andrew Chen

A few months ago, advertisers started to flee the YouTube platform after they felt their ads were showing up on videos that they considered not ‘brand safe’. This exodus led to a clamp down by YouTube to try to improve guidelines and give brands more ownership in where their ads are shown. Not surprisingly, this greatly impacted creators, with some stating they’ve seen over 60% drop in their monthly revenues. To better understand the impact, we conducted a study (first published in the New York Times) across 1,200 YouTube creators to assess just how much their CPMs have changed and how it varies by category.

Creators across the board have seen a drop in CPMs; the only categories that saw an increase are Beauty/Fashion, Family/Parenting and Food
Comedy and Gaming experienced the biggest drop with -37% and -29%, respectively. This is not surprising as both categories represent a broad range of content, some of which is not intended for children and could be seen as a gamble for more family oriented brands.

To learn how advertisers can make sure their own influencer relationships are not impacted by these kinds of issues, check out our latest post, How To Avoid YouTube Brand Safety Problems.