YouTube Influencer Earnings Calculator

When people think of online videos, one word immediately comes to mind: YouTube. YouTube was created in 2005, as a way for people to share short-form video content with others, using the World Wide Web.

Since its creation in 2005, YouTube has become a means of communication for people all over the world. Web users can find any type of content, whether it’s a song from their favorite artist or an interview with a politician.

Without a doubt, the platform has the ordinary content creator incredible opportunity. Now, thousands of people rely on YouTube to make a living.

YouTube is similar to other platforms in that a class of users called influencers has developed.

Influencers are social media users who have such a large following that they can charge brands to promote products or services to their audience. Brands seeking to gain exposure work with YouTube influencers, paying them to promote their brand in videos.

Consider a popular user such as PewDiePie. PewDiePie is a user with 103M followers. In 2018, it was reported that he made over $10M from YouTube. YouTube influencers make money in a variety of ways, namely traffic and sponsorships. If a YouTube influencer is popular enough, they can make money from appearances, as well as selling apparel.

Today, marketing agencies spend millions of dollars a year paying influencers to promote brands. However, there is little clarity regarding how much a YouTube influencer should make per video, based on key metrics. Here are two key things to consider regarding the potential earnings of a YouTube influencer.

What determines potential earnings

Let’s take a look at how users make money on the platform, and what determines the potential earnings of a YouTube influencer.

1. Subscribers

One of the most important metrics on YouTube is the number of subscribers a user has. Subscriber counts mark the difference between casual video posters, and serious entrepreneurs, seeking to spread their message.

Subscribers are important because they are users who automatically receive videos when a user posts them. The more subscribers a user has, the larger their audience is. This is important for brands to consider because more subscribers translate to greater engagement. Greater engagement translates to greater visibility for the brand or impressions.

Consider two YouTube influencers, LoganPaul and PewDiePie. If a brand were to consider working with either of them, PewDiePie would cost much more, since he has 103M subscribers, while Logan Paul has 20.3M subscribers.

2. Engagement

Another key factor to consider is engagement across the channel. Many statistics give a full picture of engagement, but the main ones are ratings, average views, and comments.

A user with high ratings on a video is likely to have their content suggested to other users by the YouTube algorithm, increasing the number of views per video. Users who tend to make content that gets downvoted are less likely to be suggested to subsequent users.

Average views per video change based on the user, but some YouTube influencers can post a video and immediately receive 1M views, while others won’t reach 1M views for several weeks. Taking a full accounting view counts is an opportunity to fully understand the exposure and impressions you might expect by working with a certain YouTube influencer.

Comments are also important. More comments indicate that users are interacting with posted content, augmenting the overall level of engagement.

If across these three factors, a user seems to have relatively high engagement, they are likely to have higher potential earnings per video and offer higher earned impressions.

3. Click-through rate (CTR)

Click-through rate is a key performance indicator for brands working with online channels to increase exposure. A Click-Through Rate is the ratio of users who click on a specific link to the total number of users who viewed it. Most of the time, when a brand works with a YouTube influencer, the user will announce at the beginning of the video that the content is sponsored and that there is a link in the description where the user might learn more about the brand.

Users who are skilled at conveying this message will have a high CTR, while if the sponsor is not properly integrated into the video, the CTR will be lower. Users with higher CTR have greater potential earnings. Being a sponsor of a video is not enough; users must also engage with the link, promo code, etc. to demonstrate that the brand has earned exposure.

Here at NinjaOutreach, our team has developed a YouTube earnings calculator, which takes into consideration all of these factors to determine how much a YouTube influencer should charge per campaign. Let our team guide you through the confusing process of influencer marketing! If you are wondering how much you can earn through ads alone, check out our ads earnings calculator.

Don't forget to check out our calculators for Instagram and TikTok:

• Instagram earnings calculator
• TikTok earnings calculator