MrBeast makes approximately $2M from YouTube programmatic content and over $300K per YouTube sponsorship - so, quick math shows that this uber-successful creator makes millions of dollars on the video-sharing platform. You may be saying - well, that’s just one insane YouTuber - how much money do other YouTubers make?
It’s no secret (anymore) that YouTubers can make a lot of money on YouTube. But, exactly how much do YouTubers make? And, how do these YouTubers make this much money? We took a closer look at five different influencers.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty income breakdown, let's quickly cover a frequently asked question - how much do YouTubers make per view? Although there is no 'cookie-cutter' answer because a wide range of factors come into play, the rate usually stands between $0.01 to $0.03 per view - so about $3-$5 per 1000 video views.
Alisha Marie has grown and expanded alongside the ‘lifestyle’ genre on YouTube. All the way back in 2018, Alisha began her YouTube journey by filming and uploading content based on makeup and beauty, but as more and more creators started to make videos about their general lifestyle, Alisha branched out her channel. Though Alisha has been cutting back on the content she’s filming and uploading to her main channel, AlishaMarie, Alisha hasn’t stopped creating content for her second channel, AlishaMarieVlogs, where she’s known to upload more vlog-style videos.
Alisha has had years to build a number of steady streams of income. Along with money she makes on YouTube, Alisha also shares a variety of sponsorships on her social media platforms and of course her podcast, Pretty Basic, which she co-hosts alongside Remi Cruz. This influencer also has a clothing line which she launched with her sister called Parallel Apparel.
When it comes to YouTube, Alisha succeeded in building long-term relationships with a handful of brands. Casetify, a company that designs and produces phone cases and electronic accessories, has sponsored Alisha over 20 times on her vlog channel, racking up over 8 million views. Another example is BetterHelp, an online therapy service, which has sponsored Alisha 8 times and has received over 2 million views.
With the help of ThoughtLeaders’s YouTube sponsorship calculator, we estimate that an ad placement on Alisha’s vlog channel is worth a $0.02 CPV, which means that with the current average views that Alisha receives, ad placement on her channel stands between $6,762 and $9,467. So, to put this in proportion - not taking programmatic ad revenue into account, Alisha Marie can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars from brand sponsorships alone. Now, according to reports, this influencer's estimated revenue from ads appearing on her videos (the ones that appear in the beginning and middle of the video) is $300K a year (only from her vlog channel).
Ryan Trahan is no stranger to going viral on YouTube. His unique, challenge-type videos regularly receive tens of millions of views. In 2021 alone, he amassed 313 million views, 35 million hours of watch time, and gained over 3.3 million new subscribers. His most recent project was a month-long journey in June as Ryan successfully crossed from Los Angeles, California to Greenville, North Carolina, starting with just one penny.
Alongside his YouTube channel, Ryan also founded two of his own businesses - Neptune Bottle, an eco-friendly jug business, and Hydra, a clothing line.
Ryan’s most successful sponsorships were with Squarespace, a website that helps you create your very own website in a matter of minutes with thousands of ready-made templates. The three videos that Ryan collaborated on with Squarespace received over 3 million views.
With the help of our YouTube sponsorship calculator, we’ve discovered that an ad placement on Ryan’s channels is worth a $0.01 CPV, meaning that with the average number of views that Ryan receives (and it’s usually a number in the millions), is approximate ad rate is between $33,035 and $46,249 per sponsorship. When you add in ad revenue, which is estimated to be at about $1.24 million a year, Ryan can afford many more cross-country trips across America, without having to start with just one penny.
If you are wondering how much money do YouTubers make in the niche of Technology, meet Marques Brownlee. Marques has been making tech-related content since 2009, when he started sharing software tutorials and reviews of the newest devices. Today, Marques is one of the most respected voices in the industry - not only does Marques talk about smartphones from Samsung and Apple, but he also focuses on headphones, TVs, and electric cars. Seriously, don’t make a large electronic purchase before checking out what Marques thinks about it.
Marques has also branched out into a number of varying platforms. In addition to his YouTube channel, Marques has his own podcast, Waveform, and has even recently launched a paid premium tier for superfans on Discord. Something you may not know is that Marques is also a professional ultimate frisbee player, and he plays for the New York team.
On his YouTube channel, Marques has been sponsored by ExpressVPN over 10 times, and together, they received over 50 million views. Seems like Marques knows what he’s doing when it comes to brand sponsorships! So, approximately how much money did Marques Brownlee make with just his partnership with ExpressVPN? Well, our YouTube sponsorship calculator estimated that this channel is worth a $0.01 CPV, meaning that with the channel’s average number of views, a sponsorship on this channel stands at around $35K. Quick math - Marques Bronwlee made approximately $350K just from his sponsorship with ExpressVPN.
It’s estimated that in addition to the income Marques is making from sponsored videos, Marques is also generating around $10,000 per day (we’ll do the math for you - that comes out to be around $3.6 million a year), from ad revenue alone.
We have The Hills to thank for getting NikkieTutorials interested in makeup. After discovering ‘The Hills makeup’ on YouTube, Nikkie started making videos on the platform herself. Though initially pursuing a career as a makeup artist, Nikkie was able to become a full-time content creator in 2014 and quickly became one of the top female YouTubers in the beauty genre.
Along with the ad revenue that Nikkie brings in from her incredibly successful YouTube channel, Nikkie has also collaborated with a number of beauty brands like Maybelline, Too Faced, and Ofra, and even launched her very own makeup brand, Nimya, less than a year ago. You may have also seen that Nikkie has begun hosting events, like when she was the online host of the 65th annual Eurovision Song Contest in May this year.
Nikkie’s top sponsorships on her YouTube channel have been with Cash App, a mobile payment service, and Best Fiends, a free match-3-puzzle game that also features in-app purchases. Nikkie’s sponsored video with Best Fiends received over 8 million views!
It’s no surprise that a sponsorship integration is quite expensive on NikkieTutorials channel - I mean, she has close to 14M subscribers and gets an average of 1.8M views on her videos. Our YouTube sponsorship calculator estimated that an ad placement on Nikkie’s channel is worth a $0.013 CPV, meaning that an ad placement on her channel can cost between $37,635 and $52,690. A sponsored video every couple of months means that Nikkie can comfortably make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, from brand partnerships alone. When it comes to ad revenue, the estimate is that Nikkie makes around $580,000 a year on YouTube.
The world is big, but the world of Marvel is even bigger. Lucky for us, we have The Canadian Lad’s YouTube channel to help us understand the hundreds of easter eggs, characters, and plot twists that make up the Marvel-verse.
In addition to the revenue he receives from YouTube, The Canadian Lad also has his own merchandise, like a lot of other YouTubers, though the majority of his income comes from YouTube ads and sponsorships.
The Canadian Lad’s top partnerships were with Skillshare, an online learning platform that offers thousands of creative courses and classes that are taught by experts to help you learn new skills, as well as Surfshark. Skillshare collaborated with The Canadian Lad on 6 videos, which amassed to 21 million views. With Surfshark, The Canadian Lad received over 10 million views with the 3 video collaborations that they did.
Our calculated estimation is that an ad placement on The Canadian Lad’s channel is worth a $0.011 CPV, which means that with his current average views, the suggested ad rate is between $18,813 and $26,339. The estimation for the income that The Canadian Lad brings in from ad revenue is between $2.32 million and $3.25 million, which is more than enough to afford tickets to the upcoming Marvel releases.
Every content creator wants to find at least a portion of the success that MrBeast has achieved, or any of the creators that we mentioned above. With the world of influencer marketing constantly changing and growing, smaller creators are being given more opportunities to have a seat at the table. It’s very possible that in a few years, we will be talking about the salary of these content creators in billions, and not just millions.
We hope that this post helped you get the answer to the question how much money do YouTubers make.
If you are a brand or creator interested in giving our YouTube sponsorship calculator a try, be sure to check it out. If you are a brand interested in working with the top YouTubers, get in touch and we can help find the right creators for you.