If you have ads on your video, will YouTube give you more impressions and views? If you have ads turn off will YouTube’s algorithm give you less views and impressions? This 28 day study reveals the shocking data!
if you want the full story about how I grew my YouTube channel to generate $10,000 per month in income in less than 1 year, read this comprehensive blog post that reveals all – https://www.milesbeckler.com/how-to-youtube/
If you are new to YouTube and you want to understand how the algorithm works so you can get the YouTube algorithm promoting your videos, watch this video next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ExS_GzLx-w
This video is going to answer the question based on data. Does YouTube reward videos that have monetization on and have ads turned on? So I’ve published about 700 videos on this channel over the last four and a half years. And I’ve always had ads turned off, but to get all these comments of people saying miles, if you turned on advertising, YouTube would show you more.
And the theory here is that YouTube is main goal is to make money. They make money by displaying ads. Therefore, if I have videos with ads on, they would display me more. Now I don’t believe this belief. I didn’t believe this belief, but I decided to set up a 20 day, 28 day data-driven study to find out does YouTube show videos with ads, more than videos without ads.
And I did a survey here. So I asked all you guys here who are subscribed to my channel. Do you think whether we’re going to get more views or less view with ads turned on 83% of people said, yes, YouTube gives video with ads, more impressions and more views. So obviously this is the common thought and you’re going to be surprised at what we learned.
So the setup, um, I’ve been running. Videos here on my channel, organically without ads to the tune of about 650 videos. It’s closer to 700 at this point in time, uh, over five years. So I have a huge dataset of what my channel growth to 175,000 subscribers and beyond look like and how that performed with ads turned off.
So what I did is I went in. And I turned ads on for about 70 videos. So approximately 10% of my channel. And then after 28 days, I went back into all 70 of those videos and I measured the change from before and after with what my impressions did with the views, did the view duration and the view percentage, which are pretty much always looked upon as you know, the key metrics that YouTube algorithm is taking into consideration.
I hope you found this data driven study of the YouTube algorithm to be enlightening.
Miles Beckler
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great job miles ⭐️
As always. What a great piece of content! Wonderful you xxx
Thanks Miles. Your content is gold as ever. I am not thinking of growing a YouTube any time soon, but still this is great info to keep in my back pocket for when the time is right. I have been following your advise on blogging for a couple of years though. And just when I was beginning to think that the whole blogging thing was fake suddenly I am seeing traffic steadily tricking to my website. Can't thank you enough for encouraging me to unsubscribe from all those fake gurus and put more trust in my own capabilities instead
Great Video Miles….Very interesting stats.
I am not a youtube expert so really cant comment.
However One thing did come to my mind as you were explaining about the last few videos that had less impressions/views etc. I was thinking that could very well be because those videos were actually shown to your existing audience. That audience would be conditioned to seeing no ads in your videos so straight away they would not watch entire videos, that would cause youtube to promote it less etc etc….I would imagine it would be really hard to measure that.
Anyway great video…Look forward to your videos in the future. Thanks
Can you do a social blade breakdown on Samuel Leeds please.
He uses the artificially obtained views/subscribers to establish social proof, this social proof is then used to trick punters into buying his property courses.
Yes he drives the rented car and has the rented mansion and photoshops private jets into his photos.
I just got monetized. Before that my views were going down. Now that my advertising is turned on let’s see what happens
I'm wondering if people who know you, and have followed you for awhile, saw ads on your videos and got confused (because you've never run ads before), so they either clicked away immediately because they were frustrated that you had "sold out" OR they were super curious as to why you changed your mind about running ads and they kept watching, hoping that you would explain. I definitely noticed when you put the ads in because it was very unlike anything you had done before. I fell into the second category, of wondering what changed your mind about ads. Now I know. Haha.
Graham Stephan has entered the chat.
So excited!!! I was scared that the opposite would be true! Game changer!!
So interesting, I just ran a similar test on my channel. I got the same results. Traffic down by 19%. I turned on ads for about 15% of my content. traffic had be very stable until I turned on ads. Question is now is, if we turn ads off, will we get our traffic back? What you think?
2k with only 10% of your video
imagine 100% wow…..miles really rich
When you turned on monetization did you add multiple add breaks in each video? I’ve had 3 in this video alone. I believe they’re sending the traffic that they consider more quality because the watch time is longer based on past interactions on YouTube so that way more ad revenue will be actually acquired from those watchers.
It's been a long while since I've watched one of your fabulous videos, or even read one of your emails (which is how I got here today!). Not because of anything you've been doing but due to craziness and time commitments in my life. Happy to say that I watched this one and, as always, you continue to do great work and offer your viewers excellent info in an engaging and insightful way.
Please keep up the good work!
Can you make a video in the future similar to this one, but with Facebook ads (are they really that important)? Btw, nice video as always.
WOW great video! Blew my mind while watching this video I was already assuming Ads on would be better WOW thanks
Your experiment was too short, Miles. I believe that the negative impact on view % is long-term. It's not the ad at the beginning of the video that annoys people, it's when videos are constantly overloaded with ads. The negative effect of ads compounds over time and 28 days is not enough to see that effect. That's my guess anyway 🙂 Thanks for mining the data for us!!! xx
thank you
Great video and nice to see the REAL facts. PS. I heard that YT will soon show ads on your channel whether you have monetization on or off. It is true? Anyone?
It's a good point, but when I don't use my computer I often skip videos with too many annoying adverts, they get interrupted too often and distract the viewer disrupting the learning experience.
I understand you had to do the case study.
For one who wants to be the best and more useful online marketer, I would never turn on ads 😀
I haven't finished to watch the video, so maybe you will prove me right anyway 😀
The thing is those that really appreciate your content don't mind ads… Yes can be anoying sometimes but ultimately the value you provide far outweighs the occational ads…. That is what I think…plus consumers are so bombarded with ads they are ised to ads in youtube… Engagement would be up makes sens… The longer you keep people on youtube the better for ads revenue for Youtube…my guess… They send more relevant targeted individuals that are more likely to engage trying to keep them on the video longer so they can display more ads…
I always listen to your videos because I know I won't have to deal with ads. It goes back to what you always preach…help people, do what's best for others. I am more likely to get a product from you because you don't show ads. And the ads that are on YouTube these days make you look bad…it associates you with their message.
I'm shocked, I thought for sure it would be opposite! So all these years you've been ad free, wow, I'm new to your channel. I just assumed everyone took advantage of ads for all the reasons you explained. I might try turning my ads off and see what happens. Thanks for sharing your findings.
Your content is truly amazing and has taught me how to start blogging from scratch. I want you to know I'm committed and have been since January 2021, and all in! Thank you, Miles!
Glad you're a caring data guy, not another money maven. You've taught me tons and you now have 10 times the subscribers from when I subscribed.
Could it be possible YouTube is still showing ads even if you’re monetizing?
Awesome thank you for all you have done thats incredible
What happened to your backend cash value of a subscriber. If that decreased with the "ads" peeps and was not covered by the ad income then – kill the ads perhaps.
The fact that you turned off your ads made people believe that you were 'sincere' to teach us good stuff for free. That's the reason I started following you in the first place.