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YouTube Ads: A Situation (Patreon)

Published:
2017-09-28 16:07:03
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Team, we have a situation.

YouTube has decided to no longer let you link to Patreon (or any other off-site link) unless you have ads enabled on your channel. This means, if I want Innuendo Studios to stay economically viable, I have to turn on ads. (I'll go into more detail in the next update video - there are a lot of weird hoops you have to jump through.)

Ads are something I promised, out the gate, I'd never turn on if we got above our first milestone. I'm very unhappy that YouTube is tying my hands on this. Ads mean putting myself more at risk for automated or fraudulent copyright strikes, put me in YouTube's crappy ad-supported revenue system, not to mention make watching the videos themselves less pleasant.

A thing I do have control over is what kind and how many ads are put in. I can set it to very few and most unobtrusive settings - banners on the page when you view on desktop, nothing on the videos themselves, nothing on mobile - or I can go whole hog. On the one hand, it seems the lowest settings are the closest to what I want, which is nothing, and gets me my Patreon links back with the least fuss. On the other hand, I've been stuck on this treadmill of trying to make enough money from the channel to focus more attention on it, needing to focus more attention before I can get more patrons, and opening up a new revenue stream would help. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered turning ads on. And if I'm forced to have ads either way, a part of me says, might as well at least make some money at it.

So I'm just throwing this out to you: what are you comfortable with me doing? I think we all want the same thing: enough money from Patreon to maintain a steady schedule and no ads. Since that's not an option, do we opt for a few ads and no real change in income, or more ads and maybe (maybe) more income?

I'll be in the comments.

Files

Comments

Nikki

Isn't it possible to set who you want to advertise on your channel and just uncheck every single kind of advertiser/advertisement or something? Or does YouTube not allow that, or handle that as "ads turned off"? It'd be a workaround to make one part of YouTube think that you have ads enabled while the one responsible for the ads can't show any.

Ken Gagne

What Jannis said—you should be able to enable the channel for monetization, but disable it on a per-video basis. That's what I've done, and I'm still able to link those unmonetized videos to external sites.

5099 5618 v2.0

How much of an increase in Patreonage would it take to offset the possible income gain from the difference between minimal ads and the filled package? Is it possible we could increase our support enough to make the minimum setting a reasonable choice?

5099 5618 v2.0

*the full package (argh, autocorrect)

Ryan Aston

I don't think this latest rubbish from YouTube will last, but regardless, turn them on. No issue here.

Kevin McSharry

I think you should do whatever you can to grow the channel, including running adds until it makes financial sense not to.

Bruno B

anyone who is pissed off at ads uses adblock anyway so don't fret too much about it :)

d0s

Get yourself some ad money! As long as your videos aren't interrupted halfway through by an ad then I'm fine with it.

KSCHatch

Yeah, I have no issue with it. I trust your judgement and I know the struggle of trying to make a living from something meaningful.

Abigail Getman-Pickering

Not having ads is of course nice, but from my perspective, max the ads out. I'd rather have more high quality content and more reward for you.

The Packbats

I'm with Gordon Frelschlad: as long as there aren't ads in the *middle* of videos, I can live with ads. I prefer the minimum ads - there are occasional ad buys that drive me round the twist, like the "Good Goes Round" Cheerios ads that came up recently, or the occasional horror movie/TV ads that are just deeply unpleasant - but I know how to mute the audio and look away when I need to, and honestly, even maximal ads wouldn't stop me from watching your videos.

Gem Newman

It's a bad situation that the platform has put you in, but I'm not going to stop watching either way. Thanks for explaining things.

AV

Go for it dude. I got Youtube Red anyway.

Luis

Yeah I'm with Robin and Gordon here -- barring midroll interruptors I don't see any reason why you shouldn't run as many ads as you feel necessary.

Aaron Anderson

During the recent ad revenue crash I signed up for YouTube Red so it doesn't affect me either way. But I'm fortunate enough to be in a position where I can do that. Ads can be a pain but they're everywhere already anyway. Plenty of other channels already have both ads and Patreon so I say do what you need to do to keep the channel running.

Alex Hambrock

I personally don't mind ads on videos, I'm fine with whatever you go with

Caoimhe Oakreef

I wouldn't mind you putting ads on even with going all in on them and I wouldn't cancel my subscription over it.

Occam's Blazer

I say go for it as well. I use Patreon as a way of offsetting the lost potential revenue for my adblocker, as well as a way to keep tabs on cool creators. Monetize it!

David Gordezky

I say go for more ad revenue to help grow the channel. If you get to a point where you think you can tone them down, do so. As was stated above, as long as ad's do not interrupt the video, I'm a-ok with it. I'd really just like to see the channel grow, personally.

Matt

I say go for whatever you need to do but my opinion should carry little weight as im on Red as well

Bevibel Harvey

You can always enable ads and then individually demonetize every video. I have ad revenue enabled only for old videos I don't actually want people to watch. I'm just fine demonetizing the recent/good videos I actually want people to watch, and youtube still lets me link to patreon. Personally I use adblock and support creators I appreciate directly, so it makes no difference to me :)

Matt Kimmich

I'm okay with it too, along the lines of what everyone's said.

Bryan Hughes

I'm ok it with ads as well, as long as they don't interrupt mid-play. We all want you to keep doing your great work, and if ads help with that, then I think you should do it!

Sean Tannehill

Ads are fine with me. Happy to support you in any way I can, and if it means more money coming your way I'm happy having ads!

Sean

I have a pretty viscerally negative reaction to ads, personally. It sounds like other people don't as much. I would vastly prefer paying for content than have an arbitrary company invade my headspace uninvited. To the actual question - would it be feasible to release raw video content (hosted on S3 or similar?) to patreon supporters at some subscription level? That way you'd keep an ad-free channel open. Small ads vs 30s of full screen ads are basically six to one, half dozen the other as far as I'm concerned.

Kurt Maegerle

Most of my friends either (1) have adblock, or (2) deliberately do not use adblock to support content creators. I may be biased, because I'm a software engineer who works on an ads platform, but I say go for it

Alexander Newcombe

Please do what you need to do to keep creating great videos. If the ads become a problem for me personally, I'd send a message. Please don't make them obstacles (which it sounds like you wouldn't do anyway).

Valentyn

If enabling the ads fully is gonna generate some extra revenue that will make it easier for you to make videos (which is why we're all here - we all really like them), then go for it! As many people have pointed out, those who really dislike ads have them blocked with adblockers, anyway. (And some people may have YouTube Red subscription that removes ads.) Besides, I want you to be happy, and better financial security (while doing something you enjoy) is a part of that :-) So yeah, go for it! :-)

gomollusk

I'm fine with you putting more ads on your channel and hopefully receiving more ad revenue in the process. Good artists deserve to be paid for their work. That's why we're all here. More power to you, Ian.

Samuel Anderson

I've got YT Red so it doesn't matter much to me, but I've often noticed that creators are more uncomfortable running ads than viewers are to see some ads, and it might be helpful to remember that your commitment to your work might be overemphasizing the difference between ads/no ads. Still good on you for checking in since it's in that milestone goal. Good luck with the monetization. I know it's decidedly second tier, but I have seen creators post comments on their own videos (that get upvoted to the top, practically pinned) with links/etc. Might be useful for demonitized stuff.

Micah Huff

If it is what is required to link to patreon, I have no problem with some ads. I do not know if you have this much control, but it would be great if you could prevent YouTube from placing ads in the middle if the video (a rare occurrence, but I have had it happen before), or unskippable 30 second ads. To amplify another idea, I do think it would be great to add a tier where we could download videos ad free from another site.

Oscar Barda

Hey Ian :) Ok so to be clear, we need more info. Considering your content quality, content length and exposure, how much would you typically expect as additionnal revenue? Not knowing this my take on this is: fuck youtube and just tell people to come to patreon, take 20s at the end of the video to explain it to people facing the camera instead of just a link to your patreon. And explain to them that they can find the link bellow or look you up. People who are ready to become your patron will likely take the extra step because they're already willing to take it. So in short: if it's a lot of ad revenue, post a private, non-monetized video for your patrons, and a monetized video for public view.

Jacob Geller

I've got no qualms with you going whole-hog on the ads.

Simon Piano

it's unfortunate because you made no ads a patreon milestone, which would be overturned. I'd consider the lowest ad level not to disturb it significantly, as you need it to continue to have (patreon) links. Still, every patron can decide at any point to revisit whether they want to pledge, and i don't mind ads too much (i will when adblock stops working), so do what you have to do to make videos.

Jonathan Vair Duncan

Hey, Ian. Just turned on Youtube monitization for myself a few days ago, after choosing the most unobtrusive options. Do what you need to do, and thanks for keeping us informed!

Subsequent

I will admit that I pay for YouTube Red, so it doesn't affect me as much, but do what you need to. Maybe make a note in your profile as to why, but otherwise, go for it!

Volnaiskra

There are only 2 types of ads I really dislike on youtube: the ones that are 30sec or longer and won't let you skip them, and the ones that pop-in ununnounced midway through a video. If you can prevent those somehow, I wouldn't care about any other ones (including short/skippable video ads at the beginning of your videos).

Volnaiskra

oh, and if it means more videos from you, then load up on the ads, I say! Your output is terrific though still pretty infrequent, so anything that can help you fund yourself adequately gets an ok from me

Jason Coates

If having ads makes this whole thing more financially feasible, than feel free to fill these videos to the brim with them.

Pierfrancesco Crivellari

Do whatever makes you more money and doesn't compromize the quality of the product. We can survive ads.

Logan

I agree with a lot of these comments - do what you gotta do. It's not-okay that Youtube are tying your hands like this, but, amongst other things, Innuendo is a business. It puts the onus on viewers to be responsible for the ad garbage we ingest, and we should be responsible for this ourselves anyway. Good luck and thanks for the info!

Thomas Waters

If you start making money per view rather than per month, you'll be incentivized to make shorter, more click-bait-y videos (you've said as much yourself). Some content creators can resist that urge, some can't. If those incentives compromise the quality of your work, it would be a real shame. That's why I think you should do whatever it takes to honor your milestone promise.

David Michael Charles Paul

Hi Ian. Personally I'm not to fussed by ads in general. Maybe consider making it a new stretch goal. "At $1400 I will reduce ad's" that sort of thing.