YouTube Improves Monetization Speed with More Manual Reviews

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YouTube is making it easier for creators to monetize their content in the coming months. The popular platform seems to be adding a layer to a currently automated system that can put some videos in the “limited or no ads” category.

If the updated policy rolls out as YouTube intends, all videos rated as “limited or no ads” will be reviewed by a human within 24 hours. The “limited or no ads” icon is generally applied to videos that a creator has enabled monetization for, but YouTube’s system believes does not meet their “advertiser-friendly content guidelines.”

In a YouTube Help Community post titled “Testing improvements to ad suitability reviews” Team YouTube’s Jenson wrote:

“To improve the accuracy of our yellow icon decisions and get your videos monetizing faster, we are experimenting with automatically sending videos that receive a “Limited or no ads” rating for an additional review. This means that in some cases, we may review a newly uploaded video, even if visibility is set to private, and some monetization decisions may take up to 24 hours. We’re rolling this out to a small percentage of creators at first, but we’ll keep you posted on our plans to expand it to all creators that monetize with ads.“

The policy change could be big news for smaller channels.

The move is significant as many creators, especially those with channels too small to attract third-party sponsorship, rely on YouTube as a revenue stream. Content which is flagged as “limited or no ads” won’t receive as much or, in some cases, any ad revenue.

Creators can currently launch an appeal when a video receives a “limited or no ads” rating, and that appeal will lead to a review similar to the one provided in the new policy.

However, the changes will likely save channels a lot of time, potentially increasing both reach and revenue. Under the current system, it may take a creator some time to notice their video has received a “limited or no ads” icon, and then that creator has to fill in a form to lodge the appeal.

As things stand, the new policy only applies to a “small percentage of creators,” though YouTube seemingly has plans to roll it out to everyone who posts content on the platform.