So, you’re probably looking to start a channel, but you want it to be profitable.
If you identify the niches that pay the most, you will earn more from the ads shown in your videos.
You don’t have to create an entire channel about that niche, you can simply talk about them in specific videos, and you’ll get paid more for that video.
Our business has survived on high CPM ads for the last 10 years, so we have a few things to teach. We’ll explain everything you need to know here.
Table of Contents
The 30 Most Profitable YouTube Niches
The higher the bid from the advertisers, the higher CPM your video will get. Here is the full list of the most expensive niches for advertisers that we’ve found.
| Niche/Keyword | Low Bid | High Bid |
|---|---|---|
| Email Marketing | $14.55 | $50.0 |
| Insurance | $15.63 | $49.52 |
| Sell House | $10.87 | $47.31 |
| Website Hosting | $13.6 | $39.86 |
| Ecommerce Software | $9.22 | $33.29 |
| Donate | $5.16 | $32.36 |
| Lawyer | $5.74 | $24.43 |
| Credit Card | $6.75 | $20.3 |
| Attorney | $4.67 | $20.29 |
| Casino | $2.64 | $19.35 |
| E Commerce | $7.26 | $17.99 |
| Mortgage | $5.45 | $16.21 |
| Seo | $3.38 | $15.3 |
| Online Business | $2.88 | $15.25 |
| Vpn | $2.73 | $14.5 |
| Loans | $4.19 | $13.22 |
| Cryptocurrency | $2.26 | $11.94 |
| Drop Shipping | $2.5 | $11.82 |
| Home Repair | $3.44 | $11.04 |
| Weight Loss | $2.55 | $9.98 |
| Content Creation | $2.91 | $9.73 |
| Credit | $2.01 | $9.67 |
| Career Advice | $2.53 | $9.16 |
| Auto Repair | $3.0 | $8.87 |
| Degree | $2.22 | $8.63 |
| Trading | $1.6 | $7.18 |
| Personal Finance | $2.26 | $6.97 |
| Invest | $1.48 | $6.74 |
| Software | $1.74 | $6.72 |
| Business Services | $1.95 | $6.4 |
YouTube ads work like an auction for advertisers. The more they pay, the more likely their ads will be shown.
In other words, the higher the average bid, the more CPM your video will have if it’s about that subject.
Low Bid: The lowest amount an advertiser has to pay to have their ads shown in an ad spot.
High Bid: The highest amount an advertiser has to pay to have their ads shown in an ad spot.
There are many more niches like these, but it’s impossible to list them all here. You can find more high CPM niches on your own following this guide.
What makes a niche have higher CPM?
If you read the section above, you now understand that the higher the advertising competition, the higher the CPM you get.
But what makes a niche highly competitive for advertisers?
Several factors can impact your RPM–and the CPM paid by the advertiser in the first place.
- Industries where there’s a LOT of money involved.
Basically, markets that are highly profitable for businesses have tons of advertisers outbidding each other, which brings CPM up.
In highly profitable markets, businesses can afford to spend a lot of money on their ads, and still make a lot of money.
These are the niches that earn real money on advertising.
For example, some of the most competitive markets out there are:
- Health
- Makeup
- Financial
- Relationship advise and dating
- Technology
However, these markets are too big.
Inside them, there are some golden niches that have CRAZY high CPM. You can find these at the top of the page.
2. Geographic location.
Location matters when it comes to CPM, and YouTube charges advertisers that target people from the highest-ranking countries substantially more than they charge for viewers who live in, for example, impoverished Latin countries.
As a result, you may find that where your videos are being played has a significant impact on your revenue.
3. How long the viewer watches the ad.
Some ads allow viewers to simply skip the advertisement–and if the ad gets skipped, the ad doesn’t count against the advertiser, which means that you won’t get paid.
4. How many of your video views are actually accompanied by advertisements
Not every viewer you attract will get an ad.
If there’s not an ad attached to a specific individual viewing your video, chances are, you aren’t going to get paid for it.
There aren’t always enough advertisers for every type of video, and advertisers often choose the specific types of videos they want their ads attached to.
Not only that, users who watch multiple videos in succession won’t see ads in front of all of them, which means that you won’t get paid for those views.
Users may also choose to use ad blockers, — or they may pay for the premium version of YouTube, which can reduce the number of ads they view.
For example…
Older audiences don’t use ad blockers as much and also earn more money on average, so they usually mean a higher CPM.
All of these factors can have a substantial impact on how much you actually receive when someone views your video.
What’s the Average YouTube CPM Per Country?
As we explained above, much of what an advertiser pays per thousand views will vary drastically depending on the country where the viewers live.
YouTube has not told anyone the average CPM per country, but from our experience, the general rule is that first-world — and especially western — countries will give you more CPM because advertisers need to pay more to reach them since there is more competition.
Why is that? Because of GDP per capita. It’s probably impossible for an Algerian audience to earn you as much money as a North American one, just because of the huge GDP per capita difference between these countries.
Americans have much more purchase power, so it’s natural that there are more advertisers competing to reach them so they can get some of that money.
Also, you need a big audience to really know your true CPM.
See, in the following example, the average CPM in Norway hovers around $43.16. In Algeria, that number is $25.
In Canada and the United States, this partner has an average CPM of around $13, while the United Kingdom hovers around $14.16.
In Mexico, on the other hand, the average CPM is just 21 cents, while Georgia and Hungary come in at the lowest CPM, at just .01 cents per mille.
This is for reference only and these numbers won’t look the same for you.
Why?
In these examples, Algeria’s CPM was taken from 1 view while the US from 148 views.
So this is not statistically accurate.
And let me warn you:
Don’t expect your CPM to be even near $20.
The best-earning audiences I’ve ever heard of can only generate around $14 CPM — and that’s a VERY specific niche that is highly profitable.
But from my experience, CPM in the US can vary between $2-$14.
Yes, that’s a huge variance. But that’s just because every audience is different.
Nonetheless, each YouTube channel has a different audience and a completely different CPM.
If your channel is for young Fortnite gamers, they will earn you a lot less money than, for example, an audience of lawyers that are looking to start a business — even if both audiences are from the US.
What does that mean for you?
You can’t control which advertisements play in front of your videos, nor can you control where your viewers come from.
You can, however, market heavily to an audience that is more lucrative –and accept that when it comes to video views, your income may be limited by the language you target and your geographic region.
How to Calculate Your CPM
In order to calculate the CPM of an advertisement, the cost of advertisement is divided by the total number of impressions, then multiplied by 1000.
So your calculation might look something like this:
(Cost of advertisement / total number of impressions) x 1000
If you want to calculate your RPM–that is, your revenue per million views–your calculations start by taking your estimated current revenue, then dividing by the current number of video views and multiplying by 1000.
Your calculation might look like this:
(current revenue / total number of video views) * 1000
This won’t give you an exact picture of exactly how much you should expect for each video view or how much income you can expect over time, but it will give you a basic understanding of how much your video is making.
This simple calculation can also help show you which videos are bigger earners, which means you can produce more, similar content in the future.Â
How Can I Increase my CPM Without Changing The Focus of My Channel?
You can, technically, increase your CPM (or at least the amount of money you make) if you simply play more ads on your videos.
You can choose to make your videos in English or target a country with a higher GDP per capita, but this is not as practical when you already have an audience.
PRO TIP: Want to get more views? Put more ads!
I used to think that putting more ads would be harmful to my channel. I thought that people would get annoyed by them. Thankfully, I noticed that 99% of people don’t mind at all if you put more ads.
This is a secret that YouTube doesn’t tell you, but people that have been doing YouTube for a while have realized that the more ads you put, the more money you make, and the more your video is recommended by the algorithm.
Why does this happen? We can only assume that since YouTube is a business, they will recommend videos that actually make them more money 😉
As a rule of thumb, you should be showing a total of 4 ads per video.
How to increase your YouTube income without getting higher CPM
You don’t have to get a higher CPM to earn a lot of money from YouTube.
There are other ways that don’t involve YouTube ad money. For example:
- Affiliate Marketing: An affiliate link is a special link that can earn you money if people buy the product after clicking on it. One popular way to make money this way is to get products or paid apps that your audience might like, and review them. Give a fair, unbiased review and then add an affiliate link to the product in your video description.
- Creating your own products and selling them: There are tons of product ideas that you can come up for selling to your audience. The ideal thing to do is to create something your audience would want to buy. It can be either digital or physical: an online course, consultations, premium content, merch, etc.
If you want more ideas to make more money on YouTube, check out this post.
Will has been a full-time content creator since 2014. He’s an audio, video, and tech hobbyist dedicated to reviewing products and giving you the best tips he knows to grow your audience.