Monetize your live stream

Latest updates

• More flexibility added to the mid-roll ad settings for live streams:
• ‘Let YouTube insert mid-rolls’ during natural ad breaks, and choose between 3 frequency options for how often ads surface. Creators adopting live automated mid-rolls saw, on average, over 20% uplift in instream ad revenue per hour. This uplift was measured by comparing average instream revenue per hour among channels that enabled live auto mid-roll ads compared to channels not enabled (Averaged across 207 countries, January '24)"
• ‘Choose how mid-roll ads appear’ by setting an amount of time between ads or manually selecting mid-roll ad breaks
• New ‘Delay Ads’ feature lets you delay mid-roll ads during important moments of your live stream.
• Now you can set default mid-roll ad settings at the channel level for your live streams rather than copying settings from previous live streams. Check the box to use channel level settings when streaming with an encoder.
• View your ad revenue specifically for live streams in YouTube Analytics.
• New option to insert ads using Elgato’s Stream Deck by downloading the YouTube plugin.

You can earn revenue on your live streams by:

• Turning on ads
• Enabling Super Chat & Super Stickers for Live Chat
• Setting up channel memberships

Note: If the player is embedded on an external site with auto start, ads will be turned off for your live stream.

Ads on live streams

If your channel is monetized and monetization is turned on for your live stream, YouTube will trigger ads to serve on your content. Ad serving is not guaranteed and some viewers may not get an ad. Live streams can be eligible for:

• Pre-roll ads run before the live stream. These ads are viewable on mobile and a computer. Pre-roll ads are automatically turned on for live streams.
• Mid-roll ads run during the live stream. These ads can be automatically or manually inserted.
• Display ads run beside or over content. These ads are viewable on a computer.

Enable mid-roll ads

Enable mid-roll ads for a live stream:

1. Open YouTube Studio.
2. Click Create Go live.
3. Start a live stream now from the Stream tab or schedule a live stream from the Manage tab.
4. From the top, click Edit Monetization.
5. Make sure Monetization is set to On.
6. Choose your live ad settings:
   1. Let YouTube insert ads for you: YouTube serves mid-roll ads to viewers at opportune moments during a live stream and you choose the frequency level of ad breaks:
      1. Conservative: lowest frequency and lowest earnings potential
      2. Balanced: mid-level frequency and medium earnings potential
      3. Aggressive: highest frequency and highest earnings potential
   2. Choose how ads appear:
      1. You can choose the amount of time you want to pass between ads between 6, 12, 18, 24, or 30 minutes.
      2. You can manually select all mid-roll ad breaks.
      3. Note: Your earnings potential may be lower than when you let YouTube insert ads for you.
   3. Note: Even if you have selected automated ads, you can always manually insert additional ads by using the button available in Live Control Room.
7. Click Next and continue setting up your live stream.

Notes:

• It is not guaranteed that all viewers will get a mid-roll ad. If no ad runs, viewers will continue to watch your live stream.
• If a viewer skips the ad or the ad ends, they will rejoin the live stream.
• Your viewers may not see ads at the same time.

Delay a mid-roll ad

If you choose to let YouTube insert mid-roll ads for you, you can delay mid-roll ads during important moments when you don’t want viewers interrupted.

In the Live Control Room, go to the top right and click Delay ads . Mid-roll ads are delayed from displaying for viewers for 10 minutes. A 5-second countdown will surface in the LCR for you before ads resume.

Note: Manually placed mid-roll ads will still display when the delay ads feature is turned on.

Channel level settings for mid-roll ads

Monetized channels without rights management can set mid-roll ad defaults for future live streams at the channel level. Channel level settings let you choose monetization settings that will be the default for any newly created live streams.

To choose your channel level settings: Open the Live Control Room In the bottom-left corner, click Settings .

Notes:

• You can opt in for all ad settings at the channel level when streaming with an encoder.
• Channels with rights management currently don’t have channel level settings.

Live stream ad revenue

You can view a breakout of your ad revenue from live streams and live replays in YouTube Analytics. To view your ad revenue breakout for live streams, select the Live filter.