YouTube overflows with content. Creators upload more than 500 hours of video every minute.
While some upload casually for fun, many (if not most) content creators on the platform strive to make money for their efforts—whether through monetization, selling products and services off-site, or both.
With 122 million daily active users, it’s easy to see YouTube’s appeal. The potential to connect with customers you may not reach otherwise is high. But it’s also a hard-won race where the risk of getting lost in a crowded digital pool is real.
Unsure if your YouTube channel is working hard enough for you? Here are a few reasons to review your strategy, hide, or even delete your YouTube channel.
Why you might want to delete your YouTube channel
You're in the market for a completely ad-free player
YouTube makes money from displaying ads in videos its algorithm deems advertiser-friendly, whether or not a channel is monetized.
If your channel receives hundreds of thousands of views—and you’re monetized—this can translate into healthy Adsense payouts. If it doesn’t pull those numbers, your subscribers are subject to a less-than-ideal viewing experience.
While YouTube does allow creators to choose ad placements to minimize disruption, even well-placed ads prevent viewers from enjoying the seamless content experience they’d prefer, especially with long-form videos.
If you want your content to be the star of the show, deleting your YouTube channel in favor of an ad-free hosted video player is your best bet.
You want to monetize your content without YouTube
There are plenty of excellent reasons to monetize your content without YouTube.
First, getting monetized isn’t an overnight process. Before you can begin earning money on YouTube by joining its Partner Program, you’ll need to meet the following requirements:
- Comply with YouTube’s monetization policies
- Live in a participating country or region
- Have 1,000 subscribers and at least 4,000 watch hours
- Have an Adsense account linked to your YouTube channel(s)
Second, the details around how monetization works remain murky. No one knows exactly how YouTube’s algorithms determine who earns what—and given that Google takes 45 percent of users’ Adsense revenue, you’ll only keep around half of the money your videos generate.
Lastly, AdSense payouts depend largely on views, subscribers, and the advertiser-friendliness of the content itself. If you’re not earning a consistently high number of views in an advertiser-friendly niche, your earnings will be limited.
You’re not getting the engagement you crave
When your channel engagement suffers, it’s usually time to review your content strategy. Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you targeting a well-defined audience that spends time on YouTube?
- Can you clearly communicate who your content serves and the value it provides?
- Is that value consistently modeled in the videos you publish?
- Can someone visit your channel and understand within seconds what it’s about and whether it’s worth their time?
- …Or is your channel’s content all over the place? 😵💫
Working through these ambiguities to create a cohesive brand experience is an effective way to get more of the right eyeballs on your channel. If your content meets or exceeds their expectations, a steady trickle of like-minded subscribers will likely follow.
All that said, some marketing channels are more effective with certain audiences than others. If you’re a small B2B brand trying to stand out on YouTube, for example, it may be harder to get views because your audience looks for relevant content elsewhere, like LinkedIn.
Instead, share video content on channels where your ideal customers are most likely to appreciate it.
You want higher quality embeds
Just as the “look and feel” of your channel matters when viewers find it on YouTube, how your content appears when embedded on landing pages or other sites also matters. A lot.
You only have a few seconds to capture most people’s attention, and blurry thumbnails or footage can easily foil your mission. If your content doesn’t immediately look polished and professional, or viewers have issues with buffering and playing your vid, they’ll bounce.
When you’re considering video hosting platforms, look for one that is capable of high-speed, high quality transcoding, offers high dynamic range (HDR), and can support video qualities in 4k or better.
If you're looking for a YouTube alternative, Vimeo offers creators tools for video hosting, a text-based video editor, timeline editing features, video graphics capabilities, and an image-to-video converter.
