Yellow dollars - limiting the display of ads on YouTube

Limited or no ads, commonly known as the "yellow dollar" in the world of YouTube, is the bane of, among others, the creators who have decided to post content relevant to society, but controversial, in their videos. This problem is also faced by YouTubers who record videos more casually or under the influence of emotions, which often involves the use of inappropriate language or other topics because of which YouTube automatically limits the display of ads.

Creators often feel that "yellow dollars" are awarded for no reason or a bit overzealously. They are also surprised that monetization is limited to films that are willingly watched, very valuable to viewers, and created in good faith. Why is this happening?

The first thing to understand is that the advertisers who pay to show ads on our videos have their goals and requirements. Most do not want their products or services to be displayed in the context of vulgar, controversial, provocative, negative emotions, and so on. When creating content on YouTube, let's ask ourselves the first question: As an advertiser, would I like my brand, product or service to be advertised in a given context during this video?

Another thing to note is that when evaluating whether our publication is suitable for advertising, YouTube checks more than the video itself, and the dialogue and images contained in it. Titles, descriptions, tags, and thumbnails are also taken into account. For example, the thumbnail itself can be a reason to restrict monetization if it contains vulgar text. So before publishing, make sure that all of the content listed above complies with the guidelines for videos suitable for advertising.

A very important thing when assessing whether a video is suitable for monetization is the context. Gameplay during which there are occasional scenes of violence qualifies for full monetization because it does not focus on violence, and the author only presents the course of gameplay in a given game. On the other hand, a compilation of only scenes of violence from the same video will qualify for limited monetization as the main theme is violence.

Sexual themes in artistic content, such as music videos, may be eligible for full monetization and will receive a "yellow dollar" in other contexts. To help you evaluate the video correctly, context can be added not only during the recording process but also in the title, description, tags, and thumbnail. For example, if controversial content is presented in an educational context, it is good to highlight it in the metadata (title, description, tags, thumbnail). Otherwise, the display of advertisements may be limited.

YouTube's system of self-rating videos when uploading to the channel is probably already available to most members of the Partner Program. If you have access, do not take this step lightly. It may be tempting to mark each upload that there is no content unsuitable for advertisers as this is faster, but we strongly recommend that you review the guidelines and take the time to do a thorough self-assessment.

Otherwise, we can fall into a vicious circle, because the more bad ratings we have, the more rigorous the YouTube system will be when checking subsequent uploads in terms of their suitability for monetization. This can result in a "prophylactic" restriction of ads in the case of the slightest doubt, and it will take us up to 3 months to get out of this vicious circle - YouTube takes into account our self-rated ratings from the last 90 days when checking videos. If our ratings are accurate, YouTube will take them into account when verifying uploaded videos and the number of automatically awarded "yellow dollars" should be lower.

If you are unsure whether a video is suitable for full monetization, it is better to rate it as inappropriate and ask YouTube to review it. Such reports, according to information from the support pages, should be processed faster than those where we have enabled full monetization and disagree with YouTube's rating. In addition, these reports are not counted as faulty ratings that negatively affect the entire channel.

One last thing worth mentioning is that the system that automatically rates our videos is not perfect. Often, it will not be able to correctly deduce in what context a given topic is presented and monetization will only be enabled after manual verification by a YouTube verifier.

So, don't be afraid to ask for a review if you're sure the video doesn't violate YouTube’s ad-friendly video guidelines.

Sources:

Guidelines for creating ad-friendly videos:https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en&sjid=1744715139601951536-EU

Best practices for creating ad-friendly content:https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9348366?hl=en&sjid=1744715139601951536-EU

General about self-rated videos on YouTube:https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7687980?hl=en&sjid=1744715139601951536-EU

The importance of context:https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6345162?hl=en&sjid=1744715139601951536-EU