Creators earn on average from about EUR 350 to nearly EUR 6,800 per single collaboration with a brand (though collaborations valued at over EUR 23,000 also occur), and subscription earnings of the most popular Polish YouTube creators reach nearly EUR 6,800 per month – according to a study conducted by GetHero agency and the APYnews portal.
The most popular thematic category among Polish YouTubers is gaming. AdSense ad revenue is the most commonly declared source of income – as many as 96 percent of surveyed YouTubers gave this answer. Creators also earn from branded content, events, streams, and their own online stores. As many as 73 percent of surveyed YouTubers collaborate commercially with brands (marketers).
The authors of the report – GetHero agency and the APYnews portal (www.apynews.pl) – surveyed a pool of 104 creators active on YouTube, representing various types of channels and presenting various video content. According to this study, the most popular topic that YouTubers deal with is gaming – nearly half of those surveyed are involved in this category. Lifestyle and entertainment achieve very similar results – 29 and 24 percent of respondents represent such channel types, respectively. Gameplays and vlogs make up the largest share of content on the surveyed channels, at 24 percent each. Among popular content, one can also distinguish Q&A and unboxings.
- One of the more interesting comparisons in the report is undoubtedly YouTubers' earnings. According to the declarations of surveyed YouTubers, the difference between the lowest and the highest average earnings for a single collaboration with a brand can be very large. Through a campaign, a creator can earn on average from PLN 1,475 (the average value of earnings defined in the study as the minimum for a single collaboration) to PLN 29,287 (the average value of valuations given as maximum), although it should be remembered that amounts for a single collaboration sometimes exceed PLN 100,000 – says Tobiasz Wybraniec, CEO of GetHero agency.
The authors of the report also checked the subscription-to-earnings relationship. As a rule, the results are not surprising – the more subscribers a creator has, the more they earn per month. For smaller creators (up to 250,000 subscriptions), these are amounts in the range of PLN 3,700-4,500 per month, while for the largest ones (from 500,000 subscriptions): PLN 13,000-27,000.
The results in the table showing the ranges of creators' monthly earnings are interesting. Here too, the results are very extreme. The vast majority – as many as 82 percent of respondents – declared that they earn on average from PLN 1,000 to PLN 10,000 per month, including 53 percent declaring the range of PLN 1,000-5,000 and 29 percent the range of PLN 5,000-10,000. Only 18 percent are among the highest earners (above PLN 10,000, in the ranges of PLN 10,000-25,000, PLN 25,000-50,000, and PLN 50,000-100,000). One percent of respondents declared that they earn nothing at all besides AdSense ads (therefore they were not included in the chart). The above data allows us to conclude that the 20 percent of the "most profitable" YouTubers earn more than the other 80 percent.
Overall, a creator active on YouTube (from the surveyed pool) earns an average of PLN 9,181. For gamers the average is PLN 6,625, for channels in the entertainment category slightly less – PLN 6,500, while creators in the lifestyle category earn the most – an average of PLN 13,166.
The most commonly declared source of income is that from AdSense ads – as many as 96 percent of surveyed YouTubers gave this answer. Second place went to Branded Content – 75 percent. Creators also earn from events, streams, and their own online stores.
At the same time, they often decide to collaborate for free. Over 70 percent of respondents confirm that they have taken part in a free campaign with a brand, and as the main reason YouTubers cited collaboration for charitable purposes. According to the report, they also decide to collaborate without pay because the campaign topic is close to their hearts or they simply like the brand. It is also worth noting that 13 percent of respondents cite their manager's fault, or simply being scammed, as the reason for a collaboration for which they received no money.
Barter is also very popular among YouTubers – 3/4 of respondents confirm that they have collaborated on such terms. This type of collaboration has been undertaken by 65-80 percent of gaming, entertainment, and lifestyle creators; only 20-35 percent of creators do not engage in barter collaborations at all.
The study was conducted through telephone and e-mail interviews, directly with YouTube creators. The group of YouTubers was selected on the basis of diversity in terms of the number of subscriptions they have. The authors of the report intend to repeat the study cyclically every year.
GetHero (www.gethero.pl) is an independent Polish YouTube partner network and at the same time a creative agency collaborating with influencers and marketers.
APYnews (www.apynews.pl) is a portal dedicated to the broadly understood topic of YouTube and YouTube creators.
