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Twitch currently pays its streamers $3.50 USD CPM. This means that the streamer will receive $3.50 for every 1000 people who see an ad on a streamer’s channel. The length of the ad doesn’t matter; a 15-second ad will pay the same as a 3-minute ad.
For running ads on your channel, you will need to gain access to the ad feature. Using the ad feature on your channel is not that hard, first you will need to become a Twitch Affiliate. After becoming a Twitch affiliate, you can use the feature with ease. The option of using ads was first introduced by Twitch in October 2019. For an affiliate, the option to run ads will be automatically available on your channel.
What Are The Types of Ads on Twitch?
- Pre-roll ads
They are the video ads that the viewer sees when entering a channel. This is similar to the other video broadcasting services.
- Regular ad breaks
In regular ad breaks, the streamer has the freedom to decide when to show an ad during his stream. Earlier, if streamers chose to run an ad video during a break, then the streamers disappeared from the screen, and the ad appeared on the entire screen. Recently, Twitch introduced the Picture-By-Picture feature. With this feature, viewers can now see the streamer in a small window while watching the ad video. This new feature is receiving a lot of interest from the streaming community around the world.
The default option on Twitch is to show pre-roll ads. To change the default setting, the streamer will have to change their channel settings and opt out of pre-roll ads. To do this, streamers are asked to run an ad break of 60 seconds in order to avoid pre-roll ads by Twitch. Now, pre-roll ads will not be shown on their channel for 20 minutes.
Do’s and Don’ts for Running an Ad on Twitch
Do’s:-
- Keep ad breaks to a minimum to gain momentum at the start of the stream.
- Play ads while you take a short break or whenever you go to do something.
- To reduce viewer loss chances run ads at an hourly interval.
- Roll ads of medium length.
- Keep ad breaks that are 60 seconds.
- Make your audience aware before running an ad.
- Announce an ad-dependent or ad-free stream.
- Your preferred ad-rolling keys should be set and fixed on your stream deck.
- Try to keep your Twitch dashboard open.
- Ensure that your viewers are feeling the right vibe for an ad break in the channel as well.
Don’ts:-
- Avoid running an ad when your current viewership is lower than your average.
- Avoid using pre-rolls so that new viewers get ample time to appreciate the content before they see an ad.
- When you are in the middle of content creation or entertainment, don’t play ads.
- Don’t change the length of your ad break often.
- Try to be consistent with your ad breaks.
- Pay attention to the wishes of your viewers and also listen to what they say.
- If you receive complaints about too many ads being shown, think about reducing them.
How Much Do Streamers Make From Twitch Advertisements?
Earnings from advertisements are based on CPM (cost per mile). The CPM is determined by the following parameters which are mentioned below. The ranking is based on the level of importance:-
- The number of concurrent viewers.
- Location of viewers geographically.
- Age group and gender of the viewer who is watching the stream.
- The type of game that you are streaming.
- Seasonality of the video being streamed (Generally, during holidays, CPM rises).
From the above explanations, one might be clear now that ad revenue varies. The revenue generated by broadcasting an ad video may range from $2 to $10 per 1 thousand ad view impressions depending on various factors mentioned above. Generally, twitch streamers keep 50% of the revenue generated by advertisement with them; this 50% might go up to 80% or 90%. Also, streamers are working on Twitch as partners, and then this % might be different for each individual Twitch affiliate.
Let us look at the following example to understand better how ad revenue is generated. Suppose you are an affiliate who streams 5 times a week and has an average of 500 CCV (concurrent viewers) per stream. You show up an ad after every 20 minutes during your 5-hour stream. You have a target audience that mostly consists of mature people residing in the US.
Considering all of the information, your daily income should be around $30 during peak months, i.e., October to December.
The calculation is provided below:
We take a CPM of $8 due to the demographics of the viewers. We get $0.0008 X 250 views per ad = $0.2 per ad (only 50% viewers because of ad-block).
By taking 3 ads per hour X 5 hours per stream, we get 15 ads or $3 per day.
Likewise, with 20 streams a month X 15 ads per stream, we get 300 ads or $60 per month. On average, we take 50% of $60 = $30 per month.
The minimum per viewer impression is 0.002 cents, and the maximum per viewer impression is 0.01 cents on Twitch. Twitch ad revenue payments from Twitch will be sent to your account after 15 days in the current month.
Also, each Twitch partner receives an individual contract in which details about their personal rates are provided. These individual and unique contracts make it difficult to have an actual figure. Twitch partners are made to sign an NDA, i.e., a Non-Disclosure Agreement. With this agreement, Twitch partners or streamers are restricted from disclosing how much they actually make from ads to anybody.