Is YouTube Automation Worth It? | 4 Critical Mistakes That Cause Many People to Fail

August 31, 2023

Is YouTube automation worth it, really? There are certainly quite a few YouTube automation channels out there that generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit. However, there are also a plethora of failed channels that never gained traction on the platform. Those channel owners wasted thousands of dollars on an investment that just didn't pan out. Overall, YouTube automation is a viable online business model, but many aspiring channel owners make some critical mistakes that guarantee their failure. 

In the following article, we take a closer look at YouTube automation, go over some interesting YouTube stats that show the potential of the business model, and discuss how much money you can make and the ways to make it. We also highlight 4 mistakes that cause failure, tell you the best YouTube automation tools to improve your operations, and even reveal one company that is taking YouTube automation to another level to show just how insane the profit potential is for this business model! Just like local lead gen, YouTube automation can be be a great option for those looking for passive income, but is a YouTube automation business worth it for you? Let's find out..

What is YouTube automation?

YouTube automation is an online money making strategy where you automate monetization of a YouTube channel by outsourcing content creation and channel operations to a freelance team. These freelance teams are built by hiring remote workers from online platforms like Upwork and Fiverr to make videos for $30 to $100 or more. YouTube automation channels are faceless channels that usually incorporate stock footage or simple animations with voice overs, so they do not involve a YouTube influencer. There are several ways you can make money from a YouTube automation channel, but the primary method is to join the YouTube Partner Program. Once accepted, YouTube pays you 55% of the ad revenue generated by letting advertisers run ads on your videos.

Some stats that show how YouTube automation is a massive opportunity

To comprehensively answer whether a YouTube automation is worth it, let’s start by looking at some relevant YouTube platform statistics for 2024

  • According to data from Statista, 2.6 billion people around the globe use YouTube. Considering that we recently passed 8 billion people, that means well over a quarter of our planet's entire population uses the platform. 
  • YouTube user growth has been steadily increasing for many years and is expected to hit 2.9 billion by 2025, according to Oberlo. The platform is already one of the most popular places on the internet, and will continue adding to its gigantic audience base. 
  • When looking specifically at USA viewers, 62% use YouTube every day and 98% use it at least monthly. Clearly, the social media platform does well in attracting a massive and engaged audience. 
  • YouTube generated $19.7 billion in ad revenue in 2020, and then $28.8 billion in 2021. YouTube attracts massive advertising dollars and a YouTube creator can benefit substantially from this by letting YouTube ads run on their content. 
  • The average social media user spends 2 hours and 27 minutes on various social platforms daily, and according to Broadband Search, 19 of those minutes are spent on YouTube. YouTube is by no means the most popular social media platform, but it has carved out a fairly significant piece of the market. 

How much money can you make from YouTube automation?

Many aspiring entrepreneurs make little to nothing from their YouTube video efforts. However, some YouTube automation channels, like Bright Side, generate millions of dollars in annual revenue. Realistically, if you start an automation channel in a niche with a decent CPM and rack up at least a few hundred thousand subscribers, your YouTube content could generate anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars each month.

Pro tip: If you come across a suspective YouTube automation channel and want to know how much the channel generates in revenue, you can plug the channel name into the Social Blade analytics tool to see the estimated performance. 

Ways to earn with YouTube automation

There's more than one way to earn money with a YouTube automation channel. Below are some of the most profitable methods for monetization.  

Ad revenue

The primary way most YouTube automation channels generate revenue is by joining the YouTube Partner Program and letting AdSense advertisers run YouTube ads on their content. However, your channel needs to meet certain performance thresholds before you’re accepted into the program, like over 1,000 subscribers and at least 4,000 watch hours within the year. 

Affiliate marketing

Another way you can earn money from a YouTube automation channel is by promoting affiliate products in your videos and putting affiliate links in your video descriptions. You can find affiliate offers on affiliate networks like ClickBank or CJ Affiliate

Brand deals

With brand deals, you use part of your video content to promote your sponsor. According to Marketing Amateur, sponsors pay YouTubers between $10 to $50/1,000 video views.

Exclusive channel memberships

Integrating memberships into your YouTube automation monetization strategy with a site like Patreon can allow you to offer exclusive content to paying viewers.

Selling products

Selling products isn’t only for Amazon FBA sellers, a YouTube automation channel can make some nice profits by selling products as well. For a automation channel with an established brand image, using your branding on print-on-demand gear from a site like Printify is a useful way to simultaneously make money and generate brand awareness. 

Promoting a service

You can use your YouTube automation channel to promote your own services if you have something to offer. For example, if you run a travel agency, you can make a YouTube automation in the travel niche and use it to promote your own services. 


4 Mistakes that cause many people to fail YouTube automation

1. Choosing the wrong niche

As with most online business models like affiliate marketing or local lead generation, it’s especially important to start your YouTube automation channel on the right foot by choosing a suitable niche. In fact, according to Zippia, 500 new hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute! An effective strategy is to look for a viable niche with low competition.

Choosing the wrong niche affects your channel beyond just competition level, though. Your profit potential is also heavily influenced by the niche you choose. Niches that are associated with industries where people spend a lot of money, like finance or technology, draw substantially more interest and ad spend from advertisers. Therefore, the advertising space on videos in those niches is much more valuable. To be successful with YouTube automation, choose a niche that can generate high and long-term profits.

2. Paying for bad mentorship

YouTube automation is as easy as paying a freelance team to do your video editing while you profit from their work, right? Well, that’s how many YouTube automation “gurus” convince you to buy their courses. These courses range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. According to the New York Times, a YouTube automation program by Caleb Boxx even costs upwards of $20,000! Certainly, many of these courses contain tremendous value and can help set you on the right path to YouTube automation success. It’s just a matter of taking the time to do proper research so that you choose from one of the best YouTube automation courses available instead of a low-quality course that’s a waste of your money.

3. Hiring a low-quality team

The success of a YouTube automation business is closely tied to the quality of the team you assemble. If you try to cut too many corners to save money, you’re likely to end up with poor quality videos that don’t do very well. You need to set a sufficient budget for each video so that you can hire talented people and publish the best videos possible within your niche.

4. Giving up too soon

According to Remote Working Warriors, it takes approximately 15.5 months and 164 videos on average to get to the 1,000 subscriber mark on YouTube, which is one of the thresholds for getting accepted into the YouTube Partner Program. Many aspiring entrepreneurs have dumped thousands of dollars into videos for automation channel ideas, only to give up and consider it a failure when the channel doesn’t produce money after a few months. Therefore, if you’re looking for a get rich quick scheme, a YouTube automation channel probably isn’t the way to go. However, if you produce consistent and high-quality videos that people enjoy, YouTubes algorithm is bound to notice, eventually. Then, it will start recommending your channel more on the platform, which is how automation channels takeoff.

Best YouTube automation tools in 2024

If you want to maximize your channel’s potential to get YouTube views and subscribers, leverage the benefits of at least one YouTube automation tool. Here are the best YouTube automation tools for 2024

TubeBuddy

TubeBuddy is one of the most popular tools for YouTube advertising on the market. This browser extension can help you with keyword research, populates automatic tag lists, performs YouTube SEO, tells you the best time to publish, and even helps you plan your video topics. 

Cost: Free to install with limited abilities, paid plans start at $5.99/month

VidIQ

Along with TubeBuddy, VidIQ is another leading YouTube automation tool that can help you enhance your video content for the YouTube algorithm. VidIQ provides handy tools like AI-optimized titles, descriptions, and tags, competitor statistics, keyword opportunities, and a milestone tracker. 

Cost: Free to install with limited abilities, paid plans start at $7.50/month

Repurpose.io

If you want to make money online with YouTube marketing, these days, it takes more than just putting out high-quality standard videos if you want best results. Short form video is rising in popularity, as proven by the rapid ascension of TikTok, which is why YouTube is putting more emphasis on YouTube shorts. Repurpose.io efficiently automates the process of repurposing video content by changing the format of horizontal videos to be optimized for vertical viewing and can even automatically published the repurposed video marketing material across your relevant social media channels. 

Cost: 14-day free trial with 10 published videos, then $25/month

Zapier

Zapier allows you to integrate thousands of web applications to automate workflows. Zapier is the king of automation across all Saas, and can be useful for your YouTube automation channel too. For example, when a new video is published on your channel, you can automatically do social media marketing by setting up a trigger to send out a tweet on Twitter to inform your audience that a new video has released. 

Cost: Free for most users, or $19.99/month, depending on the specific apps you want to integrate

Socinator

Socinator is a social media automation platform with some excellent tools for YouTube channel growth. This tool can increase your subscriber count with an automatic subscription link, mass likes on your videos by using multiple accounts, and increase your video views by using different IPs to add views to your videos. 

Cost: Starts at $9.95/month

YTMonster

YTMonster is the leading user exchange platform for YouTube. You can either purchase credits or earn them yourself by engaging with other YouTube channels. You can then use the credits to buy likes, subscribes, and comments for your automation channel, so the engagement helps your YouTube account grow.

Cost: Free if interacting with other YouTube channels, or can pay $8/1,000 video views 

A YouTube automation company with an impressive portfolio

If you thought YouTube automation was just for the bootstrapped entrepreneur hiring affordable freelancers on Upwork, you'd be dead wrong. YouTube automation can be a serious business. Just look at Valnet Inc. Valnet Inc. is a digital media publishing company that primarily specializes in acquiring and operating high-value YouTube automation channels. For example, the company owns The Richest YouTube automation channel with over 15 million subscribers, and Screen Rant, with over 8 million subscribers. With multiple high performance YouTube automation channels and the capital to continue acquiring more, it's safe to say Valnet Inc. is a YouTube automation company that's absolutely crushing it. 

Conclusion

Many have found great success with YouTube automation, and you could too. However, there are substantial uncertainties with the YouTube automation business model. It's a long-term investment that may very well end up flopping. That's why I much prefer the local lead generation business model. Local lead generation involves getting a niche business website to rank on the first page of Google in a targeted location and then selling the client leads it generates to local businesses who offer the niche service for hundreds to thousands of dollars every month.

With local lead generation, the overhead costs are relatively low so you can spread your risk across multiple website properties. Furthermore, local lead generation website properties can start generating revenue in the matter of just of few months, so you won't be waiting around wondering if your efforts and investment will ever make money, like with YouTube automation. Some people make a killing with YouTube automation, but local lead generation is just a better passive income online business model for most people. 

Follow Me
Ippei Kanehara
Founder/CEO

$52K per month providing lead generation services to small businesses

Ippei.com is for digital hustlers, industry leaders and online business owners.

His #1 online business recommendation in 2024, is to build your own lead generation business.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

  1. Thank a lot for this article.Thanks for sharing this valuable information here.I will find one of the best information here.really it's useful for me
    I have been using this was very useful.

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}