Why AdSense Alone Will Never Make Most YouTubers Earn a Full Time Income

Stuart Bannerman
Jan 4
8 min read

Updated: Jan 5

For many creators, the dream of making money on YouTube starts with one milestone: AdSense monetisation. Getting approved feels like validation that the channel is finally “real” — and for some, it creates the belief that earning a full-time income is now just a matter of uploading consistently.

In reality, AdSense is rarely the thing that turns a YouTube channel into a stable, full-time business.

That doesn’t mean AdSense is bad. It means it’s unreliable as a sole income source. Unless your channel consistently produces extremely high view volume every month, AdSense alone usually lands somewhere between a “nice bonus” and a “stressful rollercoaster.”

If you want sustainable YouTube monetisation, you need to understand why ads alone don’t work — and what to build instead.

The uncomfortable maths behind AdSense

YouTube ad revenue is commonly discussed through RPM (revenue per 1,000 views). RPM changes based on niche, audience location, seasonality, ad demand, video length, viewer behaviour, and more.

For many channels, RPM often falls somewhere around £3–£8 (sometimes more, often less). If your goal is roughly £3,000/month, the view requirements quickly become intimidating:

£3 RPM → 1,000,000 views/month
£5 RPM → 600,000 views/month
£8 RPM → 375,000 views/month

And those are monthly figures — not “one good video,” but consistent performance.

That’s the key: AdSense becomes meaningful only when you’re operating at huge scale.

Content creators should not solely rely on YouTube Adsense in order to make a full time income. Other revenue streams are important to factor in.

10 reasons YouTube AdSense alone isn’t enough

1) Most channels never reach consistent high-volume traffic

AdSense is a volume game. It doesn’t matter how high-quality your content is if you’re not pulling consistent monthly views.

Most creators experience a pattern like this:

Early growth phase
A few breakout uploads
Plateau
Slow, incremental gains (or churn)

Once a channel hits a plateau, AdSense income often stalls too. You might grow subscribers and community loyalty, but if views remain flat, revenue remains flat. This is why plenty of creators with “decent-sized” channels still can’t go full time — AdSense doesn’t reward “decent,” it rewards massive.

2) Not every view is monetised

A huge misconception is that each view equals money. In practice, a percentage of views generate no ad revenue at all.

Reasons include:

Not every video view actually shows an advert
Viewer skips or doesn’t receive an ad impression
Ad blockers
In some countries or on some devices, there simply aren’t many ads available to show
YouTube shows fewer ads to some viewers

So even if your analytics show strong view counts, the actual monetised playback volume can be lower. That gap is one reason AdSense feels unpredictable — because the “headline number” (views) isn’t the same as the monetised result.

3) RPM fluctuates constantly, even if your channel stays the same

Creators often assume: “If I can just get to X views, I’ll make Y money.” But RPM isn’t stable enough for that.

You can get the same views and earn very different amounts from one month to the next because RPM changes with:

advertiser demand
competition in ad auctions (the number of advertisers bidding to show their ads)
seasonality and campaign cycles (fluctuations in advertising budgets at different times of the year)
audience mix and geography shifts (changes in where your viewers are watching from)
changes in YouTube’s ad delivery (how YouTube decides when and where ads appear)

That means you can “do everything right,” upload consistently, and still see earnings fall. This is why AdSense-only monetisation often feels like being paid by weather conditions you can’t control.

4) Seasonality makes AdSense feel like a pay cut every year

Ad markets are seasonal. Certain periods (often around major retail seasons) can increase ad demand, while quieter months reduce it.

The problem isn’t just “earnings dip sometimes.” It’s that if AdSense is your main income:

you can’t budget reliably
you can’t predict future cashflow
one weak month can wipe out your stability

A real business needs predictable, repeatable income. AdSense is not designed to behave like a salary — it behaves like a fluctuating “bonus” tied to external market demand. In other words, you can’t plan your bills around AdSense — it might be strong one month and drop the next, because it depends on how much advertisers are spending at the time.

5) Monetisation decisions can be automated and inconsistent

Even when creators follow the rules, AdSense revenue can be limited by classification systems that decide whether content is “advertiser-friendly.”

Creators can lose significant revenue through:

limited ads on individual videos
stricter “suitability” interpretations (YouTube applying tighter rules about what it considers safe or appropriate for advertisers)
flagged topics or language (Certain words or topics can automatically raise a red flag for ads, causing YouTube to limit or reduce monetisation)
content mistakenly categorised (The system may think your video is about something risky or sensitive when it actually isn’t)

And when this happens, the impact can be immediate: the same upload that would normally earn well suddenly earns a fraction. If your entire business is AdSense, one classification issue becomes a real financial problem.

6) Some niches have built-in earnings ceilings

Not all audiences attract the same advertising value. Some niches simply have lower advertiser demand, lower bid prices, or fewer premium campaigns.

Even in a healthy niche, the “ceiling” can show up like this:

You can grow engagement without growing revenue
You can have loyal viewers but low RPM
Your best videos can still earn “okay” rather than be “life-changing”

This is important because creators often blame themselves for not earning more, when the issue is structural: AdSense is not a universal equaliser. It rewards niches that advertisers value most.

7) Audience geography can cap earnings

Where your viewers live influences ad value. Some countries and regions typically produce higher ad rates, while others produce lower rates.

Even if your channel is growing globally, your RPM can remain limited if:

a large portion of views comes from lower ad markets
your audience mix shifts over time
content goes more “international,” but earnings don’t rise

You can’t fix this easily without changing content direction (or getting lucky with audience demographics). That’s why relying on AdSense alone is risky: your revenue depends on factors you may not be able to influence.

8) YouTube controls distribution, and distribution controls revenue

With AdSense, your income is tightly tied to how YouTube distributes your content.

If the algorithm reduces impressions, you lose:

views
watch time
income

And algorithm changes can happen without warning. You don’t need to “mess up” for distribution to change — YouTube may prioritise different formats, viewer behaviours, or content patterns.

This is why creators who rely on AdSense often feel like they’re working for someone else. They are building on rented land. When distribution changes, income changes — instantly.

9) YouTube AdSense does not build an owned audience you can monetise directly

AdSense pays you for attention, but it doesn’t help you build ownership.

If YouTube vanished tomorrow, most creators who solely rely on AdSense would lose:

their platform
their income
their entire audience

Because they don’t have:

an email list
a customer database
a website
a way to contact fans/followers/subscribers directly

This is one of the biggest reasons full-time creators build off-platform assets. They’re not just building views — they’re building a business audience they can reach directly.

10) You have no control over pricing, packages, or profit per viewer

With AdSense, creators have almost no control over how much they earn from each viewer or how that money is generated. You can’t:

set a price
choose who pays you
improve conversion rate
increase order value
upsell
create bundles
negotiate terms

Your only lever is “get more views” — which is the hardest lever of all.

Compare that to other monetisation methods:

A digital product lets you set price and profit margin
A service offer lets you charge based on value
Sponsorship packages let you negotiate based on audience and results
Affiliates let you earn per sale, not per view
A membership lets you build recurring revenue

Those methods create control. AdSense doesn’t.

How successful creators approach monetisation differently

Creators who turn YouTube into full-time income rarely rely on ads alone.

Instead, they use YouTube for discovery and other platforms for monetisation control.

Creators who earn consistently from YouTube tend to have:

A website as a central hub
An email list for direct communication
Products, services, memberships, or are affiliates
Clear sponsor and partnership pages
Evergreen content that generates traffic outside of YouTube

In this model, AdSense becomes a bonus — not the core revenue engine.

The solution - Create your OWN website!

If you want to earn more than AdSense money alone, the smartest move is to build a simple website that becomes your “home base” — somewhere you can send viewers, embed videos, collect emails, and promote your own offers.

But before looking at how to set one up, it’s important to understand why a website matters at all.

Here are five reasons:

1) You stop relying entirely on the YouTube algorithm

A website allows your videos to be discovered through Google searches, not just YouTube recommendations. By embedding your videos in web pages or blog posts, people who are actively searching for related topics can find and watch them, giving your content extra views over time.

2) You can turn viewers into repeat visitors

On YouTube, someone can watch a video and then disappear forever. With a website, you can create a simple sign up form and build your own email list. This gives you a direct way to reach people who already like your content. Instead of relying on YouTube to notify them (which doesn’t always happen), you can email them when you upload a new video or share something useful, bringing them back to watch again.

3) You have one central hub

A website gives you one central place where people can find your content, links, and information about you. Depending on your niche, this can also include affiliate recommendations, products, services, or sponsor information — all in one place.

4) It looks more professional

When brands look you up, a website makes you look established and serious. It gives them one place to see your content, audience, and how to contact you — instead of relying on a YouTube channel alone.

5) It gives you security

Channels can be restricted, demonetised, or removed. A website gives you a fallback where your audience can still find you and your content.

How to create your own website

Creating a website doesn’t have to be complicated, and there are a few ways to do it.

Some creators use platforms like Wix or Squarespace. These are easy to use, but they usually come with monthly or yearly plans that can get more expensive as your site grows, especially when you need more storage or features.

A more flexible option for most YouTubers is WordPress.

With WordPress:

You only need to pay for web hosting (where the site lives)
Buy a domain name (your website address)
There are no expensive platform plans to upgrade as you grow
You can add pages, blog posts, videos, and monetisation options without being locked in

In simple terms, WordPress gives you more control and usually costs less long-term, which makes it a better fit for creators who want to build something that can grow alongside their channel.

And here's how to set your website up...

Purchase Hosting & Domain: Sign up with a provider (like Bluehost or Hostinger) and claim your web address.
Auto-Install WordPress: Use the "One-Click Install" button in your hosting dashboard to set up the software.
Pick a Theme: Go to Appearance > Themes to select a design (Astra and OceanWP are great starters).
Create Pages: Go to Pages > Add New to build your Home, About, and Contact pages.
Set Your Homepage: Go to Settings > Reading and set "Your homepage displays" to a static page.
Add a Menu: Go to Appearance > Menus to link your pages to the navigation bar.
Install Plugins: Add Yoast SEO (for search) and WPForms (for contact forms) via the Plugins tab.