We’re all aware of the social media algorithm changes which are taking over Twitter news for not-so-good reasons (if you don’t know, you can read about them here). And when we thought there had been enough, YouTube have recently announced that they’re tightening the rules surrounding creator monetisation and partnerships. We know what you’re thinking, what does this mean exactly? Well, we’ve done the research for you and we’ve narrowed it down into some more simplistic terms so that you can now join in the Twitter debates with your wannabe YouTube famous friends.Long story short, the changes have been put into place in an effort to regain advertisers’ trust. You’ve probably seen lots of YouTube famous celebrities in the news recently, and wondered how they managed to earn quite so much money from the social media platform. It’s mostly down to the old advertising rules that YouTube put in place for their users; it meant that publishers could earn money through advertising. For example, previously, a “YouTuber” would need 10,000 total views to join the programme, which would later allow them to collect “ad revenue” from the advertisements that they showed on the content they uploaded. However, this became hard for advertisers of businesses, due to the fact that they couldn’t choose which YouTuber advertised their company or product.With the recent, negative issues surrounding different “famous” YouTubers, such as Logan Paul, Google have stated that the new changes to YouTube monetisation are “tough but necessary” in order to regain advertisers’ trust. Starting the 17th January 2018, YouTubers need the usual 10,000 total views, AS WELL AS 1000 subscribers (subs) and at least 4000 hours of view time in the past 12 months in order to be eligible for the programme. These are currently rules for those who join the programme, however Google has stated that it will also start applying to current partners on the 20th February 2018.The new rule will help assure marketers that their ads are less likely to run on less known, fly-by-night channels, which is a good step in ensuring that marketers are not wasting money. However, it does mean that users who have been building up a good subscriber base over the past couple of years will now find it more difficult than ever to start earning from the platform. This has sparked debate on other social media platforms such as Twitter, since it will not affect well-known YouTubers who are less likely to benefit from their ad revenue, whereas it will affect smaller YouTube accounts who benefit from the ad revenue more so.There is a little more to it than just ad revenue, and big and small YouTubers – it has a LOT to do with digital marketing and ad placement plans for businesses, both big and small. If you’re interested in the specifics of ad placements for your digital content, why not get in touch with the Superheroes at HQ?