Insights & Trends

If you’ve reached the bar for YouTube monetization and Step 2, the AdSense step, still says In Progress, the hold-up is usually in AdSense for YouTube, not on your channel. And while Step 2 waits, YouTube hasn’t started reviewing your channel at all.

England's biggest football YouTuber walked onto the VidSummit 2026 stage and talked about what happens after the camera stops, mostly about thumbnails and what goes through his head when a video doesn't take off. "I think because I'm still delusional, I try and make everything work," he said.

Before a channel earns from ads on YouTube, automated systems and human reviewers look at it as a whole. AIR Media-Tech's Safety team, who handle strikes and policy reviews for the channels we work with, say the review covers the banner and description, your newest, most popular and oldest videos, and any video the algorithms have flagged. Their advice is to delete videos that break the rules 30 days before you apply. The exception is a video with an active strike, since deleting it doesn't remove the strike.

How long it takes to get monetized on YouTube depends mostly on the part before you apply. Reaching the bar for ad revenue, 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days, takes months or years. The review after you apply is shorter. YouTube puts it at about a month, and among the channels AIR Media-Tech's Safety team works with, most hear back within a week. The long waits come in waves, when YouTube launches or tightens a policy, or when the channel has violations.