• Guest - Earn a FREE TubeBuddy Upgrade for being active on the forums! Click Here to learn how you earn free upgrades for TubeBuddy!
  • Guest - TubeBuddy has a discord! Click Here to join in the conversation!

YouTube Question Tag may cause demonetization

minusthirtyfilms

Active Member
TubeBuddy Pro
47
9
Subscriber Goal
1000
I'm not monetized, but I'm startgin to see "tag may cause demonetization" on my tags. How does that work? How can a tag demonetize you?
 

Tito Tim

DecoratedPoster
TubeBuddy Star
1,155
25
I have never seen that notification, it must be new'ish. When the AI really started getting going on YT I was getting the yellow icon on like 3 out of 5 vids. I would ask for a manual review and every single one was approved. I made some changes to my tags... and the yellow icons quit appearing. Did a couple of my tags flag the yellow icon? Did it stop coincidentally? I will never know for sure.

It seems like my tags were causing the issue, but it is hard to be positive. Do they let you know which tag it is?
 
OP
OP
minusthirtyfilms

minusthirtyfilms

Active Member
TubeBuddy Pro
47
9
Subscriber Goal
1000
I have never seen that notification, it must be new'ish. When the AI really started getting going on YT I was getting the yellow icon on like 3 out of 5 vids. I would ask for a manual review and every single one was approved. I made some changes to my tags... and the yellow icons quit appearing. Did a couple of my tags flag the yellow icon? Did it stop coincidentally? I will never know for sure.

It seems like my tags were causing the issue, but it is hard to be positive. Do they let you know which tag it is?

Weird. They do let you know:

Screen Shot 2021-06-14 at 9.22.31 AM.png



The triangle w/ ! is the icon. When you hover over it it says "tag may cause demonetization"
 

Stanley | Team TB

Amazingly Decent and Not-At-All Terrible Fishing
Administrator
TubeBuddy Staff
2,644
25
Subscriber Goal
250000
YouTube runs a check on your metadata when you make a video unlisted (and these area reflection of this). It does not mean that you will get demonitized; only that there is something with this tag that raises a red flag for advertisers. They get to select things that they do not want their ads shown next to; typically that is things like bad words, drugs, nudity etc. And sometimes terms that are completely harmless can be used as a common means of describing something that an advertiser does not want to be associated with. For example, the term 'devil' may not be too much of a red flag for advertisers, neither would 'lettuce.' But combined they make a common reference to marijuana, something that advertisers definitely want to be associated with (at this time). You may not be aware of these slang terms... but YouTube is and that is what they are warning you about.

FYI it is a good habit to heed the advice of these warnings. You may not be monetized now but rest assured; it is a very disappointing thing to see when a creator makes 100-200 videos and gets monetized only to discover that all their prior work is not monetizable due to small errors in judgement like this. Far better to heed these warnings and get monetized with a library of content that is immediately producing revenue for you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Oliver & Liz

Tito Tim

DecoratedPoster
TubeBuddy Star
1,155
25
That is interesting. I have never seen the tags with a warning. Not sure... do they think 'toad in the hole' is something dirty?