Twitch has been in the news for the last couple of months for all the wrong reasons. Quite recently, it has come under heavy fire after certain Twitch streamers saw a huge drop in their ad revenues, for reasons not quite “unknown” to us, and called it an adpocalypse.
So if you are a Twitch streamer yourself, how can you avoid getting a hit? Will the Twitch adpocalypse end your streaming career? That won’t happen if you follow these 3 tips we’ve mentioned in this blog. Read on.
How To Avoid The Twitch Adpocalypse & Keep Your Ad Revenue Intact
Twitch has now introduced some new categories and tags for the streamers in their Content Classification Labels, two of which are the “Politics and Sensitive Social Issues” category and the “Election” tag.
Such labels have given a wider choice to the advertisers to select/reject the type of content they wanna use for their advertisements. And this is what, in turn, will affect the streamers’ earnings that aren’t careful enough to remove such unwanted tags.
Here are a few tips that will help you keep your ad revenue intact and counter the adpocalypse after all the Twitch updates:
1. Review And Refine Your Content Tags
The first step is to review the content tags you use with your streams. Twitch has updated its labels so any of those that may represent a sensitive topic, group or issue in any way might flag your content as sensitive or unwanted by your audience/marketers.
If you use any tags that are specifically related to the politics and sensitive social matters like national elections or international conflicts, remove them from your stream info before going live (and ideally don’t talk about them then). This will help keep your ad revenue safe.
2. Focus More On Brand-Safe Content
Digital marketers mostly follow positive trends or viral stuff. They invest in content that appeals to a wider audience. They tend to stay away from controversies and conflicts that may divide their potential customers’ opinions.
So avoid any controversial topics in your Twitch streams and make sure to follow Twitch’s community guidelines. This will make your channel more attractive to all advertisers and also help keep your ad revenue intact.
3. Don’t Rely On Twitch Alone For Your Income
Well, this is a bit unconventional advice but one that’ll help you maintain your earnings if things go south with this Twitch adpocalypse issue or if it takes too long for the platform to solve it amicably. Try to make use of your fan base and explore other income sources like subscriptions, donations, merch and even sponsorships.
This will help you keep a revenue cushion to fall back on even if Twitch is unable to monetize your channel back just in case. Also, if you haven’t done so already, try to grow your audience on other social media platforms, like Youtube, Instagram and TikTok, that way you have other channels to fall back on, in case your Twitch stream won’t make enough money. Another possibility is to use Patreon to give your Community an opportunity to support you regularly and give you even more security.
What can Twitch do to avoid the Adpokalypse?
Twitch has to figure out a way to label the content more precisely and also implement methods for advertisers to determine on what kind of content they are shown. Youtube is doing a great job in that area, with a questionnaire before you upload a monetized video. This is hard to use for Twitch, so they have to get creative, tags are a first step, but we think there has to be an even better way for them to make sure everyone is happy.