How much do clippers make?

The math

One clip's pay is its views divided by 1,000, times the rate, if it clears the view minimum and is approved, up to any cap per clip. Your total is the sum over every clip, until the campaign's budget runs out.

That's all there is to it, which is why claims of a set amount per month don't hold up: two clippers on the same campaign can earn very different amounts from the same hours.

Views drive almost all of it, and views are uneven. A handful of clips will do far better than the rest, most will do about the same, and some will barely be shown. So judge a week, or a month, not a single clip.

Example: the first weeks

These are example numbers, not predictions. Say you're new, and post 3 clips a day for a campaign paying $1 per 1,000 views with a 2,000-view minimum. That's 21 clips a week.

Most of a new account's clips stay small. Say 15 of the 21 land under 2,000 views and earn nothing, and 6 average 3,000 views. If 5 of those 6 are approved, that's 5 × 3 × $1 = $15 for the week. If those 21 clips took you 7 hours, you earned about $2 an hour.

That's a normal start, not a failure. The first weeks are when you learn what works.

Example: a steadier routine

Now say you post 30 clips a week on a campaign paying $1.50 per 1,000 with a 5,000-view minimum. 20 of them clear it, averaging 8,000 views, and 18 are approved. That's 18 × 8 × $1.50 = $216 for the week. If it took 10 hours, that's about $22 an hour.

Same math, bigger inputs: more clips, more views per clip, more of them approved. Getting from the first example to this one usually takes weeks of practice, and some campaigns, accounts and niches never get there. It's an example of how the numbers combine, not a target.

Example: one big clip

Say one clip gets 1,000,000 views on a campaign paying $1 per 1,000. Uncapped, that's $1,000. With a $100 cap per clip, it's $100. Big clips are real but rare, and caps exist to stop one clip draining the budget, so don't plan around them.

Example: same clips, different campaign

Take the steadier week above: 30 clips, 20 of them averaging 8,000 views and the other 10 averaging 2,000. Move them to a campaign paying $3 per 1,000 with a 10,000-view minimum, and none of them clear it. The week pays $0, from the same work that paid $216.

Now move them to a campaign paying $1 per 1,000 with a 1,000-view minimum. All 30 clear it: 20 at 8,000 and 10 at 2,000 is 180,000 views, or $180 if they're all approved. A lower rate, and close to the same pay.

This is why the campaign you pick moves your earnings as much as your editing does, and why a headline rate on its own tells you very little.

The four levers

Rate: pick campaigns that pay well for the views you actually get, not the highest headline number.

Views: strong first seconds, one moment per clip, captions, and posting where the brief pays. This is the lever that grows with practice.

Volume: clipping pays by the view, and more clips means more chances at the ones that take off. This is where tools save the most time: Renafy's AutoClip finds the moments in a stream and cuts them into captioned vertical clips, so your hours go into reviewing and posting.

Approval: every rejected clip is unpaid work. Follow the brief to the letter.

The levers multiply. Doubling your clips and raising your approval from half to nine in ten does more than chasing a slightly higher rate ever will.

What comes out of it

Count your costs too: the hours, any tools you pay for, and any fee the marketplace takes from payouts (check its current terms). Then divide what's left by your hours. That number, not the gross, tells you whether it's worth it.

Put your own numbers into the clipping earnings calculator: it does this math for any rate, minimum, cap and view count.

Questions