Video creators find thousands of dollars shorted by Facebook in Ad revenue
Britain Lockhart’s page Depths of History has been steadily growing on the social network since he started posting videos there about two years ago. At present, he has 70,000 followers on his page which generates thousands of dollars a month in ad revenue.
Britain Lockhart said that he didn’t think it would be of great profit, but Facebook has such a variety of users on their interface that don’t even use YouTube but they’ll be on Facebook adding that he’ll post his YouTube videos on Facebook to make ad revenue on both.
Though his income varies, he makes between $2,000 and $3,000 per month through Facebook.
So far in 2021, the income has unexpectedly dried up. In January, the payout was only $931, leaving him thousands of dollars short. It was even lower in February making up just $664.
Lockhart double-checked his creator backend but the numbers didn’t make sense there. Facebook’s revenue estimation tool projected that for January he should have received $3,397 and $1,747.52 for February. He found more than $4,000 short when the checks came in.
Lockhart says that it was like a slap on his face as he was looking forward to buying more camera gear to increase his business, buying things that could extend his work with Facebook and YouTube.
He’s not the only one who hasn’t been paid entirely. The Verge spoke with two other Facebook video creators, all of whom claimed that the company shorted them on cash and also ignored their requests for help.
All three say the problems began in January, around the time when Facebook made updates to how creators can monetize and transitioned to its new Pages experience.
In an emailed statement a spokesperson said they are notifying these partners that they’ll receive those remaining in-stream payments during the April payout cycle and also apologized for the inconvenience.