A few months back, I got a notification letting me know that I was now allowed to enter the Facebook Reels Plays Bonus program. This was interesting to me, since at the time my Facebook page only had around 100 followers and it had been dormant for quite a while. Time to bring it back to life as I was thinking about a whole new content plan for myself! So, of course I entered.
I had some friends that were in the Instagram program – and I tried everything to get into it as well, but had no luck. This baffled me since I had 4,500 followers on Instagram at the time and have been active for MANY years. But this is a new content stream for the Facebook platform, and they must really want to grasp some of those millions of people who are flocking to TikTok.
One thing is for sure, these programs are very unclear!
So if you came here looking on how to get into them, I'm sorry... Just make sure your pages are set up to be monetized and keep your fingers crossed.
How Much Does Facebook Reels Pay Per View?
In the first period, I posted 24 reels and tallied up 37,513 views. Which they ended up paying me $154 – or $4.11 per 1,000 views. This is actually REALLY good in comparison to other platforms. TikTok payouts are literally a joke as they're reported to be 2 to 4 cents per 1,000 views. And Meta's own Instagram has recently been reported to be cutting their reels payout by up to 70%!
In the second pay period, I learned a little bit and was able to get 47,250 views with only posting 8 reels! My earnings corresponded to the higher views totaled $206 – which was a slightly higher $4.40 per 1,000 views.
Couple things to note, the Facebook app only shows you your overall approximate earnings. It doesn't break it down by individual reels – the insights won't even show you how many views it received! Plus, they pay out at the end of the month, even though my earning period started on the 18th of the month. So, my payments didn't match what the app showed I earned.
Like I said, they work hard to make it confusing.
I Hit A Million Views And Was Then Demonetized!
One of the limiting factors to creating on the Facebook platform is that it's hard to recreate the trends that pop up on other social networks. On Instagram, you have access to more music. And on TikTok you can utilize other account's sounds. This leads to trends that can take over a platform for a while. Facebook is quickly adapting and I'm sure they'll remedy this issue.
Unfortunately for me, it may be a little too late.
It's against the Reels Play Bonus program to repost your Instagram Reels or TikToks. There was a perfect TikTok sound that I wanted to use for one of my Reels. So instead of uploading my Reel, I used my video editing skills to just use the sound. It didn't take long after it started to take off, for me to find out that I had been demonetized.
The video has now hit over 1.2 million views!
Going off of the numbers from my previous earnings, this means I may have lost the opportunity to earn OVER $4,000!
I have requested a review, but realize that this is probably a losing battle. If my request is denied. I guess I will take it down and try again with original audio and 🤞🏻.