Psy's 'Gangnam Style' YouTube video earns $8 million in advertising revenue

If you wonder if monetizing your YouTube videos is worth it, here is an answer for you: Yes. We already know that Psy's "Gangnam Style" is the most viewed YouTube video ever, and now we know how that translates. During its Tuesday earnings call for the Q4 2012 quarter, Google said the video has earned $8 million from advertising revenue.

Nikesh Arora, Senior VP and Chief Business Officer at Google, said on Google’s earnings call Tuesday evening that:

Outside estimates say that video on which I am sure all of you have seen of Psy, his hit song, "Gangnam Style," now the most watched YouTube video for all times, it generated over $8 million in all-in advertising deal.

To be clear, Arora was not citing Google's own numbers, but outside estimates.

The video overtook Justin Bieber's video "Baby" last year, then topped a billion views, to become the first YouTube video to reach that mark. As of Wednesday morning, the official video has 1.23 billion views. There are, of course, copies floating around that raise the number of views, but not official revenue, even further north.

Last November, when the video topped one billion, Google said that despite it's relative age, “Gangnam Style” was still being viewed between 7 to 10 million times every day.

According to Quartz, the "Gangnam Style" video generates an average of $0.65 in revenue every time someone views it. Half of that goes to the YouTube creator, meaning suggests Psy and his record company have made at least $4 million from YouTube ad revenue thus far.

Naturally, the South Korean rapper has earned a lot more than that from revenue based on music distribution and advertising deals. In fact, Psy will appear in a Super Bowl ad for Wonderful Pistachios, the company's first.

It's doubtful a video of your dog chasing his tail would do as well, but every penny counts.