Facebook Monetisation Finally Coming to Kenya: How it Works

Kenyan content creators have a reason to celebrate, as they are due to add one more important revenue stream. This is because Meta, the company that owns both Facebook and Instagram, has announced that it will be adding Kenya to countries eligible for monetisation.

President William Ruto, who was present during the announcement, lauded the efforts of Meta in allowing Kenyan creators to make a living from their platforms. 

“In a few weeks, many of you will be eligible. I've gotten a commitment that by June all our creators will now have an opportunity to monetise everything they do in that space,” he said.

Moon Baz, Meta’s Global Partnerships Lead for Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey, reiterated:

“We are very happy to announce that we’re going to have instream ads available on Facebook starting early summer maximum.” 

This is great news for content creators. However, before earning from Facebook, you have to meet the eligibility criteria.

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So what do you need to do to earn money from Facebook?

According to Moon Baz, the following are the milestones you need to have achieved on Facebook for you to be eligible.

• Have more than 5,000 followers
• Be 18 years and older
• Have least five active eligible videos
• Have 60,000 minute views in the last 60 days. 

She also explained how the revenue share with creators is set up. For instream ads, the revenue share is 55% for the creator and 45% for Facebook. On the other hand for Facebook Stars, Facebook only takes 20% and the creator gets 80%.

However, these are just the highlights of the monetisation policy. Facebook has two major policies that guide monetisation. The Partner Monetisation Policy and the Content Monetisation Policy. 

Read Also: How to Start and Monetize Your YouTube Channel in 2024

The Dos and Don'ts of Content Monetisation 

Currently, Facebook monetisation is only available in 53 countries across the world. In Africa, Kenya is set to become the third country to be eligible for monetisation after South Africa and Egypt. 

For Kenyan creators, monetisation eligibility will have a huge financial impact, and comes at a time when the government is pushing for young people to earn from digital platforms.

Here are things creators need to pay attention to in order to be monetised.

• Monetisation is available for pages, professional profiles, events, and groups that meet monetisation criteria.
• Adhere to community standards that are against hate speech, calls for violence, sexualised content, and inauthentic behaviour.
• Content considered misinformation, false news, click bait, sensational, or unlawful cannot be monetised.
• Unoriginal content or content reproduced without meaningful enhancement cannot be monetised.
• You can only monetise content consumed by your authentic, natural audience. Meaning boosting of followers, views, or engagement is prohibited.
• Politicians in office and official political accounts are not eligible for monetisation.

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The following content formats are not eligible for monetisation

• Static videos - Videos with only one image 
• Static image polls - For instance, image question that drive engagement
• Slideshows of images - Video showing images in succession
• Looping videos - Video that keep repeating multiple times, including GIF
• Text montages - Videos showing still or moving images with text overlay
• Embedded ads - Content that already has a manually inserted ad.

Monetisation Avenues Available For Facebook

• Subscriptions - Earn from your most loyal followers through them paying for monthly subscriptions.
• Stars - Fans show their love and appreciation by sending virtual goods that you get paid for.
• Ads on Facebook Reels - Earn when ads are shown on your reels.
• In-stream Ads - Earn from pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll and burner ads shown on your videos.
• Branded Content - Partner with brands and get paid when you share their products with your audience.
• Bonuses - Bonuses allow creators to earn through reach and interactions on posts but not reels and stories.

Read Also: 6 Passive Income Streams That Will Make You Rich

What Next

Monetisation capabilities are expected to be available to Kenyans by June 2024. The President urged Meta to expedite the process and even have it activated before June. 

"I want to encourage Meta; if we can do it before June, it will be a very welcome surprise to many of these good people."

In addition, the president expressed that he had been informed that the payment system will also be integrated with M-Pesa to make it easier for creators to access their payouts.

“I am also very happy that the monetisation exercise is also going to be available on M-Pesa…”

Additionally, Meta will be conducting virtual workshops to help Kenyan creators take advantage of monetisation.

Read Also: Understanding Active and Passive Investment

Wrapping Up

The digital economy and the creator economy are experiencing significant growth in the country. Developments such as Facebook content monetisation add to the growing momentum in the space. This move will allow Kenyan content creators to add another stream of income, allowing more and more creators to support themselves.