One of the dream milestones for YouTube creators is to get sponsored on YouTube. Sponsorship not only offers new revenue streams but also proves your professional growth and credibility and attracts greater opportunities!
However, if you’re wondering where to even get started to seek sponsorship, we’ll share the entire journey with you. So, let’s get started!
What are YouTube Sponsorships/Sponsored Videos?
YouTube sponsorships/sponsored videos are content created to effortlessly promote a brand/product/service. In short, they are branded content!
In a YouTube sponsorship, a brand pays a creator (you) with money or products in exchange for the content.
YouTubers collaborate with brands that fit their channel’s genre, niche, or interests. This ensures that the sponsored video reaches the right audience, grabs their attention, and drives more successful conversions!
But that’s not all… YouTube sponsorships are of three different types as follows:
1. Affiliate Sponsorships
In this, you promote a brand and offer viewers a discount coupon, referral, or affiliate link. You add it in the description box and mention it once in the video. For every successful purchase through the link/coupon, you receive a commission.
2. Product Sponsorships
This model includes a brand sending products for free to review, feature, and promote in your content. You can make an entire content dedicated to received products. Or you may mention it as a sponsorship in between relevant content.
If your channel is big enough, they may also pay you or sponsor a free hotel stay or travel experience besides sending the products.
3. Paid Sponsorships
In paid sponsorships, the most traditional form of influencer collaboration, a brand pays you a fee to promote the brand/products/services. You can do this in videos, shorts, or multichannel campaigns, including sponsored videos and posts.
However, only the most-established YouTubers receive paid sponsorships.
How to Get Sponsored on YouTube?
For starters, your channel must serve a specific niche, and your content must always follow YouTube guidelines, values, and ethics. Brands prefer creators with clear target audiences and that don’t violate guidelines.
After meeting these criteria, here are all the steps to follow
Step 1: Prepare the Channel
If your channel looks professional, you can attract sponsors much more easily. Here are a few tips to give your channel a makeover:
- Ensure the channel’s logo colors on the banner match the profile picture colors.
- Use only 3-5 elements on the banner to enhance aesthetic value.
- Choose eye-catching, simple thumbnails for videos. Research the best thumbnail options and use online tools like Canva.
- Categorize content in proper playlists to make your channel look more refined.
- Add business contact information to your channel description.
- Upload a 20-40s channel trailer to introduce your channel or yourself to new visitors.
Note: Check competitor channels for inspiration.
Step 2: Grow Your Channel with Content
With consistent, good-quality videos, you’ll naturally get more YouTube views, subscribers, and likes. However, that’s not enough.
Potential sponsors will judge your channel based on your videos and their engagement. A few ways to grow your content are:
- Create niche-specific, diverse, valuable content Consistency helps the YouTube algorithm work in your favor and builds a loyal viewer base.
- Research competitors and what works for them and use similar strategies. This makes you more discoverable and attractive to brands.
- Seek viewers’ feedback to engage the audience and implement their suggestions.
- Add a CTA in your description to subscribe to the channel and mention it twice in the video.
Step 3: Build a Media Toolkit
A media toolkit is a document with crucial information about your channel for brands that want to sponsor it. Must-haves for the toolkit are:
- Brief channel description (channel story, achievements, and milestones)
- Viewer demographics, including age, gender, geography
- YouTube metrics, including average views, engagement rate, and subscriber count
- Previous collaboration/sponsorship and testimonials (if any)
- Website, blog, email ID, other social media channel links
Note: Look up Canva for the best media toolkit templates.
Step 4: Connect with Potential Sponsors
Based on your channel niche, identify around 100 brands as potential sponsors. In a spreadsheet, make the following headers:
- Brand’s name
- Target audience
- Their previous creator collaborations
- Influencer/marketing manager contact
- Date of contact
- Future follow-up date
Note: If a brand never worked with influencers or is new, it probably doesn’t have a budget for sponsorships.
Send the shortlisted brands custom emails mentioning:
- How you can be relevant for their campaigns
- Your channel link to let them research your previous content
- Attached media toolkit
- Brand’s pain points that you can help with
Step 5: Sign Up on Sponsorship Websites
Sign up on common sponsorship websites, including YouTube BrandConnect, Channel Pages, Neoreach, Upfluence, Ubiquitous, and Grapevine Village.
Here, you can mass-apply to several brands simultaneously. Interested brands connect with you.
Step 6: Negotiate Compensation & Paperwork
Some believe that brands follow unspoken rules while paying creators: “A creator gets paid $18-20 per 1000 subscribers.” If you’re starting out, follow this to create your rate chart.
You must also prepare a detailed fee chart including the following:
- Cost-per-mille (CPM): It’s a fee for every 1,000 views a sponsored video receives.
- Cost-per-action (CPA): This fee depends on every purchase/website signup.
- Commissions: The percentage of every order placed through affiliate links.
- Flat fee: It’s for sponsorship despite content performance.
Once a brand is ready, create a legally binding contract mentioning:
- All content deliverables
- Timescales
- Content ownership and rights
- Payment and terms
- Sponsorship cancellation policies
FAQs
1. How Many Subscribers Do You Need to Get Sponsorships?
You should have at least 1,000 followers before approaching companies for sponsorships. Follow the YouTube Partner Program guidelines to prepare your channel for sponsorships.
2. How Much Do YouTube Sponsors Pay?
This entirely depends on your subscriber count, number of videos, views and watch time, and audience engagement. It also depends a lot on the sponsor’s paying abilities.
According to Statista (2022), here are some realistic sponsorship amounts
| Subscribers | Average Price Range |
| 1,000-10,000 | $60-850 |
| 10,000-50,000 | $180-2240 |
| 50,000-500,000 | $389-5859 |
| 500,000-1 million | $1,105-16,234 |
| 1 million+ | $2,500 and above |
Final Thoughts
YouTube sponsorships are the secret behind the growth of budding creators. They open an avenue of opportunities which not only offers you a confidence boost but keeps you motivated to offer more valuable content in the long run!
So, follow these steps strategically starting today and strive to grow your channel with zeal!
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