How Much Do Sponsors Pay YouTubers: The All-Inclusive Guide

If you’ve been wondering “How much do sponsors pay YouTubers?”, you’ve arrived at the right place.

This is a common question that you may have asked yourself as a marketer who wants to try YouTube influencer marketing.

Even if you’re a seasoned marketer who’s worked with influencers, it’s helpful to know the going rates for influencer marketing on each social platform well.

So, if you’ve been thinking how much do sponsors pay YouTubers for YouTube influencer marketing, this detailed guide will help you stay informed.

How Much Do Sponsors Pay YouTubers, After All?

Long story short– sponsors pay influencers on YouTube an average of $20 per video per 1000 subscribers. 

More research data from an Intellifluence report shows that nano-influencers on YouTube expect to be paid an average of $169.40 for completing a campaign. For micro-influencers, the average cost is higher– $555.56.

Image via Intellifluence

Every niche on YouTube has a different supply and demand of influencers who are creating content and brands looking for partnerships.

As with every influencer marketing niche and platform, sponsorship rates for YouTubers are mainly set by changes in market supply and demand. So, let’s dig deeper to figure out how much you should consider paying YouTubers as sponsors in your niche.

Factors to Consider While Paying YouTubers

We’ll review the host of factors that you should be considering when you want to know how much to pay YouTubers as sponsors.

These factors will help you determine if you should increase or decrease your offers to influencers.

1. Number of Subscribers

The first factor that you should consider while deciding how much to pay YouTubers is the number of subscribers they have.

The reason for this is pretty straightforward. Subscribers are the equivalent of followers on YouTube, and the larger the subscriber base, the better the reach of your video will be.

The subscriber base also tends to be loyal to the YouTuber and trusts their recommendations. So, when a YouTuber reviews your products or mentions your brand, it’s likely that the subscribers will view their content as authentic and want to learn more.

When subscribers like what they hear, they will decide to check out your website, products, and services. Assuming your site is setup well to convert, the increase in traffic from the YouTuber will drive an increase in sales.

The size of a YouTuber’s subscriber base generally determines if the YouTuber falls into the general categories of nano, micro, macro, or mega influencer.

With nano influencer on YouTube, you may be able to work with them in exchange for freebies.

Alternatively, an example of a mega influencer is PewDiePie who has over 111 million subscribers on YouTube. Don’t expect any freebies from him or any influencers of this size.

Image via YouTube

2. Video Views

Just looking at the number of subscribers isn’t enough as it doesn’t give the full picture of the reach that you can achieve by partnering with YouTubers.

The real gauge for reach on YouTube is the creator’s average video views. All you’ve got to do to determine average video views is head to the YouTube channel of the influencer and take a look at the views count for their recent videos and average them.

We recommend averaging the views on their last 10 videos. And don’t count videos posted for less than two weeks because they likely haven’t been live long enough to get traction from YouTube’s algorithm. Also, you can average the views of more than 10 videos to get a more accurate result.

And why should you do this exercise?

YouTubers may have a few popular or even viral videos. However, it’s likely and common that some of their videos are not performing as well. That’s why you should average their views for their videos to get an idea of how a sponsored video with them will perform on average.

The YouTubers who perform well consistently in the form of high average video views are the ones you should prefer over the others. They’re also the YouTubers who will ask for higher fees for sponsorship deals.

Another factor that you can check while looking at the video views is the source of those views. YouTube provides account analytics for this, as shown below.

Image via YouTube

This will help you assess the SEO performance of a YouTuber’s channel. However, this information can only be provided by the YouTuber so you’ll have to reach out and request it from them via email.

You can usually find a YouTuber’s email address in the “About” section of their channel.

3. Average Video Watch Time

Another parameter that you’ll want to consider before deciding on the amount to sponsor a YouTuber is the average watch time of the creator’s videos.

And why should you look at average watch time? It’s a great indicator of engagement.

While a YouTuber might have a large subscriber base and loads of views, those two metrics alone aren’t the only indicators that go into figuring out the level of audience engagement with their videos.

The average video watch time metric serves as a good gauge for how engaging the videos created by the YouTuber are. It gives you an idea of how well the audience relates to those videos.

Longer average watch times are preferred, and you should pay more to those YouTubers.

Along with this, you want to take a look at the number of upvotes/downvotes, comments, and shares across their recent videos. Taking a holistic view of these ratings will help you determine the true engagement of a YouTuber. Note how YouTube Analytics displays the average video view duration.

Image via YouTube Analytics

4. Type of Influencer Content

We’ve discussed the numerous YouTube metrics that sponsors want to consider when deciding how much to pay YouTubers.

But the YouTuber’s metrics aren’t all that matter.

Another essential ingredient here is the type of content that you’re planning on creating.

Some of the content types that you can create on YouTube via influencers are:

• Product placements (product integrations): The influencer may display or talk about your product for a short period in the video. They can subtly promote your product by displaying it without necessarily speaking about it. They can also create ad segments within their video where they actively market your product. In such cases, the influencer can charge you for the number of views the ad segment gets.

• Dedicated product videos: These videos are completely dedicated to your products and typically cost significantly more than product placements. For example, influencers can create unboxing videos where they open a package containing your products. If you have a clothing brand, influencers can also create try-on-hauls where they sample and style clothes from your brand to promote them. 

• Sponsored videos: These videos are ones that your brand sponsors where the influencer talks about your brand for a short period usually at the start of the video. It could be product sponsorships, where you send your products to YouTubers who feature them in their videos. It could also be paid YouTube sponsorships, where YouTubers create sponsored content around your products or services.

• Affiliate campaigns: Partnerships that don’t require any payments to the YouTuber until they drive sales for you. You can create a unique code or special affiliate link for influencers. They can then help you drive sales by sharing this code or link in their YouTube videos. You then pay a commission to them for each sale they drive.

• Product reviews, how-tos, etc: These are similar to dedicated product videos but aren’t outrightly promotional. Instead, they’re meant to spread information about your products, educate, and provide value to the audience. Influencers usually create videos where they use your product while sharing their honest opinion about them. They can also create tutorials and guides showing their viewers how to use your products.

But why does the type of influencer content matter?

For the simple reason that the type of influencer content dictates the amount of exposure your brand will get through the video. This can make or break your campaign’s success.

A product placement, for instance, won’t cost nearly as much as a dedicated product review. This is because in the case of the dedicated product review, the entire YouTube video would be dedicated to your product, and that’s more work for the YouTuber.

On the other hand, with a product placement, your product can appear for 15-60 seconds making an impact but not taking up the entire video. This also allows the YouTuber to talk about other topics or other products in the same video.

For example, note how the Learmann Twins incorporate the energy drink, Ghost into their video. The video content is not focused on the drink, but they show a short clip where they take sips and encourage their viewers to try it.

Image via YouTube

Now that you know how much YouTube sponsors pay YouTubers, let’s take a look at how you can find good YouTubers for your brand.

How to Find the Right YouTubers for Sponsorships

Understanding how much to pay influencers for a YouTube sponsorship is one thing. However, finding the right YouTube influencers to collaborate with is a completely different challenge altogether.

After all, there are many parameters that need to be considered and analyzed.

Let’s take a look at the various ways through which you can find the right YouTubers.

1. Search Manually

The simplest way of finding YouTubers is by looking for them manually through Google or YouTube.

All you need to do is follow or search specific hashtags related to your brand and look for people who are consistently posting content using them.

Alternatively, you can come up with a list of terms that are relevant to your brand’s niche and search YouTube using those terms.

This will bring up a list of videos or YouTube channels that have posted content related to those keywords.

You should then spend time analyzing each of those profiles in the key areas identified in this article above and see if it’s worth partnering with them.

All of this manual searching can be time consuming and frustrating, especially if you’re planning on partnering with many YouTubers at the same time.

Want to save resources and get it done right the first time?

2. Hire an Influencer Agency

Finding influencers and maintaining relationships with them is easier said than done. This is especially true when you have to wear many hats in your organization.

You have the option to partner with an influencer agency like Get Hyped who’s experienced at driving massive results from YouTube influencer campaigns.

Agencies like Get Hyped already have a good rapport with numerous YouTube creators. They can pitch your campaign strategies to creators with ease, plus they know how to negotiate a fair market partnership rate as well.

And the best part?

These influencer agencies can handle your campaigns right from start to finish so you can choose to be as involved as you’d like.

Best Practices for Pricing Your YouTube Partnerships

Here are some best practices to implement when deciding how much to pay YouTube influencers. 

• Be Open to Negotiation: Sometimes, influencers are willing to negotiate their prices. So, if the prices stated on the influencer’s rate sheet do not fit your budget, you can always negotiate. You can also consider working with nano or mico-influencers. They cost less than mega-influencers and have a targeted reach.  

• Offer Performance-Based Incentives: A good way to reward influencers for hitting their performance goals is by offering performance-based incentives. Offering bonuses can motivate an influencer to put in extra effort to ensure that the campaign is a success. If an influencer is fairly compensated, they’ll be more motivated to create better content, which is a win-win for both parties.

• Negotiate Usage Rights: Ownership and usage rights give you the freedom to use and edit the influencer’s content according to your preferences. As you negotiate prices for creating content, don’t forget to negotiate ownership and usage rights as well. This will help you avoid legal trouble if you decide to re-purpose or reuse an influencer’s content in the future.

• Build Long-Term Relationships: Developing a long-term relationship with influencers can be beneficial in many ways. Influencers are more likely to give you discounted rates if you commit to a long-term partnership with them. Long-term relationships also help you portray a consistent brand message while building trust with your audience.

FAQs

1. How much do YouTubers get paid for sponsored videos?

Generally, sponsors pay influencers on YouTube an average of $20/1000 subscribers for each campaign. However, according to an Intellifluence report, nano-influencers on YouTube get paid an average rate of about $169.40 for each sponsored campaign, while macro-influencers charge about $555.56. 

Rates for YouTubers will be higher or lower depending on a variety of factors, such as niche, type of content, and time of the year.

2. How much do sponsors pay YouTubers?

Sponsors pay YouTubers an average of $20/1000 subscribers for a campaign. However, this is just an average estimation, and this figure can fluctuate depending on the type of campaign. 

These prices are also expected to increase in the coming months and years as demand for creator partnerships on YouTube is steadily increasing.

3. How can you find good YouTubers?

The three ways of finding good YouTubers are:

• Manual search via YouTube or Google
• Partnering with an influencer agency
• Using an influencer discovery platform

4. What are the things you should consider while determining how much to pay YouTubers?

Some of the things that you should take into consideration while determining how much to pay YouTubers are:

• Number of YouTube subscribers
• Video views
• Average video watch time
• Type of content
• Niche

5. What are the different ways sponsors can promote their brands through YouTubers?

Some of the ways through which sponsors can promote their brands through YouTubers are:

• Sponsored videos
• Product placements
• Dedicated videos
• Affiliate campaigns
• Product reviews, how-tos, etc.

Final Thoughts

YouTube provides a great platform for brands to promote themselves, and you can make the most out of it by also becoming a sponsor for YouTubers.

This influencer video approach to marketing is cost-effective as you only pay on average $0.09 per video view, and it gives you the potential to reach a massive audience with high-impact content featuring your brand, products and services.

YouTube sponsorship rates will fluctuate depending on the YouTuber’s performance metrics and your campaign type.

However, the key is to find YouTubers who are the perfect fit for your brand and products. If you’re struggling and looking for help, talk to an agency that specializes in influencer marketing like Get Hyped. Get in touch with us and we can discuss your goals and a strategy for partnering with influencers on YouTube.