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’s taking the influencer plunge via YouTube.

Even if you’re a seasoned marketer who’s experienced 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 to get informed.

How Much Do Sponsors Pay YouTubers, After All?

Long story short – sponsors paid YouTubers about $0.089 per view on average in 2020 according to a 2020 survey.

Image via MyWorkFromHomeMoney

Two years later in 2022, you can expect to pay up to 10-25% more than that. Plus, the survey received mixed responses ranging from $0.035 to $0.15 per view.

Now that’s a huge range.

Why is there such a big range? Because 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 110 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 higher fees for sponsorships.

Another factor that you can check while looking at the video views is the source of those views.

This will help you determine if the SEO of the YouTuber is working well. 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.

Image via YouTube

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

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.
• Dedicated product videos: These videos are completely dedicated to your products and typically cost significantly more than product integrations.
• 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.
• Affiliate campaigns: Partnerships that don’t require any payments to the YouTuber until they drive sales for you. 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.

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 WahlieTV has incorporated Hallmark into their videos.

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.

FAQs

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

YouTubers got paid an average rate of about $0.09 per video view for sponsored YouTube videos in 2020 and this rate is quickly increasing as the creator economy becomes more popular every year. This rate translates to nearly $90 for every 1000 views. However, 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?

Sponsors paid anywhere between $0.035 to $0.15 per view to YouTubers in 2020 for sponsored video content on the platform.

So in 2022 you can expect to pay up to 10-25% more 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 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.