Has anyone sponsored a YouTube channel / video?

[Kerwin]

I'm curious. There are a number of YouTube channels that appeal to my target audience and think it would be a good place to market. What was the process and how did you work out the amount to pay? If you can't give details I'd be interested to know what your general thoughts on the whole process were.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I have seen some companies that are supplying this sector sponsor a channel with only 10k subscribers
It was a good deal for the sponsorer as they only had to give the YouTuber a free subscribition .
Well worth trying to see if your company can get a regular mention for next to nothing

 

[WaveJumper]

Having someone in the family who does just that ie gets sponsored by various companies they contact her normally direct she tells them the "fee' for what they want, has a simple contract they sign ......and away you go.

 

[Kerwin]

Thank you both. Very useful.

 

[AlanJ1]

We do, typically the fee as said is dictated to you and you negotaite.
Make you are clear up front with what you want out of it before you agree.

 

[ThatDevAaron]

We've done this quite a lot. I find it extremely great, but tbh, it depends highly on what you're giving the person posting the video, as most of the time, the results, in my case especially, are very long-term.

 

[fisicx]

Whenever I watch something on you tube my finger hovers waiting for the ‘skip’ button to appear. Can’t recall the name of anything in the advert.

 

[Kerwin]

Whenever I watch something on you tube my finger hovers waiting for the ‘skip’ button to appear. Can’t recall the name of anything in the advert.

I wasn't talking about YouTube adverts but paid promotion within the video itself where the video creator talks about a product or service.

 

[fisicx]

I wasn't talking about YouTube adverts but paid promotion within the video itself where the video creator talks about a product or service.

Got it. Influencer stuff.

I’d have thought the type of product would determine if this viable. I knew one chap who used it to promote his kitchenware. Cost him around £5k for each video but he sold tons of stuff - all top end kit.

 

[DontAsk]

I wasn't talking about YouTube adverts but paid promotion within the video itself where the video creator talks about a product or service.

Don't need to wait for the skip button for this. Just fast forward.

 

[Kerwin]

Don't need to wait for the skip button for this. Just fast forward.

I'm not too bothered with people who skip the content. The same is true with Google Ads and people using adblockers.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I'm not too bothered with people who skip the content. The same is true with Google Ads and people using adblockers.

Fair point

Reality - nobody believes they are susceptible to being marketed/sold to - but the evidence tells us that most of us are

However, whatever medium you use, success lies in planning and research - people / time / message etc.

 

[TCH]

Having someone in the family who does just that ie gets sponsored by various companies they contact her normally direct she tells them the "fee' for what they want, has a simple contract they sign ......and away you go.

can you mention the names of a few Youtube videos, it would interest me to see what's involved

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

We work for customers who hire influencers (we're video production) and see both failure and success where you can make a lot of money.

I'm not an expert in picking influencers but this is what I see:

1. Audit their following

Lot of fake influencers out there so audit their following. One influencer I know personally and who hired us to shoot for him literally bought his following. A cursory check would reveal the majority of his followers are in the Far East even though he's in London and even if those followers were real, they'd be in the wrong market. He still gets paid by brands.

2. Active vs passive influencers.

Once you've identified a few influencers who might be appropriate, go into more detail over active influencers where their audience is likely to buy from them. Horrible example is there is a lego influencer whose audience don't care what he says. He doesn't have any kind of authority and his viewers just like his lego.

The famous example was an influencer who tried to sell merch and literally sold two T-shirts with a supposed following of 200,000. So there's a massive difference between passive and active influencers. Have a look and it's worth understanding the difference.

3. Right Product Fit

Ensure the fit works. I have an influencer on my team. Brands would send him photography equipment (we're video production). Wrong audience. He's video production, not photography. His audience cares more about LUTs and gimbals than stills. He's stopped that but it's ridiculous.

4. Price vs advertising price

One customer of mine was paying £2,000 + VAT per month for an influencer. When he stopped paying them, sales didn't really move downwards. So he put his money into TV advertising and that moved the needle a lot more. TV in 2025 costs less than influencers and will make you more money in the right circumstances / product.

5. Can't do Channel stealing anymore... probably

We did a little bit of channel stealing. This was an incredibly cheap way of generating sales / leads from influencer channels without paying them. One customer made a ton of sales from this but YT's cracked down on this. Again, happy to show you how this works but in the right circumstances, you can make a ton of sales but YT will eventually pull this and send you a cease and desist.

If you want any advice, happy to help because we work with them and happy to pass on advice from my customers who do this. Just DM me and happy to help.

 

[Wishr]

It’s interesting that you’ve said that TV advertising is generally cheaper than using influencers nowadays. Presumably thats in terms of using relatively low-audience channels?

 

[FreddyG]

It’s interesting that you’ve said that TV advertising is generally cheaper than using influencers nowadays. Presumably thats in terms of using relatively low-audience channels?

There are no low-audience mainstream channels. TV ads work in bundles and are sold via media agencies. You may even see local ITV affiliates advertising the idea of TV advertising. But selling small bundles costs more in admin than it brings in revenue.

There are local 'windows' for local shops and other businesses, but a single ad or even a series of ads are very unlikely to sell much. What they really want is to place a big contract for months or even years with a media agency that guarantees a steady income.

There are three media sales outlets - Channel 4 (who also do ad sales for smaller outlets) ITV, and Sky. With the move to online viewing, TV buying is increasingly algorithm-driven, especially in Connected TV (CTV): i.e., streaming services like Hulu, Roku, and Pluto TV sell dynamically inserted ads based on user profiles. And so-called Addressable TV and Sky in particular, in the UK, lets agencies target different households during the same programme.

So today, broadcasters are becoming data-driven ad platforms, and agencies are morphing into tech intermediaries rather than just bulk buyers.

All that means the SME should launch its own YT channel and produce its own programmes discussing its market or technology issues.

Broadcasting in the UK is beginning to have to think the unthinkable - the future is not channels or stations anymore! (But that, as they say, is a whole new and very different can of worms!)

 

[Stuart_Walker]

Just to say it is always having an initial chat with a few agencies if you can stand salespeople.
I worked for an agency that would sell space in print and time on radio/TV. Typically if there were empty slots the stations would call them, then they would in turn call all their contacts and offer time at an incredibly cheap rate.
Often you have to put up with early hours but occasionally they will call with a real gem.
Buy a couple of cheap ones and then you'll be the first call on the sales CRM for the good spots

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

It’s interesting that you’ve said that TV advertising is generally cheaper than using influencers nowadays. Presumably thats in terms of using relatively low-audience channels?

So no. I'm talking the biggest channels. I'm talking about selling audiences.

It's what we do. We sell 'audiences.' Imagine you want to only advertise to, say, HR people who are likely to be relatively senior. So the TV advertising we do would allow you to pick your audience and advertise only to those people.

They might be watching Midsummer Murders or golf. It doesn't really matter. They get targeted by the ads. So you don't advertise during the golf, you select the audience and advertise to purely that.

If your audience is purely senior HR people in Surrey, it costs way less than social to advertise to that audience.

And again, I'm not talking about building audiences on social, I'm purely only talking about advertising.

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

There are no low-audience mainstream channels. TV ads work in bundles and are sold via media agencies. You may even see local ITV affiliates advertising the idea of TV advertising. But selling small bundles costs more in admin than it brings in revenue.

There are local 'windows' for local shops and other businesses, but a single ad or even a series of ads are very unlikely to sell much. What they really want is to place a big contract for months or even years with a media agency that guarantees a steady income.

There are three media sales outlets - Channel 4 (who also do ad sales for smaller outlets) ITV, and Sky. With the move to online viewing, TV buying is increasingly algorithm-driven, especially in Connected TV (CTV): i.e., streaming services like Hulu, Roku, and Pluto TV sell dynamically inserted ads based on user profiles. And so-called Addressable TV and Sky in particular, in the UK, lets agencies target different households during the same programme.

So today, broadcasters are becoming data-driven ad platforms, and agencies are morphing into tech intermediaries rather than just bulk buyers.

All that means the SME should launch its own YT channel and produce its own programmes discussing its market or technology issues.

Broadcasting in the UK is beginning to have to think the unthinkable - the future is not channels or stations anymore! (But that, as they say, is a whole new and very different can of worms!)

Just to correct this, we sell TV advertising (we make the creative because we're video production) and purely focus on audience targeted adverts. So we sell audiences.

So let's say you want to only advertise to, say, SME company directors in Surrey who are successful, relatively affluent and work in manufacturing. That's what we would sell. We make the creative.