Making money from YouTube is what a lot of creators dream of but aside from the primary YouTube Partner Program, YouTubers can also earn from sponsored content.
Whether you’re a new YouTuber or you’ve been doing it for a long time, sponsored content can help you broaden your creativity while increasing your earnings. But landing a sponsorship deal is no mean feat — everybody wants it, but not every creator can get it.
With sponsored content coming in different forms from affiliate products to brand deals, knowing how to navigate the space is important.
I mean, how do you get these deals, how to get your audience onboard without losing their trust? All these are what you’ll learn in this ultimate guide.
Before we get into all that, let’s see what sponsored content is all about.
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What is Sponsored Content?
Sponsored content is a form of advertisement where you make content for a brand. Whether it is for an offer or vision. Typically, the content aligns with the channel’s niche and audience.
Companies use this form of marketing as it helps them to reach their target market faster, especially if it’s a niche market. It also helps to build long lasting relationships with their audience.
Imagine their trusted influencer talking positively about a product, the audience will quickly trust that product.
To put simply, sponsored content covers every YouTube video or content made in exchange for rewards. Now rewards can come in the form of payments, goods, or even services.
Whether its product reviews/unboxing in exchange for the product or shoutouts in exchange of direct payments. It can also be affiliate links in exchange for a cut on revenue or even full blown marketing videos. Sponsored posts can come in any form.
Different Types of Sponsored Content
What qualifies as sponsored content? This is a question that gets a lot of creators worked up as sponsored content can be in a variety of forms. Let’s see the different types here.
1. Dedicated Video
For a dedicated video, the full YouTube video is made for the brand with popular examples including product reviews, and tutorials.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing for youtube is usually the classic link in bio or comment where you get a share for each buyer you refer. This is one of the easiest ways to do sponsored content with the lowest barrier of entry.
3. Integrated Sponsorship
Here a product or service is integrated seamlessly into the video content that it is almost unnoticeable that it is sponsored. Usually, the product or service is used or mentioned in the course of making the video.
4. Brand Sponsorship
Here a creator is sponsored by a brand with similar values. This creator then attends the brand’s events, and posts regularly about their offerings. It is a more comprehensive sponsorship than the simple video or affiliate deals.
5. Giveaways Sponsorship
Brands sponsor giveaways on channels switch related content. Typically it can be anything from brand products/subscriptions or even money while the brand gets a shoutout in the video.
How Much Do Sponsors Pay?
Wondering if sponsored content pays enough? Well, the answer to that depends on a lot of variables. Some of which include the niche, size of channel, brand, and type of sponsored content required.
However, these brands can pay anything from $100 to $10,000 per video depending on various factors, with brand or channel sponsorship paying more.
That’s not all, sometimes the payment is performance-based and the brand pays per chosen metric which can be clicks, sales, or views. The usual pay for this starts from $5 to $10 per 100 views.
How to Get Sponsors?
Seen the pay and now interested? Well, you have to get a sponsor first. Thankfully there are different ways to do this. Whether you’re looking to attract a brand or go in search for them, here’s how you can get sponsors as a YouTuber:
1. Prepare Your Channel
To get sponsorships, your channel must be in top shape so the first step in getting any kind of deal is optimizing your channel. And how do you do this?
Go through the channel and make upgrades where necessary. It may be in the form of a new banner, channel description or even better content. The goal is to improve your engagement and grow your numbers.
2. Build a Strong Media Kit
Building a media kit is still among the preparatory steps to getting sponsors but just as important.
You need to compile a series of information about your channel that you can give to sponsors to understand what you’re about, your numbers, and how you can help them.
It should contain your channel’s analytics and its progress over time. Subscriber count, case studies of other brand deals if any, and anything that shows how your channel can help brands. This kit should show your worth.
3. Join Sponsor Networks
Now it’s time for some active search for sponsors. And one place to get that are sponsor networks. These are platforms that help YouTubers find sponsors; some of the most popular sponsor networks include YouTube-owned Brandconnect, Neoreach, and Upfluence.
Engage with brands on these platforms and showcase your achievements. You can even post your content regularly over there to put yourself in their faces.
4. Actively Reach Out to Brands
Instead of a passive search, you can go on the offensive by reaching out to brands and pitching your services.
However, before you do this, make a list of the brands that align with your channel’s vision and niche. You can then send a personalized pitch to each of them detailing how you can help them.
5. Negotiate
Gotten some favourable responses from brands looking to sponsor you? Time to negotiate your rates before signing any deal.
What are your rates? What about deadlines and metrics to measure success?
Get all the necessary details clear and then negotiate a fair rate. If this is your first sponsorship it may be difficult to know what is fair or not but a good approach is by researching standard rates in your niche.
Preparing Your Channel For Sponsored Content
You’ve secured a lucrative sponsorship deal with a brand and all is good with the world, right? Maybe, but it can go wrong quickly if you don’t put the necessary steps in place.
You need to prepare your channel for these promotions especially if it is your first. Not doing so can lead to discontent among your audience and even loss of engagement.
So how do you prepare your channel the right way?
Start by discussing sponsorship. Let your audience know which videos are sponsored. It is not only fair to them but also mandatory. Yes, YouTube recently made it mandatory to tell your audience if a video is sponsored or not.
For some jurisdictions, disclosing paid content is a legal requirement so you don’t want to fall foul of this.
Thankfully the process is easy as you can simply tick the box indicating there is a paid promotion in the video. You’ll find this option during upload. You can also do one better and include it in your video description.
Another way to ensure a smooth sponsorship is to space them out. You don’t want to bombard your audience with sponsored posts. Space them out with regular posts to make it flow naturally.
Final Thoughts
Getting sponsored as a YouTuber is one way to earn on the platform but that’s not all. It’s a way to create value — helping brands reach promote their products/ services and helping your audience get valuable products.
Before looking for a sponsorship deal, you should understand the different types of sponsored YouTube contents, then customize your channel to attract sponsors.
Looking for a more proactive approach? Join sponsor network programs or actively reach out to brands with your media kit. You may not get a favorable reply the first few tries but keep going and soon enough, you’ll have a lot of sponsors than you can handle.
What are you waiting for? Position your channel for sponsors by creating great content that encourages engagement.
