How Much Do YouTubers Get Paid for Sponsored Videos?

Table of Contents

What is a YouTube sponsorship?
How much do sponsors pay YouTubers?
Factors impacting how much sponsors pay YouTubers
How to get sponsored on YouTube
Sign up as an affiliate
How much should I charge for a sponsored YouTube video
Conclusion

There are a number of content creators on YouTube who make a significant amount of money. 

Often, one of the ways these content creators make money is through sponsored videos. But how much do YouTubers get paid for sponsored videos, and what determines the amount of money a YouTuber is paid?

YouTubers get paid a different amount of money for sponsored videos depending on a few different factors. These criteria include audience size, niche, and the objective of the sponsored video. 

Due to the various advertiser boycotts that have taken place in recent years and because of the difficulty of earning significant money from Ads, many YouTubers are beginning to monetize their channel through sponsored videos. 

This is smart, as Google AdSense revenue isn't as reliable as it used to be. 

But this begs the question, how much money do YouTubers get paid for sponsored videos, and what determines their fee?

What is a YouTube Sponsorship?

A YouTube sponsorship is when a brand or business pays to have their products or services featured in a video. 

Here’s a real life example of a YouTube sponsorship. 

Here you can see what a typical YouTube sponsorship looks like. The company pays the creator to dedicate a portion of their video towards talking about and showcasing their products. 

How Much Do Sponsors Pay YouTubers?

You might be wondering, how much do sponsors pay YouTubers? This is a difficult question to answer, as different YouTubers are paid different amounts of money. You see, there are different criteria that sponsors look at when determining how much they would like to pay a YouTube content creator.

However, several sources indicate that sponsors can pay anything between $10 to $50 per thousand views. Getting paid $50 per thousand views would typically only be applicable to the really large and well-known channels out there, so don't go pitching that price to sponsors. 

Factors Impacting How Much Sponsors Pay YouTubers

Answering the question of how much YouTubers can get paid for sponsored videos is a difficult one to answer, as different YouTubers are paid different amounts of money. 

You see, there are different elements that sponsors look at when determining how much they would like to pay a YouTube content creator.

The criteria that determine how much a content creator is paid for a sponsored video include:

• Audience size and demographics
• Niche
• Sponsored video objective

Let's dive deeper into each of these criteria.

Audience Size

Larger YouTube channels tend to deliver better return-on-investment (ROI) for sponsors. Due to this, larger channels tend to be paid more money than smaller channels. 

At the end of the day, sponsors want their product, service, or brand to get in front of as many people as possible. The best way to do this is to work with channels that have a large audience.

Source: Backlinko

It isn't unheard of for small channels to get paid for sponsored videos. It's becoming more common for smaller channels to get opportunities for sponsored videos. 

However, small channels tend to be paid a much smaller amount than larger channels. 

Likewise, a channel’s demographics also impacts how much it can earn from sponsored videos. This is because brands and businesses are willing to pay top dollar for getting their products in front of targeted audiences. 

For instance, a digital marketing YouTube channel targeting middle-aged men and women in the US interested in enterprise software can charge higher rates for sponsored content than one targeting young adults looking to start businesses.

This is because of the value of the audience. 

Middle-aged individuals tend to be more established in their careers and oftentimes have a management position in a medium to large sized company. These individuals will be able to pay more for marketing software compared to young adults looking to start businesses. 

As a result, channels with these audience demographics can charge a higher price tag for sponsored videos.

Niche

Certain niches are more profitable than others. In more general niches, such as gaming, the audiences tend to be larger. 

However, in more specific niches, like stock investing and education, the audiences tend to be smaller. You would think that the bigger niches would result in more money being paid by sponsors, but this isn't the case.

Often, smaller but more specific niches lead to higher payouts for content creators. 

Many of these niches contain high-ticket products and services. This means that a sponsor can afford to pay more money, while still being able to generate a positive ROI. This is part of the reason why with Google AdSense, for example, CPMs are higher in certain niches.

Sponsored Video Objective

Every sponsored video has an agreed-upon objective. For example, the objective of a sponsored video might be to raise awareness for a particular event. 

Or, the objective might be to generate sign-ups to a particular service. 

Depending on what the objective is, a different amount might be paid to the YouTuber at hand.

Generating leads for a real estate investing service will lead to higher payouts for content creators than an awareness campaign for a mobile gaming app. 

But why is this? Well, this is because in most cases, real estate investor leads are worth a lot more money than mobile gaming app users.

How to Get Sponsored on YouTube

You need to do the legwork a while in advance before you can even think of getting sponsored on YouTube. 

Getting sponsored on YouTube is a process that begins long before you get your first deal. Here are the steps you need to take in order to get sponsored on YouTube:

1. Ensure Your Channel Looks Professional

The very first step involved in getting a sponsor on YouTube is to make sure your channel looks good. This involves every aspect of your channel’s branding including your logo, banner image, and thumbnails.

Brands will much likely partner up with channels that have proper branding in place compared to those that don’t. 

Putting effort and resources into creating eye-catching branding says that you’re in it for the long run. As a result, brands will take you more seriously when you reach out to them or when they come across your content.

2. Create High Quality Video Content

Another thing that brands will look at before considering you for a sponsorship is the quality of your videos, this includes both the actual content of videos and the production quality. 

Why would a brand partner up with a creator producing low quality video content?

Furthermore, with so many competitors and creators that brands can choose from on YouTube, you simply can’t produce substandard videos any more. 

Now, I’m not saying you should have an entire production crew with expensive YouTube equipment. Luckily, with the advancements in technology, you can produce good quality videos using a cheap camera and affordable video editing software. 

Of course, it helps to have a freelance video editor to help, but it’s definitely not a requirement. 

3. Make It Easy for Sponsors to Contact You

Next, you want to ensure that sponsors can easily get hold of you once they decide that they want to partner up with you. 

As a rule of thumb, try to include your professional email address in the channel description. Try to avoid using a generic Gmail email address, as this tends to not look professional. 

You should also try to include links to your social channels and profiles in your channel and video descriptions. 

This gives prospective sponsors even more ways to contact and engage with you.

4. Sign Up with Sponsorship Websites

One of the ways you can get a sponsor for your YouTube content is by signing up to influencer and sponsorship websites such as Creator.co, Scrunch, Artbrief, etc.

These platforms give brands the ability to form partnerships with creators on all the most popular digital platforms, including YouTube.

Simply create an account on one or more of these platforms and ensure that you complete your profile according to each platform’s guidelines.

5. Reach Out to Sponsors

The last step is to actually reach out to brands that you’d like to work with. Now, if you’ve already got a large and established YouTube channel, then sponsors will likely contact you.

However, if you’re starting out, then one of the best things you can do to get sponsored is by reaching out to brands yourself. 

This process might take a few hours out of your day but it’s something worth trying. 

Begin by creating a list of all the brands you’d like to work with, this list should be as long as possible since the more prospects you have, the greater the odds of converting one of them into a sponsor. 

Then, find all the contact information for the relevant people at these businesses. 

Lastly, send a personalized email to all of these individuals. This email should include a short introduction, links to your YouTube channel, and social media handles.

It’s vital that you also include how your channel can help grow their business. Do this by including YouTube metrics such as total subscribers, average view count per video, average view duration, etc. 

Sign Up as an Affiliate

Another strategy to get sponsored on YouTube is by signing up as an affiliate for relevant products or services.

While this technically doesn’t count as a YouTube sponsorship, creators can still earn a decent income from being affiliates.

In fact, whenever a brand sponsors a video or forms a partnership with a creator, they tend to give the creator an affiliate link as another way of rewarding them. 

Additionally, if you’re an affiliate and you’re able to send lots of traffic and sales to a particular brand, they’ll likely take notice and want to work with you on a more personal level. 

How Much Should I Charge for a Sponsored YouTube Video

A question I'm often asked by content creators is, "How much should I charge for a sponsored YouTube video?"

You don't want to charge too little and get ripped-off, but you don't want to charge too much and scare away brands. Finding the correct pricing is key for anyone wanting to get paid for sponsored videos.

Your pricing will come down to your audience size, niche, and the objective of the sponsored video at hand. If you are in a high-ticket niche, such as business or finance, then this will lead to a higher price for brands looking to pay you for a sponsored video.

Along with this, the size of your audience and the objective of the sponsored video will impact your pricing as well.

Conclusion

There are many different ways to make money on YouTube. One such way is through sponsored videos.

YouTubers are paid a certain amount of money for sponsored videos depending on their audience size, niche, and the objective of the sponsored video. Overall, getting paid to create sponsored videos for brands can be very lucrative if done correctly.