Over the past 5 years, YouTube has progressed from ‘casual hobby’ to ‘small side gig’ for many. It started as a directory for short, funny videos and has grown into an entire library of educational resources, entertainment, and more. With that growth has come the ability to monetize content and attract advertisers from all over the globe.
As well as ad revenue and super chats, creators are keen to attract external sponsors who can support them in running their channel. Who are YouTube sponsors, how do they work, and how do you attract them? Read on to find out all there is to know about YouTube sponsorships!
What are Youtube Sponsors?
In the business, world sponsorship is defined as selling advertising in return for money or products. Put simply, you advertise a company, and they repay you in physical products or advertising revenue.
In terms of YouTube, content creators will add company logos or slogans to their streams and usually pitch predetermined scripts to promote new products or campaigns. A popular example would be energy drinks and protein drinks. Creators will take time out of their stream to draw attention to the sponsor’s logo and current products and try to redirect you to their website or store.
The results of advertising sponsors like this depend on the type of sponsorship.
What Is The Difference Between Brand Deals And Affiliation?
YouTube sponsorships can be categorized into two different forms; brand deals and affiliate.
Brand Deals
Brand deals are the most secure and profitable of the two types of sponsorship. It entails an agreement between two parties (the creator and the brand) in return for services. Most of the time, the creator will agree to advertise the brand a certain amount of times in streams and videos in return for a monthly sponsorship fee.
In other circumstances, the brand might not be willing to offer financial sponsorship but instead product sponsorship. This can be seen in large streams that advertise their use of certain PCs, monitors, and other hardware. In return for this advertisement, they are provided the hardware completely free of charge.
Brand deals usually come with contractual obligations and terms. It is a more secure form of sponsorship for both parties but also comes with higher responsibility for the content creator.
Affiliate
Affiliate marketing has burst onto the YouTube scene in the last three to four years. It is a cost-effective means of brands advertising themselves without having to front any sponsorship money or physical products.
The content creator signs up to the brand’s online store as an ‘affiliate’ and receives a personalized code. They then advertise the brand’s shop and ask viewers to use their code during checkout. This will allow them to receive a small percentage of the purchase, usually ranging from 2-10%.
Smaller creators won’t see much of a return from affiliate programs unless they use multiple affiliate links.
What Are The Best Affiliate Schemes Out There?
Go2Games – G2G sell digital copies of games at a slightly discounted price. A must-have affiliation for gaming streamers.
GFuel – Probably the brand that most YouTube viewers associate with affiliate marketing, GFuel is all over YouTube nowadays! Just their logo on your streams can reflect well on your content. Due to this, there is quite a strict application process.
PureVPN – VPNs and system security are all the rage at the moment and provide you a monthly affiliate benefit, not just a one-time payment.
Razer – As one of the leading gaming hardware producers on the market, it looks great having Razer’s logo associated with your content.
Logitech – Similar to Razer, but they offer a slightly higher commission per purchase!
Amazon – The go-to affiliate link. They might not offer huge commissions, but they have an enormous selection of products for customers to choose from.
How To Get Youtube Sponsors And Brand Deals
There are three main ways to get YouTube sponsors:
Produce Quality Content
As with any industry, what you’re offering must be high-end and popular content. A streamer streaming non-interactive content to 0 viewers is of no interest to large brands looking to advertise themselves.
As a partner, you will represent a slice of the brand and as such, need to reflect it in your content quality and value. There is no ‘quick and easy’ way to financial support.
With growth on YouTube comes more viewers, with more viewers comes more exposure, and with more exposure comes the potential of the right person dropping into your stream or videos at the right time!
To quote Field Of Dreams; ‘If you build it, they will come!’.
Cold Emails
There are a lot of people who believe that ‘cold contact’ is a dead medium these days, but it entirely depends on the way you approach your subject.
Cold emails are emails that have not been requested or required and can be sent to many different parties to try and garner interest in your content.
Usually, on a company’s website, you will be able to find the email address of their marketing department or general inquiries. It can’t hurt to send them an email detailing who you are, what you do, and what you can offer as an advertiser. In our experience, around 5% of brands actually replied, and a few of those went on to be successful conversations.
If you’re not sure what to write in a sponsorship proposal, check out our template below.
Applications
Many brands nowadays are aware of the sponsorship interest increasing from content creators and have in fact created a dedicated application process for these proposals.
Corsair is one hardware developer who has implemented this type of process. Be sure to ‘sell yourself in your application, make yourself stand out, and let them know what unique aspects you can bring to their brand as a partner. Bland and boring applications will go straight in the trash!
YouTube Sponsorship Email Template
Writing sponsorship proposals and emails can be troubling and time-consuming. Use our email template below to correctly word your proposal and impress the pants off of any brand:
To whom it may concern at {brand name},
{Your channel name} is a YouTube gaming channel with a difference.
My name is {your name} and since {date} I have been streaming on YouTube and have enjoyed great success in such a small amount of time.
Of my {sub count} loyal followers, I regularly have averages of {concurrent average} people who watch my streams, and my growth is currently exponential. It has now got to the point where I am starting to consider sponsorship opportunities, and after seeing {brand name}’s impressive line of products online, I knew instantly it was a project I would like to be involved with!
Do you currently have any partnerships opportunities available for online influencers, specifically YouTubers? I believe with my current rate of growth, I would be able to bring a lot of business your way in the near future! I am open to all sponsorship/partnership approaches and agreements, not purely financial.
I look forward to further discussions regarding this opportunity.
Thank you for your time and kind regards,
{Your name}
{Your channel name}
{Your channel URL}
I’ve Received My First Ever Sponsorship Offer. Should I Accept It?
The day you receive that first email saying that you’ve impressed a brand and they want to be involved with your content can feel like the day you’ve ‘made it.’ Not only do you work hard to create great videos, but now somebody wants to support you in your journey financially. Jackpot!
Well … unfortunately, it might not be as amazing as it seems. Many companies out there are looking to profit and benefit from smaller streamers by pouncing on their initial excitement and agreeing to ridiculous free advertising terms. Usually, they will tell you that you will see increased viewership and growth by having their logo on your streams and that they cannot offer any financial support.
Be sure to carefully read the terms and conditions of any affiliate or YouTube sponsors deal. If in doubt, send the email to a friend, family member, or better yet, lawyer to double-check any agreements and contracts.
The streaming world is generally a pleasant environment to work in, but business is business, and some entities will undoubtedly try to get everything for nothing!
In Conclusion
Overall, understanding how to get YouTube sponsors can be a massive boost to your channel. It opens doors to more investment and better equipment. Affiliate programs are also a great idea for smaller channels that believe their viewers can and will use partner stores. As with any process in business, be vigilant and smart about contractual agreements, and we do not doubt that you’ll have yourself a great sponsor very soon!
In addition, there are other ways to monetize a YouTube channel as well. To read more about that, check out our article on this topic here.
