One of the best ways of making money as a YouTuber is through brand deals. However, reports indicate that most YouTubers are undercharging, with those in the finance niche at 100K subscribers charging $5,000 less. And unlike what you may think, this isn't because of their low engagement or subscriber count; it's because of their poor negotiating skills.

This is why if you want to succeed when working as a brand ambassador on YouTube, you need to grasp the art of negotiation. Fortunately, in this article, we guide you on how to find and negotiate YouTube brand deals.

What are YouTube Brand Deals?

A YouTube brand deal is an agreement where a brand pays a creator to feature its products in their videos. It differs from the YouTube Partner Program because creators receive the full amount. 

The deals can be divided into different categories, such as:

• Sponsored videos. This pays a flat rate for every video.
• Affiliate deals. It usually pays a flat rate on sales from a unique link.
• Product seeding. This involves the brand sending free products to creators in exchange for organic mentions.
• Brand ambassadors. This involves a recurring contract with a creator for ongoing content creation.
• Exclusive partnership. This pays a premium rate while restricting the creator from working with the competing brands.

How to Get YouTube Brand Deals

Before you start negotiating for better brand deals on YouTube, you need to get the deals first. This is where the art of finding brand deals comes into play. 

Here are tips for getting good brand deals on YouTube:

Reach Out to Brands

If you are waiting for brands to reach out to you, it will be hard for you to get brand deals, especially if you are a new creator. Therefore, you will need to reach out to them yourself. There are several ways you can do that, such as:

• Filling out the web form on their sites.
• Finding the company’s marketing director on LinkedIn and contacting them directly.
• Tweeting the brand on X (Twitter).
• Joining the YouTube Creator Partnership. However, you must review the eligibility criteria before you join.

Turn on the Creator Insights Sharing

YouTube Studio offers you an opportunity to connect with brands through the Creator Insights Sharing. When you share insights from your channel, you can increase your earnings from ads, shopping affiliate programs, and branded content campaigns. While you will still be visible to brands with the setting turned off, the additional information will help them choose creators best suited to their campaign goals.

Add a Media Kit

A media kit is an important tool for creators seeking brand partnerships and other monetization opportunities. It enables creators to showcase their key insights. 

Here are the steps to follow when creating a media kit:

• Show the brand why you love it and why you think you should work with them. You can also mention why you love their brand.
• Provide some insights into your channel and what excites you and your audience.
• Illustrate your channel’s engagement rate. You can add demographic data to help the brand better understand your audience. You should provide them with metrics such as subscriber count, view count, unique views, and average time spent watching the content.
• Share a video illustration of why you think you will successfully collaborate with the brand.

Tips for Negotiating with Brands

Now that you understand how to get brands to work with you, let us look at how you can negotiate with them.

Do Your Homework Before Negotiation

There are many brands looking to work with creators, so you don't have to beg for deals. Instead, you need to be choosy when finding one. 

Some of the important details you need to have are:

Current Brand Partnerships

Go through YouTube, finding previous brand mentions of the brand, especially among the creators in your niche. This will provide insight into the kind of creators they work with and the collaboration formats they want, such as dedicated videos vs. integrated mentions. This will provide insights into the channel size they work with and their experience for both the brand and the creator. 

Your Metrics

Make sure you understand your key metrics, such as the average view count for the past 10 videos, engagement rate, and your audience demographics. Understand the lucrative YouTube niche, such as health, B2B software, and personal finance. These pay better because the customers are also worth more.

When you prove to a brand that 70% of your viewers are aged 20 to 35 and have a household income of $80k, you will show your seriousness in proposing a sponsorship rate that you can defend.

Campaign Goals

When brands sponsor content on YouTube, they often have two goals: either building brand awareness or increasing conversion, or both. Campaigns that drive brand awareness are often in niches such as technology, lifestyle brands, and consumer apps. These niches often work well with YouTube Shorts, as they only require a short integration. 

Conversion campaigns often require a longer and deeper integration into the content. When you understand or create well-researched brand assumptions, you can pitch the right format and at the right price.

Avoid Giving Your Rate First

One of the most important rules when negotiating brand deals on YouTube is to never give the rate first. Imagine a situation where they had a budget of $5,000 monthly for the role, and you open with a request of $3,000, you will be undercharged. Therefore, when a brand requests your rate, you can always respond that you would be ready to discuss pricing after understanding the deliverables and scope.

You can then ask them to share more on what they are searching for so that they can outline their needs before the money. If they invest the time in explaining what they are trying to achieve, you can be assured that they are ready to make a deal. Instead of a rate card, you can now send them a media card, which shows the value you are offering without mentioning the rate. 

Make sure you include your views for your last 10 videos, your engagement rate, and your audience demographics. The brand will now have the option to calculate what they want to pay, based on their budget.

Leveraging Industry Rates for Your Negotiations

Understanding the average rates that brands pay in your industry can offer great insights into the partnership. According to industry data, creators in the finance niche typically command CPMs of $50-$200 for brand deals. This is because viewers in the finance space have a higher conversion rate. That means this would be a good starting point when negotiating brand deals. If you get a lower rate, you should negotiate professionally while demonstrating the value you will deliver to the brand, such as conversion metrics.

You can also use competitor rates to negotiate. For instance, you can say that a similar channel in your niche charges $5,000 to $10,000 for similar video placement.

Negotiate the Terms, Too

A common mistake that creators make is to assume that once they get a good rate, they have a good deal. However, the terms are also as important as the rate. For instance, if a brand wants exclusive use of your content, you can request 20% to 150% more. Don't just focus on negotiating the dollar amount. Instead, also negotiate on the following:

Exclusivity

Does the brand want to work with you exclusively while preventing you from promoting their competitors, either now or in the future? That will mean potentially lost income that will need to be compensated for. In most cases, brands request an exclusive lasting for 30 to 90 days. If the brand requests an exclusivity of 30 days, you can add a minimum of 50% to the base rate. If they want exclusivity for 90 days, you can double your rate.

Also, clearly understand what they mean by “their competitor,” and that this is put in writing. Otherwise, if they include broad terms when describing who their competitors are, you might end up completely blocked from other sponsorship deals.

Usage Rights

The standard organic posting, where you create the video and the brand post, is usually the most common for the base rate. However, at times, the brand may want to use your content for its paid media ads, which may require additional negotiation. A good rule of thumb is to ask for 30-50% above the base rate. Make sure the license also includes an export date, with a standard of 12 months.

Number of Revisions

Will the brand require changes or revisions, and how many? A good rule of thumb would be to accept two rounds of revisions. Make sure the word “revision” is also well defined; you might be required to create a whole new piece of content after shooting.

The concept, development, and script approval processes should be clearly outlined with deadlines. You can agree to five business days for the business to review the script. Let the contract specify what happens if they miss the deadline to approve the script, with an option for you to publish the content and get paid.

Deliverable

Be sure you understand how many brand mentions to include in your video, how long each mention should be, and where to place them, such as pre-roll and mid-roll. The brand should have a robust system for tracking and analyzing social media mentions. They should also clarify the publication window, such as within 30 days of script approval. If there is a delay caused by the brand, you can also delay the publishing date.

Show Your Value Beyond the View Count

Another mistake creators make when negotiating brand deals is relying solely on CPM calculations. A good idea would be to focus more on outcomes than on impressions. You should showcase your unique value propositions based on the brand's most important metric: return on ad spend (ROAS).

Instead of showing the audience size, show the quality. For instance, you can say that your viewers spend an average of 10 minutes watching sponsored content, which is higher than the industry average of 5 minutes. This will ensure that they not only see the message, but they also understand its value. For many brands, engagement matters more than reach.

Reference the performance of your past campaigns. For instance, you can say that the last SaaS brand you worked with saw a CTR of 12%, which is above the 7% of other creators. When you do that, you make them focus more on ROAS instead of their cost. They will start to see the value they will get even with a high CPM, since this is supported by concession data.

You can show other deliverables that you can use to negotiate despite their lower cost, such as:

• A mention in your Instagram story once a day.
• Inclusion of a newsletter for those with an email list.
• Resharing your brand posts on social media.
• Providing performance data after a campaign.

Choose the Right Timing

When negotiating a YouTube brand deal, the speed matters a lot as brands will only reach out when they have a marketing budget. Failure to respond quickly will cause them to allocate the budget elsewhere. However, when you get into a conversation with the brand, don't move too fast.

Before you negotiate the rate, go on a call. When you spend 15 minutes speaking to the brand manager, you will be in a better position to command a higher rate than another creator who negotiates through email. This is because brands trust people they have negotiated with orally more.

Avoid negotiating using the first email exchange. Instead, respond quickly to express your interest, ask any questions you need clarified (e.g., about the deliverables), and then schedule a call to discuss the partnership details. It's always a good idea to discuss the rate over the phone rather than in writing.

Handling Lowball Offers

According to one report, 73% of brands now prefer working with micro- and macro-influencers over mega-influencers.  This is despite the fact that 80% of brands still maintain or increase their influencer marketing budgets. This indicates that brands are ready to pay for audience trust and engagement rather than the number of subscribers. Additionally, micro influencers can create highly converting content.

When a brand offers you an offer that you consider to be below your target rate, don't be desperate to say yes, and also don't be in a rush to say no. Either of these answers will make your position weaker. Instead, do either of the following:

Counter by Showing Your Value

Give your higher value based on the results rather than the reach. For instance, you can say that your last sponsored video has a 5.5% click-through rate using their promo code. You can then tell them that, based on this, you would value the deal at X. 

If you are getting into the first brand deal, research industry averages before these discussions. Avoid asking for more money for the sake of it. Instead, you should show the return on investment of your content to help you drive the outcomes you want.

Offer to Reduce the Scope

If the brand has a fixed budget and you really need the deal, you might also consider reducing the scope to accept the brand's rate. For instance, you can say something like you can perform a 45-second midroll at that rate instead of a completely dedicated segment. When you do that, you strike with your per-unit while remaining within their budget.

But what happens if none of these works? If the brand isn't ready to pay your rate after you have countered and won't accept a reduction in the scope, this could be a sign that they may be a difficult partner. A good idea would be to walk away politely, as it shows the brand isn't the right fit for you. You can then politely tell them that you would be willing to work with them in the future if your budget aligns with theirs.

When to Reject the Offer vs. to Compromise

No matter how well you negotiate, some negotiations will not end up in a deal. Remember, it's perfectly fine to say no to some low offers to protect your future negotiations. If the rate you accept is 40% lower than the market rate, that will be your future rate. Therefore, when you realize that the gap is more than 50%, it would be better to walk away. After all, if a brand is offering $1000 for what you charge $5000, it means they are in another market. When you accept the offer, you will now fall into the budget influencers category, which will be hard to come out of.

However, when you realize there is a 20-30% gap and the brand has remained professional throughout the process, you might consider a compromise. This is particularly the case when there is a potential for a long-term deal. When you find that the brand treats you professionally, consider building a relationship with it, even when you cannot agree on the rate. In the future, if they see the value in your work, they might be ready to offer you your rate once they see its quality.

Red Flags to Watch Out for in Brand Deals

According to one study, 56% of creators report experiencing delayed payments from brands. Another 74% have walked out of a brand deal because they felt their efforts were undervalued. A common reason is that the creators entered into a contract that didn't protect them. Therefore, before you sign the contract, there are a number of red flags you need to watch out for, such as:

Unreasonable, Unlimited, or Blanket Usage Rights

Don't accept a contract that gives the brand perpetual, worldwide use of the content, in any medium, known or unknown, without any additional fee or expiration. A good idea would be to grant some usage rights for 12 months, with the option to renew them in a mutually written agreement.

Unclear Language Modification Language

Some contracts will grant the brand the right to change the content or add voice-overs. This can end up adding words to your mouth or you offering endorsements that are against your intentions. You can ask for a clause that requires your approval for any modifications.

Performance-Based Rate

If a brand ties your payment to the number of clicks, views, or promo code redemptions, the risk shifts to you. This is because many factors outside your control can affect your payment, such as a poor landing page. If you must accept a performance-based payment, you should charge a higher rate to account for the risk. A good percentage to ask for is 25-50% of the total deal value, payable after a milestone, such as script approval.

Exclusivity and Not Reach

While it's common for brands to add a clause requiring you not to work with competitors, the wording matters a lot and should specify that you may not work with any direct competitor in a particular category. Avoid a contract that prevents you from working with a brand that can be considered a competitor. Such a vague description can block deals you would have taken.

In Conclusion

According to an Influencer Marketing Hub study, the global influencer market is expected to reach $40.52 billion in 2026. This indicates that brands are now spending more on creators than before. However, no brand wants to be overcharged, so unless you negotiate, you might end up accepting a low rate.

The best brand deals are those in which both parties end up satisfied. While negotiations can be scary or uncomfortable, this is usually a skill. You don't need to be aggressive, adversarial, or unpleasant when negotiating. The most important thing is to understand your numbers and negotiate using them. By using the tips outlined in this guide, you should be able to get a good brand collaboration deal.