The ultimate guide to YouTube sponsorships and brand deals

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Join Nebula and take my Business 101 for Creators Class – https://nebula.tv/business-101-for-creators How do you get brand deals as a creator? How should you price your first spot? What can you do to raise your sponsor rates? In this mega-interview, I ask my agent, Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus, all these questions and more. ➡️ Watch These Next: -------- How I Make Videos: My Exact Tools and Workflow – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tZ5-niQtLw I learned to code from scratch in 1 year. Here's how. – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpUuuT_EzSs 🛠️ Tools My Team and I Built: -------- ✈️ Flylighter (The best way to capture articles and higlights to Notion) – https://flylighter.com/ 🎙️ Notion Voice Notes (Speech to Text) – https://nebula.tv/videos/thomasfrankexplains-how-to-take-perfect-notes-with-your-voice-easy-setup 🧠 Ultimate Brain (My all-in-one second brain for Notion) – https://thomasjfrank.com/brain/ 🎬 Creator's Companion (The best Notion template for creators) – https://thomasjfrank.com/creators-companion/ 📖 10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades (my free book) – https://collegeinfogeek.com/get-better-grades/ 👥 People You Should Follow: ------- Dave: https://twitter.com/dwiskus Rene Ritchie (current YouTube Creator Liason): https://twitter.com/YouTubeLiaison Todd Beaupré (the guy who runs the YouTube algorithm): https://twitter.com/hitsman 🐦 Connect With Me: -------- Twitter ➔ https://www.twitter.com/tomfrankly Instagram ➔ http://www.instagram.com/tomfrankly Notion Tutorials ➔ @ThomasFrankExplains Music ➔ @ThomasFrankMusic ⏱ Timestamps: -------- 00:00 - Intro 03:34 - Conversation starts 05:44 - The relationship between views and sponsor rates 09:10 - "Logical-Next-Step" sponsors 11:55 - Maintaining the integrity of your content 17:33 - Dave's history as a CEO and Creator 19:53 - At what point can you work with brands? 23:54 - What YouTube Studio metrics should a creator track? 28:24 - Broad-appeal vs. content-specific sponsors 32:34 - Channel trajectories: Growing channels vs stagnant channels 38:45 - Why your audience is constantly changing 41:49 - The best metric: Views from Subscribers 43:13 - Why was Thomas's rate consistent for years? 49:45 - If you can't price perfectly, price too low 53:58 - Pricing from the brand's perspective 55:35 - CPA/KPI definitions 1:02:50 - Additional factors brands care about 1:06:39 - Does brand association matter? 01:09:44 - Don't put ads at the beginning of your video 01:10:29 - Don't let sponsors take your video for their ads 01:13:30 - Should you ever let brands use your likeness? 01:16:32 - Agencies and "magnet creators" 01:28:13 - Pitfalls of YouTube managers 01:31:58 - Thomas's rules on who he works with 01:46:05 - How an MCN can take advantage of you 01:47:58 - Nebula and content ownership 01:48:44 - Criteria for evaluating an agency 02:02:11 - How to get performance data from brands 02:09:40 - Brand deals must be win-win-win 02:21:32 - Growing your network 02:23:50 - What to ask an agency when they pitch you 02:26:12 - Should agencies publish their entire rosters? 02:28:04 - Agencies should go to bat for you 02:32:33 - How to price your first spot 02:38:16 - Should Patreon be a stepping stone toward brand deals? 02:41:00 - Using affiliate marketing to get performance data 02:50:39 - Thomas's relationship with Skillshare 03:00:05 - CPM or CPA - which is more important? 03:01:00 - Should I give a brand my analytics? 03:01:43 - How should you get paid? 03:03:12 - Pre-roll, mid-roll, or end-roll? 03:04:51 - How many revisions should you do for your ad? 03:07:30 - Should you place time limits for how long ads stay up? 03:08:22 - How do you make more money from your sponsorships? 03:09:37 - What are common mistakes creators make? 03:17:50 - Where to follow Dave 03:18:34 - Business 101 for Creators 👐 Business: -------- Please contact my agent at thomasfrank@standard.tv 🎞 Additional Notes: -------- 💰 I'm fortunate enough to work with great sponsors who support my work, so I don't use Patreon or any other crowdfunding service. However, if you'd like to support a worthy cause, consider donating to help more children get access to a high-quality education: https://fundraise.pencilsofpromise.org/fundraiser/1489730 💰 Some links in my description are affiliate links, and I may earn a commission if you use them to make a purchase (at no extra cost to you, and often with special discounts!)