How ChannelCrawler counts YouTube sponsorships

ChannelCrawler reads the descriptions of YouTube videos published by the channels in its index. A video is connected to a brand when its description links to one of that brand's websites; the wording around the link then decides whether it is a mention or a sponsorship. We don't analyse the video itself, so a brand that is only named, said out loud or shown on screen is not counted.

A mention is a video whose description links to a tracked brand: its website, an affiliate or referral link, or a creator's coded link.

A sponsorship is a mention where the creator discloses that the brand is a sponsor. There are two kinds:

• Declared ad: the description ties sponsorship wording to the brand, such as “sponsored by Squarespace”, “brought to you by NordVPN”, or ad wording in the same sentence as the brand.
• Likely sponsored: the brand is listed under a sponsor heading in the description, or tagged with a #brandpartner hashtag.

A link on its own is a mention, not a sponsorship, even when it carries a discount code. Wording that denies a sponsorship, such as “not sponsored by”, never counts, and sponsorship wording about one brand does not make the other brands in the description sponsors.

Some brands pay creators mainly through tracked links rather than disclosed reads. For about 380 brands we have reviewed, we also count one of the following as likely sponsored:

• a coded or tracked link to a brand that only runs sponsorships, not an affiliate programme; or
• the creator's own link on the brand's website, on a video that YouTube labels as including paid promotion, when it is the video's only partner link.

Each exception is set from how often that brand's links appear on videos YouTube labels as paid promotion.

• Sponsorship counts are a lower bound. A sponsorship that isn't disclosed in the description, or has no link to the brand, is not counted.
• Brands whose creators disclose less in descriptions look smaller than they are, and comparisons between brands carry that difference.
• Only channels in the ChannelCrawler index are counted.

• Videos are counted in the period they were published.
• Views are each video's total views when we last checked it, not the views it gained during the period.
• Creator country is the channel's country, not where its audience is. Creator size uses the channel's current subscriber count.
• Share of mentions and share of views compare only the brands in a given comparison.

The set of channels we track grows over time, so raw counts for recent months are not directly comparable with earlier months. To compare periods, use each brand's share of a comparison within the same period.

• Version 2, 9 October 2026. A sponsorship now needs disclosure wording tied to the brand, a sponsor heading or a #brandpartner hashtag, plus reviewed exceptions for brands that pay through tracked links. Links alone became mentions, so counts for brands promoted mostly through links, such as VPNs, fell sharply. Older history was relabelled under the same rule.
• Version 1, before 9 October 2026. Sponsorship was inferred mainly from the shape of a video's links, so affiliate and referral links could count as sponsorships.

If a number about your brand looks wrong, email [email protected] with the brand and the videos in question. You can explore any brand's data in ChannelCrawler Brands.