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Glossary of YouTube sponsorship terms

The words that come up when you sponsor YouTube creators, each defined in plain words, with why it matters.

Brand integration
A sponsored segment placed inside a video the creator would have made anyway: a short read near the start, or a section in the middle where they show the product. Viewers come for the main topic, so the segment works best when it fits that topic. It takes less of the video than a dedicated video and is usually priced lower for that reason. See sponsorship formats for how the two compare.
Brand safety
Checking that a creator's videos, comments and past sponsors are something you're comfortable putting your name next to. For a sponsorship that means watching a few recent uploads in full, skimming the comments, looking at older videos that still get views, and seeing how the creator has handled disagreements. It's a judgement about fit with your brand, not a verdict on the creator. Our guide to vetting a YouTube creator has a checklist.
Business email
The address a creator publishes for sponsorship and partnership enquiries, often labelled "Business enquiries" or "Brand deals" in the channel description, under recent videos or on a link-in-bio page. YouTube also lets creators add one behind the "View email address" button, which needs a sign-in and a captcha. Writing to the address a creator chose for business is the polite route; a guessed personal address tends to bounce or go unread. See how to find a YouTuber's email.
Cost per acquisition (CPA)
The total cost of a sponsorship, including the fee and any free product, divided by the customers, sales or sign-ups you can attribute to it. It tells you whether a sponsorship paid for itself, and lets you compare YouTube with your other marketing. Attribution is never complete, so count discount code uses, UTM-tagged visits and "how did you hear about us" answers together. See measuring sponsorships.
CPM
Cost per mille, or cost per thousand views. For a sponsorship, CPM = fee / views x 1,000. Converting quotes to a CPM puts creators of different sizes on one scale: a fee that looks high for a large channel may be cheap per view, and the reverse. Use the creator's median views for the views, not their best video. The sponsorship cost calculator does the arithmetic. YouTube's ad CPM, which creators see in their analytics, is a different number.
Dedicated video
A sponsored video that is entirely about your product: a review, a tutorial, a build or a challenge built around it. It gives the product far more screen time than a brand integration, takes the creator more work, and is usually priced higher. It also has to be interesting enough for viewers to click, which is hard for an advert. Dedicated videos suit products that need showing, such as tools, software and kitchen gear. See sponsorship formats.
Disclosure
Telling viewers, clearly and up front, that a video contains paid promotion, a gifted product or affiliate links. Advertising rules in many countries require it, including the FTC's in the US and the ASA's in the UK, and YouTube asks creators to tick its paid promotion box. The creator makes the disclosure, but the brand shares responsibility for it, so put it in the brief. See disclosure rules.
Discount code
A code, often the creator's name plus a number, that gives viewers money off and tells you which orders came from that creator. It works where links don't: viewers who watch on a TV or type your address in later can still use it. Give each creator their own code and set an end date. Codes leak to coupon sites, so treat the count as a strong signal rather than an exact total, and pair it with UTM parameters.
Engagement rate
For a YouTube video, engagement rate is usually worked out as (likes + comments) / views. Take the median across several recent videos so one viral upload doesn't skew it. It shows whether viewers are paying attention rather than half-watching, which matters when you want them to act on a recommendation. Some formulas divide by subscribers instead, which answers a different question. Try the engagement rate calculator or read the full guide.
Exclusivity
A clause in which the creator agrees not to promote competing products for a set period, usually within a defined category. It stops your sponsorship being followed a week later by a rival's. It also costs the creator income they could have earned, so expect to pay for it, and keep the category and period as narrow as you can. Name the competitors or the category exactly; "anything similar" invites disputes.
Fit score
Nakodo's score from 0 to 100 for how well a creator fits a campaign's brief. It has five parts: relevance (30%), audience fit (20%), engagement (20%), comment quality (15%) and recency (15%). Each part uses fixed thresholds on that channel's own numbers, so creators are never ranked against each other, and every score shows its reasons in plain sentences. Creators scoring 55 or more count as a fit. The full method is on how it works.
Flat fee
A fixed payment agreed before the video is made, paid whatever the video goes on to earn you. It is the simplest way to price a sponsorship, and what a rate card lists. The creator carries no risk, so you carry it all: check the fee against the creator's median views as a CPM before agreeing. Some deals combine a smaller flat fee with a commission. See how much to pay YouTubers.
Media kit
A short document, often a PDF or a page on the creator's website, that describes the channel for brands: what it covers, audience figures from YouTube Analytics such as countries and age ranges, past sponsors, formats offered and sometimes rates. It shows numbers you can't see publicly, so it's worth asking for. Treat it as the creator's own account, and check the public figures, such as recent views, yourself. Media kits are often linked from a "work with me" page.
Median views
Line up a creator's recent videos by view count and take the middle one: half the videos got more views and half got fewer. Unlike an average, one viral video can't drag it up, so it's a fairer guess at what your sponsored video will get. Use videos at least a few days old, and keep long-form videos and Shorts apart. It's the number to put into a CPM calculation.
Micro creator
A creator with a smaller channel, usually focused on one topic. There is no official size cut-off, and people use the term loosely. Small channels often have viewers who share one specific interest and talk in the comments, and their fees, where they charge one, are lower, so a brand can work with several for the cost of one larger channel. Some are happy to start with product seeding. See micro creators on YouTube.
Multi-channel network (MCN)
A third-party company affiliated with many YouTube channels, offering services such as audience growth, production help, rights management and selling sponsorships. YouTube describes them in its MCN overview. If a creator belongs to one, sponsorship enquiries may go to the network's partnerships team rather than the creator, and the network may take a share of the fee. Write to the address the creator publishes, and name the creator and a video you liked.
Product seeding
Sending your product to creators for free, with no requirement to feature it. Some will mention or review it if they like it; others won't, and that's the deal. It costs only product and postage, which makes it a cheap way to find creators who genuinely like what you make before you pay anyone. Ask before shipping, say clearly that there's no obligation, and remember that gifted products still need disclosure if featured. See product seeding on YouTube.
Rate card
A creator's list of prices for each format they offer, such as an integration, a dedicated video, a Short or extra usage rights. Some publish it in a media kit; others send it on request. Treat it as a starting point: the price depends on the deliverables, timing, exclusivity and rights you ask for. Convert each line to a CPM using the creator's median views to compare it with other quotes.
Shorts
YouTube's short-form format: square or vertical videos up to three minutes long, watched in a swipeable feed, as described on YouTube's help page. Shorts and long-form videos are watched in different ways and their numbers aren't comparable, so don't mix them when working out a creator's median views or engagement. A channel that makes mostly Shorts can still be a good partner, but price and brief a Short as its own format.
Sponsorship brief
A short document that tells a creator what you're asking for: the product and who it's for, the one or two points to get across, the deliverables, links and codes, dates, approval steps, disclosure and any usage rights. A good brief says what matters and leaves the creator room to present it their way, because their audience trusts their voice, not your script. See how to write a sponsorship brief.
Talent manager
A person or agency that handles brand deals for a creator: answering enquiries, negotiating fees and terms, and sending invoices. If a channel description says "Management" or "Represented by", write to that address. Name the creator and the video you liked in the first lines, because a manager may look after many channels. Managers usually take a share of the fee, and expect a more formal conversation about rates, contracts and payment terms.
Usage rights
Permission to reuse a creator's sponsored content outside their channel: in your ads, on your website, in emails or on your own social accounts. Unless agreed otherwise, a sponsorship covers the creator's own posting only. Usage rights are negotiated separately, should name the channels, countries and period, and are usually paid for on top of the fee. If you might run the clip as an ad, agree that before the video is made, not after.
UTM parameters
Tags added to the end of a URL, such as utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, that tell your analytics where a visit came from. Give each creator their own tagged link, for example with utm_campaign set to the creator's name, so you can see the visits, sign-ups and sales each video brought. Links only count viewers who click, so combine them with a discount code and a "how did you hear about us" question. See measuring sponsorships.
Views per subscriber
A creator's median views divided by their subscriber count. It shows how much of the subscriber base still turns up for a new video. Subscriber counts build up over years and include people who stopped watching long ago, so a large channel whose videos reach a small share of its subscribers is smaller than it looks. Use it to sanity-check a big subscriber number. The engagement rate calculator works it out.