The Truth About Brand Deals For Small Channels transcript

I just spent a couple days with brands who're literally spending tens of millions of dollars a month on advertising and so I thought I would give you some takeaways on how you can earn more money working with brands and some of the things that are working well on YouTube right now. There were people there like Airrack and Mac. There were also some big channels there with millions or even tens of millions of subscribers.

I was able to hang out with them and kind of learn some stuff. So in this video I thought I would kind of share what some of those are. Starting off here, I think something that you might not realize is how much money brands are spending on creators. And at this kind of conference thing that I went to, there was a lot of the top brands that that are really big on social right now and they were talking about how they market.

And so when you think from a brand perspective, this brand has a product. Maybe they have a t-shirt right here. They know how to make this t-shirt. I actually had to buy dress shirts cuz we needed to wear dress shirts. It was a really fancy place and I don't [music] own any. Regardless, how are people going to find your product? Well, there's a couple ways. They can pay for advertising where they're going to pay for meta ads, something like that, to show up.

They could pay for search. They could pay to show up at the top of, you know, Google when you type in dress shirt. They could just get lucky and show up organically or they can work with creators. And most of these brands, talking big brands here, are realizing that creators are going to be the future and I believe we're going to have about 12 to 24 months, 18 to 24 months before a lot of other bigger brands are going to realize this as well.

And what they kind of think the future is going to be is about 45% plus of ad spend is going to go to creators over other platforms. So TV ads are dying out, radio ads, all those things are kind of dying out and all that money is moving to us, the creators, which is really, really cool. Even as a small creator, you have so much opportunity and as a bigger creator, you probably can charge a lot more than you're you're And so I kind of wanted to talk about this breakdown cuz there are organic things that we can do.

There are ways that we can make way more money by helping these brands cuz there's generally two sides, right? You have this side right here where we're going to say brand has product, brand does not have distribution of product. They need eyeballs on their product. And then we, as creators, learn this skill of marketing, right? We market ourselves, we have eyeballs, but we generally don't have a product. And so, the people who can find who can be the middle gap between these two.

Let's say I have a fashion channel, let's say, and I can find this this t-shirt brand and say like, "Hey, if you work with me, I can help get you in front of the right people." And there's there's different ways to think about this as well. So, one is going to be the like they're going to give you $1,000, they expect $1,000 back. That is true with some brands, but some of these bigger brands are just looking for exposure as well.

So, they're not just looking for can I get my money back immediately? They're also looking for brand recognition and things like that. And so, that is something that over the next year or two brands are realizing more that just us having trust with our audience, which is why you should be building your brand, which is why you should be building trust, just by us having trust, even if you don't have a way to make money yet, you're building up trust with your audience that you'll eventually be able to trade some of that trust to them for money.

And then you don't have to ever worry about how do I shift a t-shirt? How do I do anything? You can just work directly with brands that you actually care about. But here is the distinction that I think makes this very interesting. You have to only work with brands that you really enjoy cuz you have that trust that you're building up on your channel, whatever that channel is. And if you work with a brand that you don't actually use, a lot of times, just by doing one bad brand deal, you can erode so much trust with your audience that the next ones become less valuable.

And so, there's generally two ways to do this. I'm talking about brand deals specifically here cuz I realize there's a future and I also want to tell you about how as like literally a nobody creator, very small creators, which they were talking about there, you can make a lot of money. I actually met somebody who made over $100,000 on a 15-second video and it wasn't cuz the video went viral organically, it was cuz of ad spend behind it.

I'll I'll explain that in a second, but regardless, you should only work with brands that you absolutely love. Like, you know, on this channel I work with Storyblocks. Everybody knows that I've been using Storyblocks for years. This is a very natural push for this channel. I would never really talk about on this channel some of the things that I would work, you know, on my main channel. Like even think China I mentioned on my main channel I have a sponsorship with them coming up in like 2 days or whatever.

This is not sponsored obviously, but it wouldn't really be the correct fit on this channel. However, Storyblocks is the perfect fit. If you're a creator, you want like to make better videos, you want sound design, all that type of stuff, Storyblocks is what I use. So it just becomes a very natural fit and this is something that I think that a lot of brands are going to realize in the future. I was discussing this with a couple actually and it is that the 60-second ad thing is something that you as a creator, if you want to get way more money than everybody else in your space, if you want these brands to book again and again and again, if you want to really build a relationship and make money with your channel without even like all the other stuff.

I know I talk about affiliates, I talk about owning your own products and all that type of thing, but just with the brand perspective, you can maximize that a lot more if you go above and beyond cuz you know your audience, right? I know that you are here because you want to grow on YouTube, you want to make money on YouTube or something to do with YouTube, right? You're either thinking about starting a channel, you have started a channel, or you're just looking to grow and actually monetize your channel and that is all I talk about here.

And so I know by being in your shoes and my working with hundreds of people exactly what your pain points are and I my only goal in every video is just to solve some type of pain points for people. I don't think I've literally ever talked about sponsorships on this channel and so that's what uh I wanted to talk about here. And so, I know your pain points. I know how to mention a brand to you or, you know, on my main channel to people who are interested in minimalism.

I know how to do that without seeming salesy. I know what your pain points are. And when this brand comes in and they're like, "Hey Gabe, we want you to say X, Y, and Z." I know that it's not going to be the best fit. This is not Zyn, by the way. This is um nicotine-free Ultra. But, I know on my main channel, these people are struggling with not having enough money, with having not enough attention. They're like overwhelmed and stressed out.

And so, I know the problems. And so, what we should be doing as creators is when these brands come to us, when Storyblocks comes to me and they and they Well, actually, Storyblocks is super chill. But, when a brand comes to you and they're like, "Hey, we want you to talk about how, you know, we don't have AI on our platform." For Storyblocks in particular, they're actually sponsoring this video. Um but, I'm kind of actually using this as an analogy, which you'll see in a second here.

But, like they gave me a list of bullet points to talk about. Like, "Hey, talk about how we have unlimited download of like real music and whatever. We have uh you know, footage shot by real people." And these different lists of things that you guys have heard me talk about. And they've got all the stuff on there to make better video, audio, editing, whatever. But, as a creator, I could either stop what I'm talking about.

I could make a video about a different subject, about whatever, how to speak on camera. And then I could stop and be like, "By the way, guys, check out Storyblocks." And then I could go back into it. And they're going to see this giant dip in the retention bar, which is something that This is like been a problem for a while, and it's because this is the way that a lot of brands think. They don't understand the audience.

They don't understand as much as you do. So, as a creator, it's your job, actually, to go back to the brands and be like, "Hey, I realize that you you paid for a 60-second ad. You want a 60-second ad or 90-second ad, whatever. What is going to work best for this? If I naturally weave this into the storyline, if I just naturally use this, if I don't talk about the things that you want me to talk about, but I do it way because I understand my audience so much better than they do.

Like, they're working with 50 different people. They don't know everybody's audiences, right? They're working with 100 different people. They're spending $5 million a month across all these other channels. They don't know everything. So, it's your job to actually kind of push back a little bit with these brands. Not all of them are going to do it. Some of them don't really understand what's going on yet, but a lot of them are giving creators a lot more freedom.

And as creators, we are actually like master marketers, a lot of us. We understand the titles, the thumbnails, the pain points of our audience, how to solve them. We're right now we're marketing our our skills, our services, our videos. Sometimes we have products behind them, but we have become marketers, and we understand our audience so much better than everybody, that it's actually best for our audience and best for the brands, which is in turn going to make us the most amount of money while serving our audience the best, which makes us more money.

Whatever. It's like this whole cyclical thing. When we touch back on these. Like this video right here, I actually haven't cleared this with Storyblocks, but uh yeah, I'm going to just send them this and see if they approve it. But, I did not stop at any point here. You couldn't skip past me mentioning I love Storyblocks, I've been using them for 3 years, and we get all of our sounds from them. It naturally weaves into the storyline, cuz it's like literally naturally something that I use.

And I do think I have to mention that you can get like 15% off when you get an annual plan with my link, and it's exclusive, and whatever. But, this is something that you see the biggest brands do, right? You see Mr. Beast. I was talking to Mac about this, and right before you get to the best part of the video, right before I get to the part where I'm going to tell you how somebody made 100K off of a 15-second ad who's a small creator, short format.

I'm going to tell you that Storyblocks is amazing. You should check them out. Link down below, right? And so, this is that thing that you see the biggest and best creators do, and yet a lot of us, including myself, like I didn't realize how bad I was at this until I go into this conference, that I always have something that is skippable. I try to work it in, but it's always very much part of it. And I think we need to do better as creators serving everybody better, serving the brands better, serving our audiences better, and in turn we'll make more money by naturally fitting stuff in, naturally telling a story that matches what we're talking about, naturally working product placement in, naturally working things like that.

And again, like I'm not actually sponsored by Ultra or anything. Hoping to get If there are ways where you can naturally fit something in that you actually use and you're getting paid for and it doesn't feel like an ad, that is literally a win for everybody. You don't want to be selling stuff always, but when you can naturally just be known for something, work things in, you can build long-term relationships with brands.

And some of these brands we're talking about like, "Hey, yeah, we'd love to give a small creator like 20K a month and just be like, go make a bunch of content for us that we can post on our socials." For them that's literally nothing. They're spending millions a month. And so, when you're thinking about your creatives in general, even if you're a tiny, tiny channel, you're getting 50 views a video. If you make epic ads and then even let's say you're making an ad for Ultra, you use Ultra, whatever it is, non-nicotine, something I just like the mint flavor, regardless.

Not a sponsor. But let's say you just work this in to some videos, you make some really cool content, you do a thing where you like flip up the cap and you and you know how to make video or whatever, uh or you can just tell a story well, and it's like this epic thing. You can send that to brands and you can be like, "Hey, I'm not successful on YouTube, literally nobody watches me, whatever, but I know how to make cool videos about said brand.

Can I work for you? Can I make stuff that goes on your social media? Are you looking [snorts] to hire?" And I'm telling you every stinking one of these brands was looking for creators in-house or for creators who they can just be like, "Here's some money, go make me some stuff." Like I've actually turned down multiple deals cuz not something I want to do personally, but that were six-figure deals. Just like, "Hey, make a video a week for us about this brand and we'll post it on our social media, has nothing to do with you." Because I know how to make good [clears throat] videos.

Um and this is when I was smaller as well. So, like if you know how to make good videos, you know how to talk on camera well, how to sell things compellingly in a natural way. Even if you like just start making short form videos on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok. Instagram and TikTok seem to be the big ones depending on the brand or make YouTube videos dedicated to review for something. You can use those as a tool to go and get a job at some of these brands or just to have these brands sponsor you, give you more money to to talk about them.

And when you do get brand deals and they ask for 60 second ad, fight back a little bit. Go back and say like hey, what if we instead of me just like generically reading off the script, what if I did a skit? What if I made this creative thing? What if I mentioned it here for 10 seconds and then back to the story and then here for 30 seconds and then back to the story and then somehow it always comes back to Storyblocks, you know, but it's never something that should be skipped.

And I feel like that is way more valuable. It tends to convert better. This is something that like I wear Cuts shirts. Not a sponsor again cuz they cut their stinking affiliate program, but whatever. People knew me by my Cuts shirts for years, especially early on. When I met people and they recognized me like hey dude, I wear Cuts too. And it was just like it became synonymous with my brand. I like on this channel, feel like Storyblocks is that a little bit.

It's like my first sponsor on here. It's one of the only ones that I've actually accepted and it's cuz I actually use them. So like other creators have those where they have a couple brands that they are their whole channel is just known for cuz something they like, something they stand behind and it's much more valuable for the brand and therefore they can get paid a lot more money and it's easier to work in. So kind of a win for everybody in that regard.

Now back to the kid who got her gear or the girl got 100k, she had a percentage of ad spend deal. So these companies, a lot of them, some of them are doing ad spend, the big ones. So that means that let's say hey, instead of I'll give you $500 to make a short and post it on Instagram, right? Which some of the brands will do, all these brands try to do. She got 10% of ad spend. So she made a video like 15, 30 second video, whatever it was about this product.

I don't want to mention the one. It was a good video. It was a good ad. They posted it on their platform. I don't think she even had to post it. And they paid to put ads behind it cuz they don't know how to make content. We know how to make content. And so, they started promoting this ad, and she got 10% of that. And you can say like, "Okay, that's cool." This is just a normal brand, normal like clothing brand, lower-level clothing brand kind of.

They spent over a million dollars promoting her ad. She got 10% of that. She made over $100,000 in the past month and a half from one ad, 15-30 seconds long. I haven't actually watched it. So, when you have a percentage that way as well, you could try negotiating that way if you're doing short-form ad spend stuff. Doing like 10% is a lot. They they lowered that since then. But even like 5% of ad spend, if it's a big brand, they spend millions or tens of millions a month on ads.

Not every single one of them's going to click. Usually it's like one out of five or something like that's actually going to like be good. But if you hit on one of those, you could be making tens of thousands of dollars from one ad by making content for brands that they post. And so, that could be a whole thing where once you know how to make good videos, you reach out to brands and like, "Hey, can I make you a free video promoting uh Ultra?

And in return, I just want 5% of ad spend." And for them, it's probably going to be worth it. You might negotiate or whatever. Maybe ask for 10%, but you could either do 500 bucks or you could do 5% and take that chance of making $10,000, you know? Cuz a lot of people don't realize how much these brands are spending on ads. They're spending so much. They spend a lot of creators a lot of times like whatever you're thinking of asking for, a lot of times you can double it and just try that.

And they might say yes. If you're getting a thousand dollars for, you know, and you're averaging 20,000 views or something, you can get a lot more. Regardless, this was just kind of some things that I learned from this. Uh I just realized it's 20 minutes I've been talking, but I could probably do another video on the the takeaways from there. But if you enjoyed, you want me to do more, subscribe, like, and all those type of things.

Check out Storyblocks, 15% off annual plan. We'll see if they approve this video as is. So anyways, I'll see you next week.