Most creators price their first sponsorship by guessing, then find out a year later they were charging a third of the rate. Brands, meanwhile, price on one thing: how many people will see the message. Once you price the same way they do, the negotiation gets much shorter.
Brands buy views, not subscribers
A subscriber count tells a brand how many people once clicked a button. Average views on recent uploads tells them how many people will actually see the sponsor read. That is why every serious media kit leads with average views, and why the Passive Array sponsorship calculator pulls the average views of a channel's last 10 uploads from the YouTube API before it prices anything.
The formula
Integration price = average views x CPM / 1,000
CPM here means what a brand pays per thousand views of a sponsored placement. It is not the ad CPM YouTube reports, and it is much higher than a creator's ad RPM, because an integration is the creator personally recommending the product to a trusting audience.
The calculator's default range is $20 to $50 per thousand views for a 60-second integration. Where a channel sits in that range depends on:
- Niche. Finance, software, business and high-ticket hobbies sit at the top or above it. Entertainment and general vlogs sit near the bottom.
- Audience. A mostly US, UK, Canadian or Australian audience commands more than the same numbers with a mostly global audience.
- Engagement. The calculator applies an engagement adjustment: a channel well above the typical engagement rate for its size gets a premium, a channel well below it gets a discount. Brands do this instinctively; the tool makes it explicit.
The multipliers
| Format | Multiplier | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 60-second integration | 1x | The base unit most deals are quoted in |
| Dedicated video | 1.75x | The whole video is the ad; the creator gives up a slot |
| Shorts mention | 0.25x | Short attention, no link in the video, lower conversion |
So a channel averaging 120,000 views prices a mid-range integration at 120 x $35 = $4,200, a dedicated video at about $7,350, and a Shorts mention at about $1,050. Quote the range, not the midpoint: "$2,400 to $6,000 depending on placement and usage rights" gives the brand room to say yes.
What changes the price after the formula
- Usage rights. If the brand wants to run your video as an ad on their own channels, that is a separate fee, typically 20% to 50% on top for a limited period. Never include it by default.
- Exclusivity. Not working with competitors for three or six months costs you future income. Charge for it.
- Links and codes. A tracked link or discount code turns the deal into a performance test. Fine, but do not let it replace the flat fee.
- Bundles. Three integrations across three videos should cost less per video than one, and more in total. Brands love bundles; they de-risk the buy.
Where creators go wrong
- Pricing on subscribers. A 500K-subscriber channel averaging 30K views is a 30K-view channel to a brand.
- Quoting one number. A range signals you understand the variables. A single number signals you looked up a rule of thumb.
- Forgetting the engagement story. If your engagement rate is above the typical rate for your size, say so in the pitch, with the number. It is the difference between $20 and $40 per thousand.
- Undercharging to land the first deal. Brands share rates with each other. Your first price becomes your price.
Check your number
Run your channel through the sponsorship price calculator to see the range with the live average-view count and the engagement adjustment applied. Then check the engagement rate calculator so you can quote the grade in your media kit.