5 Ways to Find Youtube Influencers in 2023

Marios Roussos

April 8, 2023

Finding YouTube influencers sounds like a pretty simple thing you might say. Is it though? The advertising industry has changed a lot in the past decades, especially with the rise of social media.

The simple formula of creating an ad, that sends a message and the brand sticks to the mind of the consumers, is just not working. Well, at least it is not working on social media platforms. The main reason is that, even though the message is the same, the platform and the medium are not.

Nowadays, we have transferred our attention from television and other traditional mass media to the internet. Platforms like Youtube, Vine, and the latest, TikTok, have conquered the power of video in influencer marketing campaigns. As a result, a new type of brand ambassador has emerged from social media – Youtube influencers.

Last year, the global influencer marketing value skyrocketed to $16.4 billion in value. That speaks volumes of its importance.

The influencer marketing campaigns of any brand has to focus on platforms such as Youtube, in order to enrich and boost its message to consumers. But, how easy is it to find the right influencer on Youtube, in this vast sea of social media and be sure that person is the right one?

Benefits of Working with a YouTube Influencer

Before we dive into practices on how to choose from the thousands of Youtube influencers for your product, we need to outline some of the benefits of working with a Youtube creator.

Why is good to have a Youtube influencer on the company’s side:

Reach a Large and Targeted Audience

As the term “influencer” implies, those creators, and especially Youtube influencers frequently have large and highly involved followers that can be used to reach a large and targeted audience.

Their audiences, usually are spread on other social media platforms as well, which is translated to bigger targeted audiences. The goal is for the influencer to be able to create conversations with their audiences and boost the engagement rate.

Increase Brand Awareness

Working with an influencer can help increase brand awareness by exposing your business to a larger audience -locally or globally – that may not have been aware of it previously. A simple video, a word in the creator’s script, unboxing a product or even a mention, can have a significant impact.

Increase Credibility

Working with Youtube influencers can help a business gain – or should I say exchange- credibility. This occurs as their followers, almost religiously, follow the content creator’s opinions and recommendations. Even if they are curious, there is a high chance to try the product or the service.

Pro Tip: Always work with industry relevant influencers with a good reputation. Working with an influencer you “share credibility”. Working with questionable influencers can also have negative effects while you are trying to build credibility for your business.

Boost SEO

Working with influencers can boost a company’s organic search results. A major part of SEO is brand awareness, bigger brands who are more recognizable get more searches for both their organic branded and non-branded terms. Also, working with influencers on social media, you get more references and build links back to your website.

Authentic Content

This is one of the most precious benefits of working with a Youtube Influencer. Usually, they are skilled at creating authentic and engaging video content that resonates with their audience, which can aid in the creation of a favourable image of your brand.

All the content they will create is out of the norms of traditional advertising and thus it is much more powerful, as the audiences see it as something new. It can easily make it trending in the charts and increase the engagement rate.

High Chances of Increased Engagement

Collaborating with influencers can help increase brand engagement because their followers are more likely to interact with content that comes from a Youtube channel they trust.

Increase Sales

As a result of the above, because their followers are often highly engaged and eager to try out products suggested by their favourite influencers, influencer marketing can lead to increased sales.

Cost-Effective

Another interesting benefit is the reduced cost. When compared to conventional marketing methods, influencer marketing can be a cost-effective way to reach a large and engaged audience. This is because their audience is more targeted and relevant compared to a more traditional medium like radio or television.

Develop Relationships

Working with influencers can help you develop long-term relationships with people who have a strong online presence and can serve as valuable business ambassadors. Under their big names, there are a number of subscribers who identify themselves with the Youtube creator.

Gain Access to New Markets

Collaborating with influencers in various niches can help your business gain access to previously unreachable markets. Especially, for a company that searches for ways to expand its brand and reach bigger audiences and target markets out of its usual reach. Think of influencers as introducers, opening the doors to new markets.

How to Choose the Right YouTube Influencer

And now, here comes the hardest part – how to choose the right Youtube influencer for your brand or your product. There are numerous factors that can affect your decision for the right creator.

Evaluating a YouTube Influencer

First, as a marketer, you need to define your Target Audience and relevancy. The first part when evaluating an influencer is that it matches your brand and business goals. Be sure that the influencer satisfies the following criteria:

They have a relevant audience to your brand
Their content aligns with the brand values, missing, and messaging
Their audience demographics matches your target audience
Their other promotions and collaborations are not questionable

The next step to check is pure mathematics. Here are the numbers you need to pay attention when evaluating an influencer:

Number of subscribers or followers
Average views
Engagement metrics (likes, comments, and shares)

Pro Tip: Ask the influencers to share information they only have access to like demographics such as countries, ages, and gender of their audience from the YouTube Studio dashboard to evaluate their audience. You can also ask them to share some numbers with similar collaborations with other brands, like how many clicks (if tracked) or affiliate sales they did.

You should check the Engagement Metrics as it is crucial for the virality of the content. These engagement metrics include:

Likes, comments, and shares on the influencer’s video

The Influencer’s Content is what you should analyse next and have an idea of their influencer profile.

What to check:

If their content aligns with your brand values, mission, and messaging. You should also look for consistency in their content and ensure that they are credible and trustworthy.

Another thing to do is to examine the Performance in previous campaigns, that the Youtube influencer has done with other companies and brands.

What to check:

What was their outreach?
Does the algorithm show in the search engine any previous campaigns?
What are their average views?

Through these statistics, you will get a clear view and determine if they have the potential to achieve your goals.

It is not only Youtube though, as every content creator and influencer has a presence on different social media platforms. What you need to consider is their Reach to their audiences.

What to check:

How many followers do they have on their social media?
What are the interactions?
Look for influencers who have a large and engaged following that aligns with your target audience.

Have also in mind that there are differences between influencers based on the size of their audiences and this can be essential for your goals and targets.

First of all, the Micro-influencers ranging between 1,000 to 100,000 followers are usually creators with a particular niche or industry. Their followers are more likely experts in that field and are highly engaged with the creator.

Macro-influencers are the next tier and have a larger audience of typically between 100,000 to 1 million followers. They usually are more diversified in multiple niches but can offer a broader reach.

Lastly, the Top Influencers, have over 1 million followers. Those are typically well-known public figures, celebrities, or social media influencers with a wide and diverse audience.

Assess Authenticity

Following the next step is to Assess their Authenticity. There is an endless list of influencers nowadays, so it is quite important for marketers to look for Youtube Influencers with high authenticity and genuine content.

How authentic they are and how genuine they come across to their followers will affect the spread of the message. More authenticity means a more positive impact on their followers and their opinions and recommendations will be more trusted.

Collaboration Opportunity

After you find your Youtube Influencer and make the proper communications, you should be able to understand if there is a Collaboration Opportunity.

Some Youtube influencers are more willing to collaborate than others with their creative ideas and the way they work, taking the brand a step forward. Or even they might be able to enhance your digital marketing strategy.

There is a lot of research, analysis and factors that you need to consider before choosing the right Youtube influencer for your brand. It takes some time to examine who is more aligned with your brand values, has an engaged following, and is willing to collaborate with your brand to create authentic and engaging content.

5 Ways to Find Youtube Influencers

Now comes the practical part, which is time for you or your team to find and choose the candidates who will represent your brand or your company. Having done the above research, there are a couple of ways to pick among the thousands of content creators out there.

Here is a small list, without limiting yourselves to that:

The almighty Youtube Search

A search engine like Google might be the simplest tool to use. Search as normal, relevant keywords with your brand and your niche, into YouTube’s search bar. By using specific terms that represent your industry, product or service you offer, you can narrow down the results. A list of potential influencers who are making youtube videos for let’s say, product reviews can lead to potential customers.

Try to think of your customers. What will they search before they end up looking at your product? Follow their patterns and relevant influencers they will find on their way.

Google Search engine itself

Like the first one, use Google to search for influencers in your industry. You can use keywords related to your niche, to find trending influencers. Note that they might not be the best YouTubers but they definitely have trending videos and the type of content which the algorithm likes more. Keywords like “best youtube influencers” or “youtube creators” or even relative hashtags with your brand can give you an idea.

As we mentioned above, it is not just Youtube. Many YouTubersuse other social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Use the search tools to find and reach out to more influencers. Some influencers prefer to communicate by email, but many prefer to communicate by Twitter or Instagram to potential sponsors.

Youtube Analytics

If you have a YouTube channel already, you can use the Youtube analytics tool to find popular videos related to your brand. See the keywords your audience uses and how they find you.

Influencer Marketplaces

Search for and connect with influencers in your niche on influencer marketing platforms like Famebit, Grapevine, or Upfluence. These sites operate with big influencer databases you can search.

How to contact the right influencers

Now that you made a shortlist of your preferable Youtube creators, it’s time to contact them and offer them a collaboration. But how will you do that?

Here is how to contact influencers for partnerships & sponsorships:

Email
Social media DMs
Agencies
Influencer marketing platforms

Especially when they are quite popular and it is almost certain they get a lot of messages daily from other marketing campaigns.

The most direct way is to email them or try to get in touch through their other social media accounts. Some of them may even have contact details on their websites and/or their video platform (check the “About” section on their websites or their Youtube channel) or their social media pages.

The third option is through an Agency. Since most Youtube creators or channels are self-made, they might be working with agencies that specialise in marketing matters or management companies that handle their business affairs. An Agency can also help you find an influencer from their pool of clients, but it might cost you.

Youtube BrandConnect (previously known as FameBit), Grapevine and AspireIQ, are some of the Collaboration platforms out there, where influencers are connected with brands and you can easily create a campaign inviting Youtube Influencers to apply and work with you.

The Hunt Begins

To summarise everything that has been said thus far, there are a few points to consider. There are thousands if not millions of creators available who may be able to provide you with a good depiction of your business or services.

But the secret is to find someone with whom you can collaborate to develop significant content for you and your organisation, someone who will appreciate and promote your brand.

You might eventually come up with a combination of tools and methods for finding folks to be your ambassadors. Developing a methodology and a standard operating procedure (SOP) with best practices that work for you can help you expand your influencer outreach in the future.