Research brief / July 2026
Software YouTube sponsorship benchmarks
Software and online-tool brands made up 29.6% of sponsor activity in our 10,000-video sample. The group covered 147 brands. Among 600 brand-and-channel pairs old enough for a full-year check, 137 showed an observed renewal, a rate of 22.8%.
What the data shows
B2B led activity. Knowledge and news led published renewal.
Software and online-tool brands placed 47.0% of their weighted activity with B2B creators. Knowledge and news channels held another 20.1%.
Among the four creator groups with enough eligible pairs to publish, knowledge and news had the highest observed renewal rate at 25.4%. B2B followed at 23.8%.
| Creator topic | Activity share | Observed renewal | Renewals / eligible pairs |
|---|---|---|---|
| B2B | 47.0% | 23.8% | 56 of 235 |
| Knowledge and news | 20.1% | 25.4% | 31 of 122 |
| Entertainment | 12.2% | 19.8% | 20 of 101 |
| Lifestyle and health | 11.0% | 17.9% | 17 of 95 |
| Auto and travel | 4.5% | Not published | Not enough evidence to publish |
| Money | 4.2% | Not published | Not enough evidence to publish |
| Sports | 1.1% | Not published | Not enough evidence to publish |
The four rows with published renewal rates held 90.3% of this group's activity. Activity shares may total 100.1% because of rounding.
Our take
Keep B2B in the plan, then test one teaching-led audience.
B2B creators are the clear starting point for many software brands. Their viewers already expect tools, work advice, and product demos. Knowledge and news creators may open another useful lane when the product helps people understand or act on a bigger topic.
Together, B2B plus knowledge and news had a 24.4% observed renewal rate, or 87 of 357 eligible pairs. Entertainment plus lifestyle and health reached 18.9%, or 37 of 196. That gap is useful for test design, but it does not remove the need to judge each creator and offer on its own.
What this does not prove
- Observed renewal is not proof of software sign-ups, sales, or profit.
- The results do not name one best creator topic for every software brand.
- A missing renewal rate means the group was too small to publish, not zero returns.
How we measured it
This brief uses the report's software-and-online-tools grouping across 147 classified brands. Activity was weighted so multi-sponsor videos still counted as one video in total. An observed renewal means the same brand appeared again on the same channel within 365 days and more than 60 days after its prior sampled appearance.
Source and citation
Keep “observed” with the renewal rate.
Creators Agency. (2026, July 15). 10,000 Sponsored YouTube Videos. Creators Agency Sponsor Intelligence.
Use the eligible-pair count with each renewal rate and link to the full methods and limits.
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Read the brief →Get the full 16-page report
See all charts, definitions, renewal benchmarks, and brand-to-creator comparisons.