Research brief / July 2026
What brands sponsor YouTube videos?
Software, SaaS, and AI brands were the largest sponsor group in our sample. They made up 18.9% of sponsor activity across 125 brands. When we used the report's broader software-and-online-tools group, it reached 29.6% across 147 brands. Consumer brands were more common overall: 240 of the 423 classified brands and 69.5% of activity.
What the data shows
YouTube drew buyers from many kinds of businesses.
No single category made up one fifth of the sample. Health brands, privacy tools, education products, consumer tech, finance, food, retail, and entertainment all appeared in the sample.
The number of brands matters too. Sports betting produced 7.3% of activity from just five brands. Investing and crypto reached the same 7.3% across 53 brands. Equal activity can come from very different markets.
| Brand category | Activity share | Brands |
|---|---|---|
| Software, SaaS, and AI | 18.9% | 125 |
| Health | 13.0% | 34 |
| Privacy and VPN | 10.6% | 22 |
| Education and career | 9.7% | 22 |
| Consumer technology | 7.5% | 40 |
| Investing and crypto | 7.3% | 53 |
| Sports betting | 7.3% | 5 |
| Financial services | 7.0% | 42 |
| Retail and home | 5.9% | 30 |
| Food and meal services | 5.4% | 15 |
| Media and gaming | 5.2% | 19 |
| Travel, auto, and professional services | 2.1% | 16 |
Multi-sponsor videos were split evenly across sponsors, so weighted activity totals 10,000 videos.
Our take
Learn from the buying pattern, not just the rank.
A crowded category can be good news. It means marketers have found ways to explain that kind of product on YouTube. It also means a new brand needs a clear angle, a fair price, and creative that does not sound like every other ad.
A smaller category may offer more room to stand out, but low activity does not prove low demand. Start with the audience's problem and the creator's usual content, then use this market view as context.
What this does not prove
- It is not a count of every sponsor on YouTube.
- Activity does not show spend, sales, profit, or campaign quality.
- A large category is not always the best category for one creator or brand.
How we measured it
We drew a fixed random sample of 10,000 sponsored videos posted from January 1, 2024 through July 14, 2026. We classified 423 sponsor brands into one main category. When a video named more than one sponsor, we split that video's activity evenly among them.
Source and citation
Use the sample name when you use the ranking.
Creators Agency. (2026, July 15). 10,000 Sponsored YouTube Videos. Creators Agency Sponsor Intelligence.
Describe these as categories in the Creators Agency sample, not the whole YouTube market. See the full methods and limits.
Related research
More answers from the same fixed sample of 10,000 sponsored YouTube videos.
The most active YouTube sponsors in the sample
Compare appearances, channels, and concentration for the ten most active brands.
Read the brief → SoftwareSoftware sponsorship benchmarks
See where software and online-tool brands bought and returned.
Read the brief → Channel sizeWhere sponsorships happen by usual views
See activity and observed renewal across three channel-size bands.
Read the brief →Get the full 16-page report
See all charts, definitions, renewal benchmarks, and brand-to-creator comparisons.