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How to find and explore brands in ChannelCrawler Brands

Discover active sponsors and dig into a brand's YouTube activity

Written by Jake Kitchiner

How to find and research brands active on YouTube

Use ChannelCrawler Brands to find brands that are being mentioned or sponsored across YouTube.

This is useful when you want to find brands already active on YouTube, research a competitor, understand a client’s sponsorship activity, or discover brands that may be relevant for your next creator campaign.

Start with a brand or explore the market

There are two main ways to use ChannelCrawler Brands.

  • Search for a specific brand directly.

  • Use filters to discover brands based on their YouTube activity.

Use search when you already know the brand you want to research.

Use filters when you want to discover brands in a category, market, creator size range, or sponsorship activity level.

Search for a specific brand

If you already know the brand you want to look at, start with the search bar.

For example, you might search for:

  1. Your own brand.

  2. A competitor.

  3. A client.

  4. A brand you have seen appearing in YouTube videos.

  5. A brand you want to pitch your services to.

Once you find the brand, click into the result to open the brand profile.

Use filters to discover relevant brands

You do not always need to start with a brand name.

You can also use filters to explore brands based on the type of YouTube activity you care about.

For example, you can filter by:

  1. Brand category
    Find brands in specific markets, such as tech, finance, beauty, gaming, fitness, education, or other categories.

  2. Time range
    Choose to see brand data for between 30-90 days.

  3. Creator size
    Find brands working with smaller creators, mid-sized channels, or larger YouTube channels.

  4. Sponsorship volume
    Find brands with lots of sponsorship activity, or brands with a smaller footprint.

These filters are useful when you want to find brands that are already active in a specific creator niche, category, or market.

Choose all mentions or sponsored mentions

You can choose whether to look at all brand mentions or focus on sponsored mentions.

  • All mentions gives you a broader view of where a brand is being talked about on YouTube.

This can include organic mentions, reviews, comparisons, passing references, and Amazon affiliates.

  • Sponsored focuses on videos where there are stronger signals of paid brand activity, via paid partnerships or

This is usually more useful when you want to understand sponsorship campaigns, creator partnerships, or competitor activity.

Understand confirmed and likely sponsorships

Sponsored videos can be marked in two ways.

  1. Confirmed sponsored
    There is clear evidence of a paid sponsorship or brand partnership. For example, the video description may include a sponsorship disclosure and a brand link.
    ​

  2. Likely sponsored
    ChannelCrawler has found signals that suggest the video may be sponsored, but there is not enough evidence to mark it as confirmed. These signals could include brand links, promo codes, repeated brand messaging, or placement patterns that suggest sponsorship activity, or a likely affiliate partnership.

Use sponsored mentions when you want to focus on videos that are most relevant to paid brand activity.

Open a brand profile

Once you find a brand that looks interesting, click into the brand profile. This is where you move from brand discovery into deeper research.

The brand profile helps you understand how the brand is showing up on YouTube, which creators they are appearing with, and what their sponsorship activity looks like.

Review the brand overview

Start with the overview section.

This gives you a quick snapshot of the brand’s activity across YouTube.

Use this to understand:

  1. How active the brand is.

  2. How much visibility the brand is getting.

  3. How many videos are connected to the brand.

  4. How many channels are connected to the brand.

  5. Whether the brand’s activity is concentrated or spread across lots of creators.

Explore videos, channels, and repeat partnerships

Once you open a brand profile, you can use the tabs to understand the activity behind the brand.

  1. Videos
    See the individual videos where the brand has been mentioned or detected as sponsored. This helps you understand the content, creator, views, and context behind the brand activity.

  2. Channels
    See the YouTube channels connected to the brand. This helps you understand which creators the brand is appearing with.

  3. Repeat Partnerships
    See channels where the brand appears more than once. This can suggest a stronger relationship between the brand and creator, rather than a one-off mention.

  4. Related Brands
    See other brands connected to similar creators, markets, or sponsorship patterns. This can help you find competitors, adjacent brands, or new brands to research.

Repeat partnerships are especially useful when you want to understand which creator relationships may matter most to a brand.

If a brand appears repeatedly on the same channel, it may suggest an ongoing partnership, a creator that performs well for them.

Explore related brands

The Related brands section helps you understand how a brand fits into the wider YouTube sponsorship landscape.

This can help you find competitors, adjacent brands, and other companies trying to reach similar creator audiences.

You can use related brands to find:

  1. Brands targeting the same channels.

  2. Brands in a similar market.

  3. Brands with the closest overall sponsorship footprint.

This is useful for competitor discovery, market mapping, sales prospecting, creator research, and understanding the wider sponsorship ecosystem around a brand.

When to use ChannelCrawler Brands

Use ChannelCrawler Brands when:

  1. You want to find brands active on YouTube.

  2. You want to research a competitor’s sponsorship activity.

  3. You want to see which creators a brand is working with.

  4. You want to find brands that may be open to YouTube sponsorships.

  5. You want to understand which brands are active in a specific creator niche.

  6. You want to find related brands that target similar channels or audiences.

Common mistakes to avoid

  1. Only searching for brands you already know
    Search is useful, but filters can help you discover brands you may not have thought of.
    ​

  2. Treating every mention as a sponsorship
    Not every brand mention is paid. Use sponsored mentions when you want to focus on likely paid activity.
    ​

  3. Ignoring the videos behind the data
    The videos help you understand the context, creator, format, and audience behind the brand activity.
    ​

  4. Only looking at one brand in isolation
    Related brands can help you understand the wider market and find competitors or similar prospects.

What to do next

Once you find a brand that looks relevant, open the brand profile and review the videos, channels, repeat partnerships, and related brands.

From there, you can use the data to research competitors, find brands to pitch, discover creators for outreach, or understand how brands are using YouTube sponsorships in your market.

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