This page is a living, breathing resource whose purpose is to help educate streamers on what sponsors will look for in your channel. Whether it’s a brand, game developer, or any other type of sponsor, it’s important to understand how to best present yourself and what to realistically expect in return for these sponsorships.
Providing Value to Sponsors
Before we get too caught up on what a sponsor can do for us, let’s first talk about what can we do for a sponsor?
Exposure
You’re helping more viewers find out about who the sponsor is.
Examples: tagging the sponsor on social media, showing the sponsor’s logo on your stream. Generally this can be quantified into a number of IMPRESSIONS.
Traffic
You’re sending viewers to visit the sponsor’s website or social accounts.
Examples: including the sponsor’s website link in a social media post, shouting out a custom website link for them to visit (like VINCERO.THETA.TV). Generally this can be quantified into a number of CLICKS or VISITS.
Conversions
You’re convincing viewers to download the sponsor’s game, purchase their product, or sign up on their website.
Examples: one of your viewers posts a screenshot of their G FUEL purchase using your affiliate code, or another viewer posts a video playing the new game Splitgate you encouraged them to download.
Generally this can be quantified into a number of SALES or SIGNUPS, although it can be difficult to track. This is the sponsor’s ULTIMATE goal and almost always their “#1 KPI” which means Key Performance Indicator. Some sponsors are better than others in helping track these results, so you should take it upon yourself to document and prove that your efforts are working!
How can you provide exposure, traffic, and conversions?
There are endless ways to do this, from simply shouting out a sponsor on stream, to producing creative video skits, rotating their logo on stream, activating your social followers around the sponsor, and many, many more.
This section will be updated with more information in the weeks to come!
Sponsors’ Value to Streamers
What can sponsors provide? Sponsors can provide three main different forms of value to streamers.
Exposure
The sponsor is helping bring more viewers to your channel, or followers to your social media.
While the term ‘free exposure bro’ is often a meme in the influencer community, many brands DO have a ton of genuine new potential fans to show you off to. G FUEL is a great example who consistently shares their influencers’ channels and social posts to cross-promote and grow both communities.
Tip: Of course be careful of vague agreements and try to politely dig in further with the sponsor about how often and when they’ll post. Also be sure to provide the sponsor with video/photo content as best you can to make it easy on them to share and post.
Free Product
The sponsor is giving you and/or your viewers free products.
A few examples are game key downloads, headsets, G FUEL tubs/shakers, Vincero Watches, or whatever product the sponsor is promoting.
Tip: This is generally a great place to start a relationship with a sponsor, as the streamer can get acquainted with the sponsor’s product and use that to better educate their own viewers.
Cash
The sponsor is giving you weekly, monthly, or single payments of cash in exchange for your promotions.
This is by far the rarest form of sponsorship and ironically, where many streamers seem to expect these relationships to start. The truth is that most companies have very limited cash budgets to directly sponsor a streamer.
Tip: Streamers who have hard evidence that they can drive CONVERSIONS are the most likely to lock in cash deals, as they are producing proven revenue or growth for the sponsor.
How can you provide & track results to a sponsor?
EXPOSURE
- Add sponsor logo rotating on-screen to your stream
- Add sponsor logo to your social headers
- Shoutout sponsor on-stream
- Add sponsor panels in profile
- Add sponsor tag to in-game name, pet, clan, etc.
...and much more! These are just a few examples.
How to Track: Add up all your total IMPRESSIONS from the above exposure methods.
For rotating logos on-screen, calculate [AVG VIEWERS] x [# OF TIMES LOGO IS SHOWN PER MINUTE] x [TOTAL STREAM LENGTH].
Most social media platforms make available [IMPRESSIONS] as a weekly or monthly metric.
TRAFFIC
- Add repeating sponsor link in your stream chat
- Add sponsor social media accounts or website link to your social bios
- Shoutout viewers to visit sponsor link
- Display tracking link on-screen
- Create Good Content (YouTube videos, Tweets, etc. add tracking link to description)
...and much more! These are just a few examples.
How to Track: Create your own tracking link using a service like bit.ly!
CONVERSIONS
- Offer special perks to viewers who convert
- Show love & appreciation on social media
- Create exclusive club, only entry is if viewer converts
- Name ingame characters / items after viewers who convert
- Create a contest amongst your viewers for most conversions and reward them
- Show your viewers how valuable the sponsor’s product is, talk about how you use it [only if it’s true], and remind them if they buy one it supports you as well
...and much more! These are just a few examples.
How to Track: Top sponsors will provide you with easy conversion tracking in a daily, weekly, or monthly report. If they don’t, take it upon yourself and get your audience to prove it!
Have your viewers post on social or send you screenshots of them using your custom code, downloading the game you recommended, installing the app you told them about, etc.