YouTube Sponsorship Disclosure Study

Key takeaways

1. 3.4% of the 6,776 videos on YouTube's most-popular charts in Australia, Canada, the UK, India and the U.S. (October 31 to November 2, 2026) carried the creator-set paid promotion label, the notice YouTube shows at the start of a video with a sponsorship, endorsement or other commercial relationship. See details
2. 1.7% named a sponsor in the description, and 28.9% of those, 33 of 114, did not carry the label. We read every one of them; a channel's standing list of sponsors, a nonprofit plug or an equipment credit did not count. See details
3. Length decides most of it: 13.0% of videos over 20 minutes carried the label, against 0.4% of videos up to 3 minutes, most of them Shorts. See details
4. 48.3% of labelled videos named no sponsor or promo code in the description, so the sponsorship is mentioned only in the video itself. See details
5. Videos with only a brand promo code in the description, often a standing deal, carried the label 27.7% of the time. See details
6. Autos & Vehicles videos carried the label most often, at 14.7%, among categories with at least 50 chart videos. See details

What is YouTube's paid promotion label?

When a creator ticks the paid promotion box in a video's details, YouTube shows a disclosure label at the start of the video. YouTube says creators "have to let YouTube know" this way when a video has branded content, sponsorships, endorsements or other commercial relationships, and that creators remain responsible for following the law (YouTube Help). In the U.S., the FTC's guide for influencers says a disclosure belongs in the video itself, not just in the description, and not to assume a platform's tool is enough on its own (FTC).

The label is public: the YouTube Data API returns it for any video. In our YouTube metadata study of the most-subscribed channels' uploads, 3% of regular videos and 2% of Shorts carried it; this study looks at the charts instead and checks the label against the description. So does the description, where many creators thank a sponsor or give a promo code. Comparing the two shows how often creators use YouTube's tool when the description names a deal.

How many popular videos carry the label?

Of the 6,776 videos on YouTube's most-popular charts in Australia, Canada, the UK, India and the U.S. (October 31 to November 2, 2026), 3.4% carried the paid promotion label (232 videos). The charts mix Shorts, music videos, trailers and sports clips with long creator videos, and sponsorships sit almost entirely in the long ones.

A video can sit on several countries' charts, so the rows overlap. India's chart named a sponsor in 1 description: our phrases are English, and most of its descriptions are not, so the India row undercounts. Shares of fewer than 10 videos are not shown.

Which videos carry it?

Length is the clearest divide. 13.0% of videos over 20 minutes carried the label and 7.1% named a sponsor in the description, against 4.6% of videos from 3 to 20 minutes and 0.4% of videos up to 3 minutes, most of them Shorts.

Do videos that name a sponsor carry the label?

Usually, not always. 1.7% of the chart videos named a sponsor in the description: "sponsored by", "thanks to … for sponsoring this video", "this episode is brought to you by", "#ad" or "paid partnership". Of those 114 videos, 81 carried the label and 33 (28.9%) did not.

We read each of the 56 unlabelled candidates by hand and set aside 23 that were not a sponsorship of that video: a channel's standing list of sponsors in every description, a plug for a nonprofit, an equipment credit. Another 2.1% of videos carried only a brand promo code, often a standing deal with a drinks or gear brand, and 27.7% of those carried the label.

An unlabelled video may still disclose the deal on screen or out loud, which the FTC treats as the disclosure that counts, and we cannot see that from the data. What the gap shows is that the creator did not use YouTube's own tool for a sponsorship the description names.

Which brands sponsor popular videos?

No brand dominates. The sponsors named most often were SeatGeek (4 videos, 4 channels), BRUNT (4 videos, 4 channels), Helix Sleep (3 videos, 3 channels) and Upside (3 videos, 3 channels), each on 4 or fewer chart videos; 67 different brands were named in all.

Do labelled videos mention the sponsor in the description?

Not always. 48.3% of the 232 labelled videos named no sponsor and gave no promo code in the description. Their sponsorship is in the video only, a read by the host or a product on screen, which is what the label exists for.

Which categories carry the label most?

Autos & Vehicles videos carried the label most often, at 14.7%, among YouTube categories with at least 50 chart videos. Music, sports and film clips almost never did.

What this means for creators and brands

• Tick the box and say it in the video. YouTube asks for the label; the FTC asks for a clear disclosure in the video. One does not replace the other.
• Brands can check their own deals. The label is public. A brand can confirm that every video it paid for carries it before the campaign report goes out.
• Promo codes are a grey area. A standing code with a gear or drinks brand may not be a paid promotion of the video it sits under, but a sponsored read is.

Our YouTube sponsorship rates page covers what creators charge. Mark Studios edits YouTube videos for creators and brands, sponsor segments included.

How we ran the study

Videos. On October 31 to November 2, 2026 we read YouTube's most-popular chart for Australia, Canada, the UK, India and the U.S. through the YouTube Data API, overall and for each video category the chart serves, up to 200 videos per chart. Each video counts once (6,776 unique videos; live and upcoming streams left out).

The label. The API's paidProductPlacementDetails.hasPaidProductPlacement field, which is true when the creator has ticked the paid promotion box (YouTube Data API).

The description. A video names a sponsor when its description says "sponsored by", "this video/episode is sponsored", "thanks to … for sponsoring", "today's sponsor", "brought to you by", "paid partnership", "#ad" or "#sponsored", or lists a "Sponsor:". Channel memberships ("become a sponsor", "join this channel"), denials ("not sponsored"), disclosure-policy notes and Fortnite creator codes do not count. A brand promo code ("use code X") with no named sponsor is counted separately. Every named-sponsor video without the label was read by hand.

Limitations

• We cannot see the video. A creator who did not tick the box may still disclose on screen or out loud.
• Descriptions miss sponsorships. A sponsor read in the video with nothing in the description counts as unnamed here, so the named-sponsor share is a floor.
• Charts, not all of YouTube. The most-popular charts lean to new, widely watched videos and to certain categories; smaller channels may behave differently.
• English-language matching. Sponsorship phrases are matched in English; the India chart's non-English descriptions are undercounted.

How to cite this study

Link to the section you use, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/youtube-sponsorship-disclosure-study#named-sponsor. To cite the study as a whole:

Mark Studios. "YouTube Sponsorship Disclosure Study." Published November 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/youtube-sponsorship-disclosure-study

@misc{markstudios_youtube_sponsorship_disclosure_study_2026,
  author = {{Mark Studios}},
  title = {{YouTube Sponsorship Disclosure Study}},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/youtube-sponsorship-disclosure-study},
  note = {Last verified 2026-11-02}
}

Our measurements and the CSV are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. The videos remain the property of the channels that published them.

Sources

Download the per-video data (CSV)

Widely quoted video statistics on other topics are traced to their origin, with a verdict on each, in our research fact-check.

1. YouTube Help, Add branded content restrictions & disclosure labels. Accessed 2026-11-02.
2. Federal Trade Commission, Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers. Accessed 2026-11-02.
3. Google for Developers, YouTube Data API: Videos (paidProductPlacementDetails). Accessed 2026-11-02.
4. Google for Developers, YouTube Data API: Videos: list (chart=mostPopular). Accessed 2026-11-02.

Update policy and change log

We plan to rerun the check on later charts. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.

• November 2, 2026: First published.
• November 2, 2026: Scoped the top-category takeaway to categories with at least 50 chart videos, as the category section already was.