YouTube wants creators to share data with brands and potential advertisers

YouTube is upping its presence in the world of influencer marketing, and it wants creators to get in on the movement. A widely distributed email invites creators to try out a new feature that shares channel and audience data with brands, advertisers, and other potential sponsors.

The email was blasted out to the owners of active channels, many of whom shared the contents of the letter on social media. YouTube described its new feature as a way to “share channel and audience data to potentially be discovered by advertisers and brands for more earning opportunities like higher revenue ads, brand deals, and shopping affiliate offers.” By default, that data will not be shared, and creators who choose to toggle on the new tool can undo their decision at any time.

YouTube has long been a home for influencer marketing campaigns, but the data sharing toggle is part of a wave of recent features that collectively level up sponsorship opportunities on the platform. Nearly a decade after acquiring FameBit, the matchmaking hub now known as BrandConnect, YouTube still trails rivals like Instagram when it comes to influencer marketing.

That narrative is starting to change. At this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, YouTube unveiled a new-and-improved BrandConnect that consolidates and streamlines creator partnerships. An eMarketer report published around that time found that more than half of U.S. brands will partner with a YouTube channel to market a product in 2025.

More changes arrived at YouTube’s annual Brandcast presentation, where the company’s marketing execs revealed a fresh suite of matchmaking tools centered around the Insights Finder hub. At the next stop on the festival circuit, June’s Cannes Lions, YouTube updated BrandConnect with a feature called Open Call, which lets brands solicit sponsored content from creators who can meet specific briefs.

Taken together, these updates bring YouTube’s influencer marketing resources in line with the products offered by Instagram. But YouTube doesn’t want to just match its competitors. It’s looking to address blind spots that hold back the entire influencer marketing industry.

Consider the findings of a June 2025 eMarketer study, in which a third of global creator marketers cited inconsistent measurement as their top roadblock.  In a previous Harris Poll study, 89% of U.S. creators said they could equip brand partners with novel audience insights, but only 15% of them said they get feedback from brands about relevant evaluation methods.

The new data sharing tool establishes a new channel of communication between YouTube creators and the brands looking to partner with them. The results, in theory, will include more accurate measurements for brands and more behind-the-scenes participation from those brands’ creator partners. If all goes according to plan, widespread data sharing will improve results across YouTube’s entire influencer marketing ecosystem.