The data presented in this report was collected from all the sponsored videos posted on YouTube and TikTok in 2022. From this collection set, we narrowed our data to include only sponsored videos that were posted in the United States or Canada that have received more than 10,000 views.
From there, we separated the brands by industry, singling out the tech industry for this report. Then, we pulled the metrics, including top spending brands, videos, creators, and more. We then compared the data from YouTube and TikTok to each other in order to determine just how the Tech industry taps into sponsored content on social media.
How Big Tech Brands are Creating a New Future in the Creator Economy:
- Introduction
- Brands
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Spend
- Top Spending Brands
- Trend of Spending
- Content Interactions
- Creators
- Top 10 Most Popular Creators on YouTube
- Top 10 Most Popular Creators on TikTok
- Campaigns, Content Types, Calls To Action
- YouTube
- Top Videos with Most Popular Campaign Techniques
- TikTok
- Top Videos with Most Popular Campaign Techniques
- Key Takeaways
Introduction
The purpose of this report is to delve deeper into one of the leading industries in the influencer marketing space: Tech. With brands like Squarespace and ExpressVPN continuously dominating YouTube, we wanted to narrow down this lucrative market by looking at exactly how leading tech brands utilize influencer marketing on YouTube and TikTok.
This report reveals the top tech brands on these platforms as well as their specific metrics, including views, ad length, spending, and other content interactions. In addition, we will cover the top creators and videos on both platforms, as well as common content and campaign types used during their campaigns.
Let’s dive in and take a look at what happens when Tech meets the Creator Economy!
Brands
The following section presents the metrics of leading tech brands that frequently utilize influencer marketing on YouTube and TikTok. We have organized the top brands on each platform, taking a comparative lens for content frequency, average views, average advertisement length, and more.
From NordVPN to Raycon, let’s take a look at the tech brands that are setting the stage for brands across industries.
YouTube
The following graphs are based on the data of the top spending tech companies that utilize influencer marketing on the platform, YouTube. The most frequent tech brand that utilized influencer marketing on YouTube was Meta.
Most Frequent Brands
This pie chart is a representation of the most frequent tech brands using influencer marketing on YouTube. Meta, formally known as Facebook, was the most frequent tech brand with 453 videos. SquareSpace, a company that supplies software to help business owners create their own website was the second most frequent tech brand on YouTube with 414 videos.
Average Views of Top 10 Brands
This graph shows the average number of views for the top ten most frequent tech brands on YouTube. Raycon, a wireless headphone company founded by Ray J, received 263.8 thousand views.
Average Ad Length (sec.)
This visual shows the average ad length in seconds that the top ten most frequent tech brands on YouTube used. Although Meta utilized influencer marketing on YouTube most frequently their average ad length was only 0.41 seconds.
Average % of Ad
This chart shows the average percentage of ads on YouTube that come from the top ten frequent tech brands utilizing influencer marketing.
TikTok
The following graphs are based on the data of the top spending tech companies that utilize influencer marketing on the platform, TikTok. The most frequent tech brand on TikTok was amazon with 151 ad videos.
Top 10 Most Frequent Brands
This pie chart shows the top ten most frequent brands that use influencer marketing on TikTok. Amazon, one of the top e-commerce companies, was the most frequent tech brand to use influencer marketing on TikTok with 151 ad videos, and Samsung, an electronics company, was the second most frequent tech brand on TikTok with 53 videos.
Total Views of Top 10 Brands
This graph shows the total number of views that the top 10 tech brands on TikTok received on their sponsored videos. Amazon received the most views with 120.3 million, and Samsung received 56.7 million views.
Average Views/Video of Top 10 Brands
This visual shows the average views per video received from the top 10 tech brands. HP, which is an information technology company received the most average views per video with 2.8 million views, Samsung had the second highest average views per video with 1 million views.
Spend
Utilizing our social intelligence capabilities, we pulled spending data for all of the sponsored content posted on YouTube in 2022. After narrowing our analysis to the tech industry, we were able to identify the top spending tech brands on YouTube: ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Squarespace.
In the following section, we identify their campaign metrics, top videos, and how their spending level varied throughout the year. Additionally, we take a look at how overall influencer marketing spending varied throughout 2022.
Top Spending Brands
Express VPN
ExpressVPN is a software that is used for the privacy and IP address security, and was the top spending tech brand on YouTube in 2022. ExpressVPN spent a total of 13.2 million dollars on YouTube advertisements with a total of 92.1 million views.
Nord VPN
NordVPN is a software that helps to protect your IP address when using public Wi-Fi. NordVPN spent 9.7 million dollars on advertisements on YouTube, and gained a total of 64.4 million views and 319,000 likes.
SquareSpace
SquareSpace offers an easy, affordable way to create your own website. They spent a total of 5.4 million dollars on sponsored content and received 101.1K likes and 8K comments.
Trend of Spending
From The Last 3 Quarters of 2022
This graph shows the total amount spent on influencer marketing from the last three quarters of 2022. ExpressVPN spent the most on influencer marketing in Q1-Q3 but up-to-date in 4 NordVPN has spent the most, 12.6 million dollars.
Total Spend vs. Month
This graph shows the total money spent during each month of the year. The month with the highest total spent on influencer marketing was October with a little over 10 million dollars spent.
Content Interactions
In this section, we will take a look at content interaction on YouTube and TikTok among tech brands.
For both platforms, we considered the frequency of sponsored campaign content, and average likes, comments, and views. Using these metrics, we can identify the overall industry averages, top videos by metrics, and more.
Frequency of Videos by Month
This visual shows the frequency of sponsored videos being posted per month on YouTube. We can see that the most sponsored videos were posted in the months of July and October.
Frequency vs. Hour Posted
This visual shows the frequency of sponsored videos being posted per hour on YouTube. The most popular times to post sponsored videos are between the hours of 11 AM and 3 PM.
Average Views vs. Hour Posted
This visual shows the average number of views of sponsored videos on YouTube throughout the day based on 24 hours in a day.
Average Likes/Comments vs. Hour Posted
The graph on the left shows the average amount of likes received based on the hour the video was posted. The most likes are received between midnight and 1 AM, and then again at 5 AM. The graph on the right shows the average amount of comments received based on the hour the video was posted. The most comments were received at 1 AM and 1 PM.
Averages of All Tech Videos On YouTube
This visual shows the average views, likes and comments that were received across all tech videos on YouTube in 2022.
Top Videos by Views
This visual shows the top three videos from tech brands on YouTube based on views. Dropbox, an online file hosting company had the most viewed sponsored video with 10.1 million views.
Top Videos by Likes
This visual shows the top three videos from tech brands on YouTube based on likes. NordVPN had the highest liked sponsored video with 325.3 thousand likes.
Top Videos by Comments
This visual shows the top three videos from tech brands on YouTube based on the amount of comments received. Incase, a company that makes cases for electronics, had the video with the most comments, 31.4 thousand comments.
Number of Videos vs. Hour Posted
This graph shows the frequency of videos being posted on TikTok throughout the day. Based on this graph, we can see that most videos are being posted at 3PM.
Average Views vs. Hour Posted
This visual shows the average number of views on sponsored videos on TikTok per hour of the day.
Average Diggs/Comments vs. Hour Posted
The graph on the left represents the number of likes being received based on the time of the day, as you can see with this graph, most likes are received in the evenings. The graph on the right shows the average amount of comments received based on the time of the day, most comments were received at 5PM.
Averages of All Tech Videos On TikTok
This visual shows the average views, likes and comments that were received across all tech videos on TikTok in 2022.
Top Videos by Views
This visual shows the top three videos from tech brands on TikTok based on views. The most viewed ad on TikTok was sponsored by Amazon Alexa, activating the creator Marshmello, an American music producer known for his song Happier featuring Bastille. The video received 29.9 million views and it was a dedicated video.
Top Videos by Likes
This visual shows the top three videos from tech brands on TikTok based on likes. The most liked sponsored video by a tech brand on YouTube was from Lightricks, a software development company, activating Charli D’Amelio and implementing a link in bio. This video received 1.2 million likes.
Top Videos by Comments
This visual shows the top three videos from tech brands on TikTok based on comments.The top video on TikTok with the most comments was a sponsored ad video by Amazon. They activated Charli D’Amelio and received 215.6k comments using a dedicated post.
Creators
Next, we will identify the top content creators on YouTube and TikTok who participated in partnerships with tech brands. From PewDiePie to Charli D’Amelio, we narrowed down these creators by their reach or number of followers, views, top video, and top brand partnership.
Let’s take a look at the ten most popular creators on both TikTok and YouTube.
Top 10 Most Popular Creators on YouTube
In this section we highlight the top 10 most popular creators who participated in partnerships with tech brands on YouTube.
Pewdiepie
PewDiePie was the top YouTube creator who partnered with tech companies in 2022. Best known for his comedy sketches and let’s play videos PewDiePie has teamed up with brands like NordVPN and receives around 2.3 million views on tech-sponsored videos.
Theellenshow
Ellen DeGeneres, best known for her talk show The Ellen Show, has a reach of 38 million people on YouTube and has partnered with tech brands like glow, to receive 32.5 thousand average views on tech-sponsored videos.
Sssniperwolf
Sssniperwolf, who has a reach of 30 million people on YouTube, has sponsored big tech brands like Amazon and receives 2.9 million average views on tech-sponsored videos.
Unboxtherapy
Lewis Hilsenteger, better known to his subscribers as unboxtherapy, has a reach of 18.1 million people and has teamed up with tech brands like Anker, a mobile charging brand, for an average of 1 million views on tech-sponsored videos.
Rhettandlink2
Rhett and Link, a comedy duo on YouTube with a reach of 17.2 million people have partnered with tech brands to receive 1.1 million average views on tech-sponsored videos.
IGNentertainment
IGN Entertainment is an American video game and entertainment media company that uses their YouTube page to bring you the latest news about gaming and entertainment. Partnering with tech brands like Alienware, ignentertainment has received an average of 40.4 thousand views on tech-sponsored videos.
Royaltyfam
This fun and adorable blended family has a reach of 15.3 million subscribers on YouTube. Partnering with big tech brands like Dropbox they have received an average of 1.3 million views on their tech-sponsored videos.
Megatoadstonie
Matt Stonie, better known as megatoad stonie, is an American competitive eater with a reach of 14.9 million subscribers on YouTube. Partnering with tech brands like NordVPN, megatoadstonie has received an average of 1.2 million views on tech-sponsored videos.
Marquesbrownlee
Marques Brown Lee has a reach of 14.7 million subscribers on YouTube, where he is best known for his videos reviewing and sharing the latest news on new technology. Partnering with tech companies like Squarespace, Marques Brown Lee has received an average of 2.4 million views on his tech-sponsored videos.
Linustechtips
For all your technology needs and questions linustechtips is the place to check out. With a reach of 14.1 million subscribers on YouTube linustechtips provides content reviewing technology and providing a step-by-step guide to building computers. Partnering with tech brands like Samsung they have received an average of 1.4 million views on their tech-sponsored videos.
Top 10 Most Popular Creators on TikTok
This section highlights the top 10 influencers on TikTok who were used by tech brands for influencer marketing. We include information on each influencer from their reach, average views on tech sponsored videos and the tech brands who use them for their campaigns. NeoReach data allows them to help brands when choosing the right influencer for their marketing campaigns and help them achieve better results.
In this section we highlight the top 10 most popular creators who participated in partnerships with tech brands on TikTok.
@charlidamelio
Best known for her dance videos, Charli D’Amelio has a massive reach on TikTok with 148.7 million followers. Partnering with brands like Amazon, she has received an average of 9.1 million views on her tech-sponsored videos.
@zachking
Zach King has a reach of 68.9 million followers on TikTok, he is best known for his magic videos and has partnered with tech companies like Amazon to receive an average of 1.8 million views on his tech-sponsored videos.
@dixiedamelio
Charli D’Amelio’s older sister, Dixie is a TikTok content creator turned singer/songwriter with a reach of 57.5 million followers. Partnering with tech companies like Lightricks, a software company that helps creators edit and and develop videos and pictures, to receive an average of 802.2 thousand views on her tech-sponsored videos.
@spencerx
Best known for his beatboxing videos Spencerx has a reach of 55 million followers on TikTok. Partnering up with tech brands like JBL, best known for their speakers, Spencerx has received an average of 2 million views on his tech-sponsored videos.
@justmaiko
Michael Lee, known to his followers as justmaiko, is best known for his dance videos and has a reach of 51.8 million followers on TikTok. Partnering with tech brands like Lenovo, justmaiko has received an average of 417.9 thousand views on his tech-sponsored videos.
@scottsreality
Best known for his exciting and crazy experiments, scottsreality has a reach of 37.4 million followers on TikTok. Partnering with tech companies like Amazon, he has received an average of 716.6 thousand views on his tech-sponsored videos.
@gordonramsayofficial
Whether if its duets to other creators cooking videos or sharing his own delicious recipes Gordon Ramsay is one of the top 10 most popular creators on TikTok with tech companies. Partnering with brands like Amazon, Ramsay has received an average of 15.2 million views on his tech-sponsored videos.
@lizzza
Liza Koshy, better known as Lizzza to her followers, is an American actress and creator that has a reach of 29.8 million followers on TikTok. Partnering with tech companies like Amazon Prime, Lizza has received an average of 7 million views on her tech-sponsored videos.
@merrickhanna
Best known for his dance videos, Merrick Hanna has a reach of 29.2 million followers on TikTok. Partnering with tech brands like JBL, he has received an average of 297.3 thousand views on his tech-sponsored videos.
@marshmellomusic
This popular DJ and music producer Marshmello has a reach of 24.8 million followers on TikTok. Some of his most popular songs include Wolves featuring Selena Gomez and FRIENDS featuring Anne-Marie, Marshmello has partnered with tech companies like Alexa and has received an average of 29.9 million views on his tech-sponsored videos.
Campaigns, Content Types, Calls To Action
This section covers the campaign types, content types, and calls to action that were the most popular among sponsored tech campaigns on YouTube and TikTok.
We identified the following campaign types: promo code, branding and awareness, download or install, and contest or giveaway. The content types we identify are integrated videos, dedicated videos, intro and end card sponsorships, and description only. Finally, the calls to actions that we identify are a direct purchase page, a link in the creator’s bio, and a giveaway entry.
YouTube
When choosing campaign types, content types, and call to actions for an influencer marketing campaign it is important to keep in mind what platform you are using. In this section, we take a deeper look into the success of campaign types, content types, and call to actions that are most popular among tech brands when using YouTube. We also analyze how ad length and channel category affects likes and interaction with the campaign.
In this section, we take a deeper look at the campaign types, content types, and call to actions that are most popular among tech brands when using YouTube.
Frequency By Channel Category
This pie chart represents the frequency tech companies are using different categories of channels on YouTube for influencer marketing. Gaming channels are the most popular being used a little over 25% of the time, science and tech channels, as well as, are also popular among big tech companies and are used a little over 18% of the time.
Avg Views By Channel Category
This is the correlation between viewership and channel category. In other words, this is how the type of content a channel typically posts affected views of the sponsored content.
Top Campaign Types
This pie chart shows the top campaign types used by tech companies on YouTube for their sponsored content. Promo code was the most popular campaign type being used 50.08% of the time. The campaign type promo code is when there is a code attached to the content that viewers can use to get what is being offered at a discounted rate.
Top Campaign Types by Channel Category
This chart shows the top campaign types being used based on the category of channel being used. Gaming channels use the campaign type promo code most frequently.
Ad Length & Total Spend by Campaign Type
The graph on the left shows the average ad length based on the campaign type used on YouTube sponsored videos. The campaign type with the longest ad length was download or install, which is when the viewer must download or install something to receive the offer. The graph on the right shows the total money spent based on the campaign type used. Limited time offer/promo code was the campaign type that tech companies spent the most money on YouTube with a little over 40 million dollars spent.
Top Content Types
This visual demonstrates the top ways tech brands used their sponsored videos on YouTube. The top content type on YouTube was integrated, which are videos in which the ad is integrated somewhere within the video’s content.
Top Content Types by Channel Category
This visual shows the top content types being used by tech companies in their campaigns based on the channel category being used. The channel category, gaming, uses the content type description only most frequently, which is when information about the campaign is included in the written captions of the videos.
Total Spend & Ad Length by Content Type
The graph on the left shows the total amount of money spent based on the content type used in the campaign. The content type, integrated, which is when the ad is placed somewhere throughout the video, had the most total spend by tech companies with around 48 million dollars spent in 2022. The visual on the right shows the average ad length based on the content type used. The content type with the longest ad length is dedicated, which is when the whole video is dedicated to the campaign.
Top Call To Action Types
This pie chart shows the top call to action types used by tech companies in their campaigns. The most popular call to action type is direct purchase page, which is where the viewer is directed to click on a page that leads them to being able to purchase the product directly, being used 49.01% of the time.
Top Call to Action Types by Channel Category
This visual shows the most popular call to action types used based on the channel category the sponsored video is featured in. Call to action types is what is asked of the viewer to receive the product being advertised in the video. The channel category, gaming, has a pretty split popularity between the call to action type direct purchase page and click link in bio.
Top Videos with Most Popular Campaign Techniques
Below are the top three videos that are tech-sponsored on YouTube that use the most popular campaign techniques mentioned above. The top three videos on YouTube all use promo codes and link in bios as the call to action but vary slightly on content type used between integrated videos and intro cards.
ExpressVPN
One of the top sponsored tech videos on YouTube in 2022, Danny Gonzalez’s sponsored video for ExpressVPN featured a promo code campaign type, an integrated content type, and a link-in-bio call to action.
NordVPN
Similar to the previous video, PewDiePie’s sponsored video for NordVPN followed a promo code campaign type, an integrated content type, and a link-in-bio call to action.
NordVPN
Featured again on this list, NordVPN’s partnership with JonTronShow produced another one of the top sponsored tech videos of the year. This video followed a promo code campaign type, an intro card content type, and a link-in-bio call to action.
TikTok
In this section, we take a deeper look at the campaign types, content types, and call to actions that are most popular among tech brands when using the platform TikTok. We analyze the interactions received on sponsored ad videos based on top campaign types, top content types as well as top call to actions types.
Top Campaign Types
This pie chart represents the campaign type being used by tech companies in their sponsored videos on YouTube. The campaign type most frequently being used, 94.43% of the time, was branding and awareness, which is when the goal of the ad is to spread awareness around their company and new products.
Interactions By Top Campaign Types
The graph demonstrates the correlations between the top campaign types and the average views, likes, and comments of the sponsored content.
Top Content Types
This visual demonstrates the top content types utilized by the top spending tech brands on TikTok. In 2022, the most popular content type used was dedicated, which describes videos that are dedicated to a sponsorship.
Interactions By Top Content Types
This chart represents the average number of views (white), likes (pink), and comments (red) received on tech-sponsored videos on TikTok based on the content type being used. Description only receives the most average views, but the content type integrated receives the most average likes.
Top Call To Action Types
This pie chart represents the top call to action types being used by tech companies in their sponsored ads on TikTok. The most popular call to action type being used 88.40% of the time is brand tagged in caption.
Interactions By Top Call to Action Types
The graph demonstrates the correlation between call to action types and the average views, likes, and comments of the sponsored content.
Top Videos with Most Popular Campaign Techniques
Below are the top three videos that are tech-sponsored on TikTok that use the most popular campaign techniques. The most popular campaign techniques that are used on TikTok are branding and awareness only, contest/giveaway, download/install, and promo code. The top three videos mentioned below are geared towards branding and awareness only but use different content types to achieve this goal.
Samsung
Demi Bagby’s sponsored video for Samsung carried out a branding and awareness campaign, a dedicated content type, and brand tagged in caption call to action.
Amazon
This sponsored TikTok by Charli D’Amelio was in partnership with Amazon. The video followed a branding and awareness campaign type, a dedicated content type, and a brand tagged in caption call to action.
Bose
Cody Ko’s sponsored TikTok for Bose featured a branding and awareness campaign type, a dedicated content type, and brand tagged in caption call to action.
Key Takeaways
- October held the highest spend for the tech industry in sponsored videos and content on YouTube, while July had the highest number of videos created with tech sponsorships.
- Averages of all tech videos on YouTube: 132,033.83 views, 6,716.41 likes, 635.80 comments
- Averages of all tech videos on TikTok: 596,587.35 views, 22,748.89 likes, 514.58 comments
- Top campaign type on YouTube: Promo code
- Top content type on YouTube : Integrated
- Top call to action on YouTube: Direct purchase page
- Top campaign type on TikTok: Branding and awareness
- Top content type on TikTok: Dedicated
- Top call to action type on TikTok: Brand tagged in caption
Editor’s Note
The tech industry is known for being innovative. Brands in this industry are always finding new ways to stand out from the competition in the rapidly evolving digital world. In this report, we analyzed how tech brands participate in the influencer marketing industry. From industry leaders like Amazon to niche brands like Casetify, a number of tech companies have found monumental success through this contemporary form of marketing. These companies, along with other tech brands like ExpressVPN and Squarespace, have set the stage for other tech brands who hope to penetrate the influencer marketing industry. By looking at the metrics, activated creators, and sponsored content, itself, we were able to take an in-depth look at what happens when the tech industry meets the creator economy.
