SponsorTrack – Creator Sponsorship Intelligence

SponsorTrack is the first intelligence tool that systematically tracks brand sponsorships across YouTube videos, podcast episodes, and newsletters. We detect sponsorship mentions, calculate how long a brand has been partnering with a creator (sponsorship tenure), identify frequency patterns, and estimate spend—giving you the competitive edge in influencer marketing.

Why use SponsorTrack?

• Brands & Media Buyers – Identify where your competitors are advertising, find cost-effective creators, and benchmark sponsorship rates
• Influencer Marketing Agencies – Show clients proven sponsorship history, avoid creators who overstate brand relationships, and negotiate better deals with data
• Investors & Startups – Understand go-to-market strategies of SaaS companies, see which creators they trust for audience reach
• Content Creators – Research what rates similar creators command, discover which brands sponsor your niche

How to use SponsorTrack

1. Go to the Input tab
2. Choose mode: creators (analyze specific creators) or brands (find brand placements)
3. Provide creators with their platform URLs (YouTube Channel ID, Podcast RSS, Substack, Beehiiv)
4. Set brands to track (e.g., ["Notion", "Stripe", "Linear"])
5. Click Start and download sponsorship data

Input

Field	Required	Description
mode	Yes	"creators" or "brands"
creators	Yes (if mode=creators)	Array of { name, youtubeChannelId, podcastRssUrl, substackUrl, beehiivUrl }
brands	Yes	Array of brand names to track
daysBack	No	Days of content to analyze (default: 90)
maxItems	No	Max content items per creator (default: 200)
enableAiDetection	No	Use AI for detection (default: true)

Example Input

{
    "mode": "creators",
    "creators": [
        {
            "name": "Ali Abdaal",
            "youtubeChannelId": "UCJgfaSkE5Lyiq5R0sX5jVgw",
            "podcastRssUrl": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/dHoohVNH"
        }
    ],
    "brands": ["Notion", "Stripe", "Linear"],
    "daysBack": 90,
    "maxItems": 200,
    "enableAiDetection": true
}

Output Fields

• brandName – Sponsoring brand
• creatorName – Content creator
• platform – youtube, podcast, or newsletter
• contentTitle – Title of sponsored content
• contentUrl – Direct URL to content
• sponsorMention – Exact text of sponsorship mention
• sponsorshipTenureDays – Days brand has been sponsoring
• frequency – weekly, monthly, quarterly, or one-time
• estimatedSpend – Estimated cost range
• isNewSponsorship – Whether this is a new partnership
• intentReason – AI-generated insight

Example Output

{
    "brandName": "Notion",
    "creatorName": "Ali Abdaal",
    "platform": "youtube",
    "contentTitle": "How I Take Notes in 2024",
    "contentUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abcdef123",
    "sponsorMention": "This video is sponsored by Notion...",
    "sponsorshipTenureDays": 487,
    "frequency": "monthly",
    "estimatedSpend": "$2,000 - $10,000",
    "detectedAt": "2025-04-05T14:30:00.000Z",
    "isNewSponsorship": false,
    "intentReason": "Long-term partnership with 12 mentions over 16 months indicating established brand-creator relationship"
}

Pricing / Cost Estimation

Free Tier: The first $5/month of platform usage is free on Apify.

Example costs:

• 5 creators, 10 videos each: ~$0.10-0.20 per run
• 10 creators, 50 videos each: ~$0.30-0.50 per run
• AI detection (Groq): ~$0.001 per content item (very cheap with llama-3.1-8b-instant)

YouTube API: Requires your own YouTube Data API v3 key (free tier available in Google Cloud Console).

Compare: Manual research costs $50-200/hour. SponsorTrack gives you thousands of data points for pennies.

Tips & Advanced Options

• Provide YouTube Channel IDs (not URLs) for accurate fetching
• Use Podcast RSS feeds for most accurate podcast data
• Disable AI detection for faster, cheaper runs (uses regex only)
• Run weekly to track new sponsorships over time — the Actor remembers previous runs

FAQ, Disclaimers & Support

Q: Is this legal? A: SponsorTrack only uses publicly available data — video descriptions, podcast show notes, and newsletter content. We respect robots.txt and rate limits.

Q: What platforms are supported? A: YouTube (via API), Podcasts (RSS feeds), Substack, and Beehiiv newsletters.

Q: How accurate is the detection? A: AI detection (Groq) has ~90% accuracy. Regex fallback catches obvious sponsorships but may miss nuanced mentions.

Q: How does tenure calculation work? A: The Actor stores historical data in Key-Value Store. Tenure is calculated as days since first detected sponsorship.

Known limitations:

• YouTube requires API key (no API = no YouTube data)
• Some podcasts may have private RSS feeds
• Newsletter scraping depends on public page access

Need help or have feedback? Use the Issues tab or contact us through Apify Console. Custom enterprise solutions available on request.