List Download: 34 Brands with Direct Buys on YouTube (iOS & Desktop)

YouTube is a melting pot of content consumers and creators, making it one of the go-to advertising destinations for savvy brands. The social platform skews toward younger audiences, users that actively engage with the platform, and is one of the leading global social media sites, allowing for a rich variety of content and interactions. Brands with direct buys work directly with YouTube to purchase ad inventory and placements on the platform. It involves a direct relationship between the advertiser and YouTube, without the involvement of intermediaries like ad agencies or third-party ad networks.

When advertisers opt for direct buys, they typically negotiate deals and contracts directly with YouTube’s sales team. This allows them to have more control and customization over their ad campaigns, targeting options, and ad formats. They can specify the placements, ad formats (such as skippable ads, non-skippable ads, or sponsored cards), and targeting parameters to reach their audience.

Winmo’s new social spending feature shows users which brands advertise on YouTube, helping advertising agencies assess industry trends, evaluate the effectiveness of different ad formats, and identify potential partnership opportunities. Additionally, knowledge of whether a brand advertises on YouTube is crucial for media buying agencies as they plan and allocate budgets across platforms to reach desired audiences.

Advertising and media agencies, keep reading for a preview of three brands with direct buys on YouTube. And click here to download the full list of 34 advertisers.

1)  Bombas, LLC

Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: The company has allocated roughly $6m toward digital ads YTD, an 18% increase from the roughly $5.1m allocated by this point last year.
• YTD data: Since the beginning of 2023, Bombas has earned ~764m digital impressions, 55% via Facebook ads, 35% via Instagram ads, and 10% via YouTube ads.
• Last year: In 2022, the company’s estimated full-year spend reached $14.1m, up 48% from that of $9.5m in 2021.

Agency insights:

• Opportunity: Reach out soon to see if any additional roster shifts follow last year’s appointment of video (strategic planning, buying, customer segmentation, and audience analytics) AOR Horizon Next.
• Current agency roster: ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Quan Media Group: Creative agency partner (at least for this campaign); Horizon Next: Video AOR (June 2022); TWO NIL: Media AOR

2)  HelloFresh

Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: The company has spent approximately $19.8m on digital ads YTD, 23% more than the approximately $16.1m spent by this point last year.
• YTD data: Since the beginning of 2023, HelloFresh has earned ~2.6b digital impressions via Facebook (49%), Instagram (26%), YouTube (23%), and desktop display (2%) ads.
• Last year: The company’s estimated full-year 2022 spend, $39.8m, only reached about half of that of $79.1m in 2021.

Agency insights:

• Opportunity: If you haven’t yet done so, get in touch sooner rather than later to get on the radar of Marcus von Franck, HelloFresh’s US marketing SVP and CMO since March 2023.
• Current agency roster: PlusMedia​​​​​​​: Media agency partner

3)  NerdWallet

Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• 2021-2022 spend: In 2022, the company spent approximately $40.9m on digital ads, down 31% from the approximately $59.3m spent in 2021.
• 2022 data: NerdWallet earned around 3.5b digital impressions last year via desktop video (75%), desktop display (10%), Facebook (8%), Instagram (4%), and mobile display (3%) ads.
• Last year, the company placed most of its desktop video ads site direct onto destinations such as YouTube (33%), espn.com, weather.com, brainly.com, and fandom.com.

Agency insights:

• Opportunity: Get in touch soon to be top-of-mind when NerdWallet finds a new CMO to succeed Kelly Gillease, who departed in October 2022.
• Current agency roster: Deutsch LA: Creative AOR (2022); Mediahub: Media AOR  

If you liked this blog post, check out:

1. Do your client teams measure up with other agencies?
2. Tech Layoffs Will Prompt CMOs to Seek New Agency Partners
3. B2B Email Subject Lines That Get Opened in 2023