Something changed on YouTube at the end of 2025, and if you're buying creator sponsorships, it changes your shortlist. Across a spread of

If you're vetting creators for a sponsorship, “engagement rate” looks like the one clean number that cuts through inflated subscriber counts and view

CPM is the most quoted and most misunderstood number in creator advertising. It looks like a single figure. In practice, it's a moving

Purchase creator sponsorships; your currency is the view count. It's what loads the reporting deck, the rate card, and what everyone debates about

Subscriber counts are the number every media kit leads with and the one you should trust least. It's cumulative, it only goes up,