Top 10 Ways to Find YouTubers

Whether you're a brand, marketer, or founder looking to connect with content creators, YouTube remains a goldmine for partnerships, and one that is still missed by many, you can still be relatively early. But with millions of channels out there, how do you find the right YouTubers to work with?

Here are 10 practical and proven methods to discover YouTube influencers, ranging from free DIY techniques to advanced tools used by professionals.

1. Create a Clean Research Account

YouTube’s recommendation system is personalised. If your search history is full of cricket videos or DIY hacks, that’s what it will prioritise.

To get clearer search results, create a dedicated "research account". This clean profile should be used only for creator discovery, so the algorithm learns to surface relevant channels based on your niche (for example, "finance creators" or "beauty reviews").

This tactic is used by growth marketers and outreach pros to avoid algorithmic noise and discover lesser-known but highly relevant creators.

Hot tip: When you are not researching, make sure to switch accounts. I’ve mucked up on many occasions by now switching and ruining the algorithm.

2. Use YouTube’s Manual Search Smartly

YouTube’s native search is still incredibly powerful if you know how to filter it properly. Start with a search query like "best travel YouTubers" or "fitness influencers UK", then:

Click Filters → Channel to see creators, not just videos

Sort by Upload Date to find active users

Watch two or three videos to evaluate tone, audience fit, and content quality

This works especially well in tight niches.

3. Explore Suggested Creators from Videos

Once you've found one promising creator, let YouTube recommend others. The sidebar and related videos section are rich sources of influencers in similar categories.

For example, watching one video on "how to find YouTubers" might lead you to creators who talk about affiliate marketing, content growth, or specific industries like dropshipping. These lateral discoveries are ideal for building shortlists of potential collaborators.

4. Use Discovery Tools like ChannelCrawler

Manual search is powerful, but time-consuming. Tools like ChannelCrawler allow you to filter over 21 million YouTube channels by:

Niche & Topic (such as "Business & Startups", "Animals)

Active

Country & Language

Engagement Rate, Upload Frequency, and Growth

Email Availability for outreach

Instead of endless browsing, you can go straight to a pre-filtered list of creators who match your criteria. It's like having X-ray vision for YouTube.

Pro tip: Very soon, ChannelCrawler will also include Brand Sponsorship Discovery – a feature that shows you exactly which YouTubers a brand is sponsoring right now. Imagine combining niche, engagement and email filters with live sponsorship data to build highly targeted outreach lists in minutes.

Filter by Engagement, Not Just Subscribers

Subscriber counts can be deceiving. What really matters is engagement and recency.

Look for:

Views-to-subscriber ratio (Are they still getting watched?)

Comment volume (Do people respond?)

Recent uploads (Is the channel still active?)

Using ChannelCrawler’s filters, you can sort by engagement rate and view growth, highlighting creators whose audiences are not just present, but active.

5. Dive into YouTube Comments

The comments section of relevant videos is a surprisingly rich discovery source. Creators often engage with each other’s content, and fans frequently tag or recommend similar YouTubers.

Try this:

Visit popular videos in your niche

Scroll through the top comments and click on user profiles

Look out for commenters with profile pictures, creator-style names, or channel links — many of them are small or growing YouTubers

This is a clever way to find rising creators before they show up in tools or directories.

6. Use Reddit & Discord Communities

Many creators share their work in niche communities like Reddit or Discord before they gain traction on YouTube.

Search for:

Subreddits like r/YouTubers, r/SmallYoutubers, or niche ones like r/PersonalFinance or r/BeautyGuruChatter

Discord servers where creators self-promote or collaborate

These platforms often surface emerging voices who are engaged and eager to collaborate — especially if you offer a meaningful partnership opportunity.

7. Use Your Network

Surprisingly underused, your existing network is often the best lead source.

Ask your customers, newsletter subscribers or LinkedIn followers:

"Do you follow any YouTubers in [niche]?"

"Have you worked with any creators you'd recommend?"

People love to share recommendations. You’ll likely find youtubers already trusted by your target audience.

8. Offer an Affiliate Programme

An affiliate or referral programme can attract creators without upfront payment. Especially in SaaS, education, or consumer apps, creators are happy to review tools they genuinely like.

Take Apollo.io for example. By simply offering affiliate commissions, they were able to generate hundreds of YouTube reviews, some with hundreds of thousands of views, without paying for a single placement.

9. Research Who Promoted Your Competitors (Coming Soon: Brand Sponsorship Discovery)

One of the most effective ways to find relevant creators is to see who is already working with your competitors. These influencers are active in your niche, understand your audience and may be open to exploring new partnerships.

Right now, you can do this manually by searching YouTube for brand mentions, filtering for channels and reviewing past sponsored videos. But soon, ChannelCrawler will make this process effortless with our upcoming Brand Sponsorship Discovery feature.

This new tool will let you:

Search any tracked brand and instantly see which YouTubers they sponsor

View live, constantly updated sponsorship data

Track activity trends over the last 12 months

Preview sponsored videos and campaign content

Sort by reach, subscriber count or recent activity

Instead of piecing together competitor sponsorships through guesswork, you’ll have real-time visibility into their influencer marketing footprint. That means you can time your outreach when the brand’s sponsored creators are most active and open to collaboration.

Until this feature launches, manual searching still works — just remember to check for any exclusivity clauses or ongoing contracts. A creator who promoted your competitor six months ago might be ready to consider alternatives today.

10. Use Google Creatively

Google still works wonders. Try search queries like:

"Best finance YouTubers 2025"

"Top UK creators under 10k subscribers"

"YouTube influencers for skincare brands"

This approach surfaces curated lists, agency directories, blog articles, and Reddit threads that often lead to excellent smaller creators.

Finding YouTubers isn’t about chasing the biggest numbers. It’s about fit, engagement, and being smart with your approach.

These ten methods offer multiple entry points, whether you’re experimenting solo or building out a full creator programme. Try one or two to start, and you’ll soon find yourself with a quality shortlist ready to go.