The influence of 'influencer marketing' on YouTube influencers

In recent years, the YouTube platform evolved into a primary marketing instrument for brands promotion. Marketers apply YouTube influencers to promote their brands, so the influencers share sponsored content with their followers. Although most of the brands prefer to work with YouTube influencers, the factors that affect sponsored content value has not been sufficiently known. Also, the influence of sponsored content on followers' attitudes towards YouTube influencers has not been clearly understood. This paper, therefore, aims to fulfil this gap in the literature and determines three factors which may affect the sponsored content value as well as attitudes towards YouTube influencers. For this purpose, a conceptual model was developed based on the advertising value model (Ducoffe, 1996). The revised model was tested using structural equation modelling by collecting data from 411 university students who frequently use YouTube. The findings reveal that entertainment and informativeness are the key factors of sponsored content value that affects attitudes towards YouTube influencers. Theoretical and managerial implications are debated for future research.