YouTube is known to be on of the toughest platforms when it comes to fudging numbers (after LinkedIn). You cannot just go to random websites and get followers that easily (extremely easy on Instagram). YouTube flags ingenuine viewers within a day. But are influencers still finding ways to still skip the hard work of growing organically and inflate numbers? And how can brands actually identify such posers?
What are Brands looking for?
It is hard for brands especially new ones to choose the influencers they want to use. Often, they outsource this work to an agency/PR firm that more often than not have no clue how to vet them. In fact majority of them would give you influencers that have huge following on TikTok or Instagram. The thing is, on
those platforms, you can buy 100k fake followers for just $100-200 and even likes, comments, and views for meager amounts.
On YouTube however, you gotta go with a more white collar way!
Demographic
Brands typically are looking for very particular demographic. Unless an influencer is is ready to show you his live dashboard and not screenshots (you’d be surprised how much they lie and edit!), there’s no real way to get this. Majority brands take the influencer’s word.
Content
In an era of AI the typical content pipeline is 1 prompt “Take this viral video, and rewrite it in a fun/serious/different manner. Ensure it passes plagiarism checks”.
Brands invest into YouTube above the Insta or Tiktok since they people actually interested in their target niche. They cannot alas! really check if the content is genuinely something unique that the audience is interested in. Moreover, there are a lot of channel that try to sell themselves as long form content, where all they had was 1 viral short copied from someone (YouTube shows all views and doesn’t show Long form and short form separately).
The Indian Audience Conundrum
Why do you see a lot of foreign influencers post about India? Because they know that 18% of the world’s population lives there and it’ll inflate their numbers. In fact, in Dubai, anyone who wants views on YouTube, does content targeted to India. Indian movies, cricket, etc. Brands hire them thinking they must have decent audience from UAE since they are based out of here, but in actuality, 98% of their views come from India/Pakistan.
YouTube Promotion
I mentioned the white collar way; this is it! YT Promotion was mainly aimed for brands to promote their products. Yes, they pitch it to content creators to get the ball rolling, but a quick search will tell you that YouTube promotion kills the channel more than it helps it. You promote any random video, put it to gain subs, aim at India, and you’d get easy followers.
In fact you get 100k views with just $350 of promotion and gain about 5,000 subscribers!
So, how can Brands check this?
Well, I have researched via various channels and have arrived at numbers to check genuinity. Even if you don’t have access to their dashboard, you can check these.
I believe, if you’re going for a YouTube content creator, you want to focus on long form. Ignore the total views on the platform (these get inflated by shorts getting viral). Go to their channel and go to their long form content and then check the following:
Likes:
ANY INFLUENCER NOT SHOWING THE NUMBER OF LIKES IS FAKE! Next check the total number of likes and the total views. If the ratio is less than 0.7%, the video is artificially promoted. i.e. A video with 100,000 views should have at least 700 likes.
Comments:
Now people comment far lesser than like something. But here too, a typical viral video should have a decent number of comments. Typically this hovers around 0.1%. I am including a channel that replies to people commenting, if they don’t make it 0.05%. That means a video that has 100,000 views, should have at least 50 unique comments.
Subscribers:
Short forms get lesser subs per view than long form. But anyway, we aren’t going for short form content creators. The golden ratio for this case is again around 0.6-1.2%. i.e. If a channel has 100k views in total, it should have 600-1,200 subscribers. Now, what you need to realise is that here the ratio is a range. Anything above this is also a red flag. So if you come across someone with 100,000 views with 5k subs, chances are that the subs actually were bought via boosting. Boosted subs don’t often look at the content at least not nearly as much as organic subs.
Here’s a screen-shot of my channel over the last 365 days. I started this around September 2024, so data is for long form content and roughly 10 months. It would give you an idea of how the above numbers actually hold true for all videos.
What to check if you get access to their Dashboard?
If you have doubts, ask the creator to share the dashboard live. Now, when you go through the analytics, look for the traffic source, watch time, and average view duration. Boosted videos come as Youtube Advertising. You’d be able to gauge if they are an organic channel directly from it.
Apart from this, do check the demographic. My content is typically related to travel and Dubai. Since I am an Indian, and my most watched video is India Vs Dubai, I do have a major chunk coming from there. This is how it looks like. For someone looking for cheap views (outside India), the percentage of countries like, India, Pakistan, Brazil, and Bangladesh would make 95% of the views.
YouTube is a tough nut to crack — and that’s exactly why brands trust it more than other platforms. But that trust is now being exploited by influencers using “cleaner” ways to fake growth. It’s no longer about shady follower-buying websites; it’s about leveraging platform loopholes, playing with geographies, and inflating vanity metrics through paid promotions.
The onus, unfortunately, is on brands to be smarter. Don’t just get dazzled by subscriber counts or viral Shorts. Go deeper. Ask for the real metrics. Vet the engagement ratios. Look beyond the noise.
Because in a world where everyone’s chasing numbers, real influence still lies in authenticity — and only the diligent will find it.