YouTube wants to make it easier for creators to work with brands

Ahead of YouTube’s annual Brandcast upfronts event later this spring, the video giant is touting new ways for creators to connect more directly with brands.

Through a new feature called “creator-initiated video linking,” creators in YouTube’s partner program can now send requests to brands to partner on sponsored content videos they’ve made in an effort to streamline partnerships ads. Brands working with multiple creators can also use a video-linking API to streamline partnerships, a feature that was released widely late last year but is just now being publicized, according to Erica Walsh, a YouTube spokesperson.

If a brand accepts a linking request, YouTube will add a “Paid Promotion” sticker to the content and the brand will be able to access the video’s “organic view metrics,” show ads to those who view and interact with the creator’s channel, and gain insight into how viewers interact with the creator’s channel after viewing an ad from the brand.

The new tool is part of YouTube’s larger strategy to capitalize on the creator economy, Melissa Hsieh Nikolic, director of product management for YouTube Ads, told Marketing Brew.

“Creators are the new Hollywood,” she said, echoing a comment from YouTube CEO Neal Mohan at last year’s Brandcast.

Do it for the views: YouTube tested the creator-initiated video linking feature with a smaller batch of creators through 2024, according to Walsh. It builds on YouTube’s BrandConnect platform, which is designed to pair brands and creators and which first rolled out in 2020.

A whopping 96% of US Gen Zers surveyed watch both short-form and long-form videos on YouTube, according to a joint study from YouTube and eMarketer released last week. The average number of logged-in users who watch YouTube Shorts daily has jumped over 25% year over year in the US, according to internal data cited in the report.