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YouTube sees over 1 billion hours of video watched every day. As someone who uses it to learn how to tie a tie and kill a Sunday afternoon, I get it – and so do your potential customers.
Brands have been sponsoring YouTube videos for years and as a social media agency in Hull, we have been helping with this. The one issue we've always had, though, is the lack of reliable metrics. No real data. No way to prove what's working.
The new YouTube Creator Partnerships hub changes all of that.
So, what is the YouTube Creator Partnerships?
It’s a central place within Google Ads for managing collaborations with YouTube creators. It provides tools for sponsored creator video discovery, reporting on linked videos and creator outreach.
The hub allows businesses to see which creators bring the best results from their sponsored videos and can help you have a more data-driven approach to creator marketing.
Now, before we all start jumping for joy, this hub is still in beta mode. Only selected companies have had access and Bluestorm is one of them.
That means we’ve been able to test the platform and see how it works.
How does it work? Sponsoring videos step-by-step
It’s all well and good having all these reporting features available but how do we fill it with juicy data in the first place? First, we must identify potential creators to work with and there are a few factors we need to consider:
Who is our target audience watching?
How many views does the creator get on average per video?
How much would a sponsorship cost?
Can the creator actually relate to your brand?
There are more factors to consider but these are the most important ones.
Once we've found the right creator, we approach them, agree a deal and provide everything they need, including a bespoke code or offer for their audience.
Before this new feature, that would be that. The creator makes the video, you see how many views it gets and how many people used the code. As a social media agency that prides itself on data-driven work, that was never quite enough.
With the YouTube Creator Partnerships, you can now link the sponsored videos to your Google Ads account, then activate them as real ads. This means we can start to see true analytics such as impressions, clicks, watch time and conversions. As a data nerd, I am dancing right now.
Finding the right creators
As previously discussed, there’s a lot to consider when finding potential creators to work with. It’s a complex process with plenty of external factors to consider, but with the YouTube Creator Partnerships, you can discover new creators to collaborate with, view their profiles with rich insights and contact them directly to start a brand partnership.
What does this mean for the future of sponsorships?
This is the big question because the new Hub finally brings influence and performance into one platform.
A study by Google and Kantar found that 79% of Gen Z trust creator recommendations, which tells you that creator marketing is already becoming a top performance channel, not just a brand awareness play.
Add to that the ability to track watch time, views, likes and conversions, and you have a genuinely powerful advertising channel.
I expect we’ll start seeing more sponsored YouTube videos across the board, with more brands trusting creators as a serious marketing channel. That said, external factors still apply. If a creator gets cancelled, it can be damaging to your brand's image. Before committing to a partnership, do your own research and make sure the creator is right for you.
Want access to the YouTube Creator Partnerships Hub now?
Here at Bluestorm, we have access to YouTube Creator Partnerships. If you want to get ahead of the curve, get in touch and we'll show you what it can do.
