Note: Are you a content creator or influencer? Access the Complete Youtube BrandConnect Guide for influencers here.
YouTube BrandConnect offers marketers, advertisers, and e-commerce brand owners a powerful platform to collaborate with YouTube creators and reach engaged audiences through authentic branded content. This comprehensive guide will explore how YouTube BrandConnect can enhance your marketing strategy, helping you leverage influencer partnerships to drive brand awareness, engagement, and conversions in an increasingly competitive online marketplace.
YouTube BrandConnect is an influencer marketing platform that bridges the gap between brands and YouTube creators to produce authentic, engaging branded content. Formerly known as FameBit, BrandConnect enables marketers, advertisers, and e-commerce brand owners to collaborate directly with YouTube influencers who align with their target audience and marketing goals.
Brands can use YouTube BrandConnect to discover creators whose content and audience demographics match their marketing objectives. The platform provides filters and search tools to identify potential partners based on factors like niche, subscriber count, engagement rates, and audience interests.
Once suitable creators are identified, brands can initiate collaborations by sending proposals outlining campaign goals, deliverables, timelines, and compensation. Creators can accept, negotiate, or decline proposals, allowing for transparent communication and agreement on terms.
Approved creators develop content that integrates the brand's products or messages in a way that resonates with their audience. This could take the form of product reviews, tutorials, unboxings, vlogs, or creative storytelling that authentically features the brand.
Before publication, content is often reviewed to ensure it meets the brand's guidelines and complies with advertising standards and platform policies, including disclosures for sponsored content.
The content is published on the creator's YouTube channel, leveraging their established audience base. Brands may also amplify the content through paid advertising or cross-promotion on other channels to maximize reach.
YouTube BrandConnect provides analytics tools that track the performance of the campaign, offering insights into views, engagement metrics, audience retention, and conversion data. This allows brands to assess the effectiveness of the collaboration and gather learnings for future campaigns.
Additionally Google also provides a tool called Brand Lift. Google will help generate survey questions for your target audience based on your advertised object. Once your ads run, surveys will appear on YouTube to both viewers who saw your ads and those who didn’t. The response differences measure key metrics like ad recall, awareness, and consideration.
Below are some of the most important benefits of Youtube BrandConnect.
Below is an overview of how these reports look like.
YouTube BrandConnect and traditional influencer marketing offer distinct approaches for brands to collaborate with influencers, each with unique benefits.
YouTube BrandConnect is an in-house platform that connects brands directly with YouTube creators, offering streamlined processes for sponsored content, real-time analytics, and integrated tools like Google Ads to boost visibility. Over 20% of marketers said YouTube yields the highest ROI when working with influencers.
On the other hand, traditional influencer marketing involves brands reaching out to influencers across various platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, often through agencies or influencer marketing platforms. While this offers flexibility in platform choice and campaign customization, it requires more manual coordination and often lacks the deep integration and data access provided by YouTube BrandConnect.
However, traditional influencer marketing allows for broader creative freedom and the ability to engage influencers with varying audience sizes and niches beyond YouTube’s ecosystem. Brands must weigh their goals, budget, and preferred platform to decide between the efficiency of YouTube BrandConnect and the flexibility of traditional influencer marketing.
Below are some of the most important metrics to analyze when working with Youtube influencers.
To read in detail how to best implement a Youtube influencer strategy access our complete Youtube influencer marketing guide here.
At the moment the Youtube brand connect program is still in Beta and work on an invite only basis. Only a select few brands currently have access to this which are mainly larger brands with significant advertising budgets.
Below is a step by step guide on how to get started with YouTube BrandConnect as an advertiser.
After a campaign is created, access it anytime by clicking the campaign on the BrandConnect homepage.
Within the campaign, you’ll find four tabs:
In the Matched creators tab, take actions for any creator:
Once you click Start Offer, set up the campaign brief
After sending the offer, the creator can respond with Interested or Not Interested.
If they’re interested, you’ll receive their email to finalize the offer offline.
Once the creator uploads a video:
After approval, the “Approved to launch” status will appear in the “Action” column, and the “Tracker” column will update once the video is live.
Measuring the ROI of YouTube BrandConnect campaigns involves tracking several key metrics that gauge both direct financial returns and overall campaign effectiveness. Here's how you can measure it:
One of the most direct ways to calculate ROI is by comparing the revenue earned from the campaign against the amount spent. Brands can track sales by using unique discount codes or affiliate links provided to creators, making it easy to attribute conversions directly to the campaign.
YouTube BrandConnect provides access to detailed engagement metrics like video views, likes, comments, and shares. These help brands assess how well the content resonated with the audience, measuring awareness and brand sentiment.
Monitoring the CTR from embedded links within the sponsored videos helps determine how many viewers were motivated to take action. Follow this with conversion tracking, whether it’s purchases, sign-ups, or downloads, to measure the campaign's effectiveness in driving tangible actions.
The platform offers insights into audience demographics such as age, location, and interests. This helps brands evaluate whether the campaign reached the intended target audience and expanded brand awareness to new segments.
Surveys or tools like Google’s Brand Lift can measure changes in brand awareness, ad recall, and purchase intent among viewers. Analyzing comments and social media mentions also helps gauge shifts in brand perception.
Below are the most important drawbacks of Youtube BrandConnect.
Brands may find the selection of creators limited based on specific targeting criteria. This can restrict options, especially for niche markets or highly specific brand requirements. As they started with a requirement of 25K subscribers there are very few micro creators on the platform. Although Youtube has stated that this requirement has been loosened and some creators with around 10K subscribers have reported to be invited to Youtube brand connect.
As Youtube Brand Connect is primarily for large brands with big advertising budgets the cost is quite high compared to other ways of managing a campaign.
As the platform is still in beta the functionalities are quite limited compared to other influencer management platforms. It is also unclear if this project has priority for Youtube as a company as they company has reported to downsize the team working on this project in one of their layoffs.
The cost of YouTube BrandConnect campaigns for brands varies significantly depending on several factors, such as the creators' follower count, engagement rates, and the scope of the campaign. YouTube BrandConnect operates on a pricing model where brands pay based on the size and influence of the YouTube creator they choose to collaborate with, as well as the specific campaign goals (e.g., reach, views, conversions).
In general, the costs can range from a few thousand dollars for smaller creators with niche audiences to hundreds of thousands for collaborations with top-tier YouTube influencers. Since BrandConnect is part of YouTube's in-house ad ecosystem, there may also be fees associated with boosting the content through YouTube ads, depending on the brand's objectives for additional reach or visibility.
Additionally, YouTube takes a percentage of the revenue from the total transaction, which is typically around 20-30%. This fee covers YouTube's role in facilitating the connection between the brand and creator, as well as providing the analytics and campaign tools that brands use to manage and track performance.
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Below are some of the best alternatives to YouTube BrandConnect.
Influencer Hero is an all-in-one influencer marketing software platform, supporting major social media channels like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
It offers a comprehensive feature set, including:
Starting at $249/month, it is one of the most affordable platforms with a monthly commitment. While praised for its ease of use, automation, and extensive coverage, some users may find customization limited. Influencer Hero also offers agency services, making it a versatile option for brands looking to streamline their influencer marketing strategies and maximize campaign effectiveness.
Using Influencer Hero’s influencer search capabilities you can find any influencer including micro and nano influencers. At the same time it is not limited for YouTube but also for all the other major social media platforms.
Similar to Influencer Hero, Grin is an influencer marketing software platform that focuses on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, offering key features like campaign CRM, and detailed analytics.
It also integrates with ecommerce platforms for product seeding and offers affiliate tracking and payment tools. While Grin provides strong campaign management features and agency services, it comes with a high price of $2,500/month and requires an annual commitment.
The main difference is also that Grin is a tool used by brands directly and can be used on multiple social media platforms including Instagram and TikTok. Brands can choose if they want to work with affiliate deals or paid deals.
Aspire is a comprehensive influencer marketing platform supporting Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest, ideal for brands targeting visual and interactive media.
Key features include:
Priced at around $2,000/month with an annual commitment, it provides robust campaign automation but can be overwhelming for beginners. Overall, Aspire is a powerful tool for brands looking to automate and streamline their influencer marketing efforts.
Similar to YouTube BrandConnect, Aspire also offers a marketplace where brands can publish campaigns and influencers can sign up. This self service system makes it attractive for brands who don’t want to spend time on active campaign management. Besides the Aspire marketplace, Aspire also offers additional tools to manage campaigns on other platforms besides Youtube.
YouTube BrandConnect provides a powerful platform for brands to collaborate with YouTube creators and reach targeted audiences through authentic content. While it offers streamlined campaign management, audience insights, and support for larger brands, it also has drawbacks like a limited creator pool, high costs, and restricted functionalities. As the platform is still in beta, alternatives like Influencer Hero, Grin, and Aspire offer broader social media coverage and more affordable pricing. Brands should consider these options to find the best fit for their influencer marketing strategies.
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