YouTube BrandConnect: Make Friends & Influence People
- Don Batsford
- Jul 21
- 2 min read
YouTube BrandConnect, a platform for collabs between brands and YouTube creators for sponsored content. It operates as an in-house solution for influencer marketing, enabling brands to partner with creators to produce and amplify content that resonates with specific audiences. The platform provides tools for influencer discovery, campaign management, and performance analytics.
Updates & Features
A new, centralized hub within Google Ads now serves as a center for managing creator .partnerships Find relevant creators and measure campaign performance in a single location.
2SEM Take: The "open call" feature, introduced at Cannes Lions 2025, enables brands to issue a single creative brief to multiple creators simultaneously, effectively crowdsourcing content. This allows for a wider range of creative submissions and gives smaller creators more opportunities to collaborate with brands.
Implications for Marketers
The move towards a more self-service model is a departure from the traditionally high-touch, manual process of sourcing and managing creator talent. This shift, reminiscent of the evolution of search and social advertising platforms, puts more direct control in the hands of marketers.
The new features offer substantial benefits for campaign efficiency and scale. The "open call" feature, for instance, dramatically reduces the time and effort required to source creative content, while the automated video linking API streamlines the ad activation process. The ability to sponsor existing, brand-relevant content provides a new, efficient avenue for authentic brand messaging. For marketers, this means the ability to execute more influencer campaigns with greater speed and less friction.
Operational Example: Offers and Deals
The deal flow process within BrandConnect follows a structured, multi-stage path:
Offer Initiation: A brand can access BrandConnect through their Google Ads account.Fro m there, they can initiate an offer to a creator or, with the new "open call" feature, to a wider pool of creators. The offer will detail the campaign, product or service, deliverables, and proposed price.
Negotiation and Agreement: Creators receive the offer in their YouTube Studio. They can then express interest or decline. If interested, they can share their contact details with the brand to negotiate the specifics of the deal, including price and payment terms. A formal agreement is then signed directly between the brand and the creator.
Content Submission and Review: Once an agreement is in place, the creator produces the campaign video and uploads it as an "Unlisted" video. The brand can then review the content and provide feedback. The video also undergoes a review against Google's Ads policies and Community Guidelines.
Campaign Launch and Performance Analysis: Upon final approval, the creator can publish the video. The video's performance can then be tracked by both the creator and the brand. The brand can view organic performance metrics within Google Ads and use the video in their advertising campaigns. This provides a comprehensive view of the campaign's impact, from initial views and engagement to downstream conversions.
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