YouTube wants creators to send their videos to brands

Over on TikTok, more and more creators are choosing to make content about brands that sell products in the platform’s digital Shop, hoping for a slice of affiliate marketing earnings. YouTube doesn’t have an ecommerce hub on that scale, but it’s still promoting DIY connections between creators and brands with a new update to YouTube Studio.

Before now, if a creator in the YouTube Partner Program uploaded an organic, unsponsored video about a brand’s products (for example, a mukbanger eats a restaurant’s entire menu, a beauty creator tries out a new foundation, or an artist tries out a new software), the brand could reach out through YouTube Studio and ask to link the video to its own system in Google Ads. If the creator agreed to link it, the brand would be able to see the video’s performance in Google Ads, and would have license to use the content in future …