At this year’s YouTube NewFront, the platform underscored how its long‑standing trust with audiences is being translated into tangible value for brands, unveiling a more unified and powerful system for creator collaborations. The newly evolved YouTube Creator Partnerships (formerly BrandConnect) now sits at the centre of this strategy, fully integrated into YouTube Studio for creators and into Google Ads and Display & Video 360 for advertisers.
The result is a streamlined ecosystem where brands can more easily identify the right creators, activate campaigns across every screen, and measure impact with greater precision. And with an expanded YouTube Creator Partnerships API, select partners can now embed these capabilities directly within their own tools, marking a significant step toward scaling creator‑brand collaborations across the industry.
One Home for Partnerships
YouTube Creator Partnerships utilises Gemini to help advertisers discover the right creators with total confidence. With access to more than 3 million creators within the YouTube Partner Program, brands can find a trusted voice for any campaign. This is a huge advantage since 78% of viewers say YouTube has the most trusted creators for product recommendations. Creators can opt to share more about their channels with brands to fuel more valuable connections during a brand’s search process. On average, creators who shared channel insights were surfaced 60% more in search results.
For advertisers, this fuels more intelligent discovery. In the coming months, Gemini will be able to analyse billions of data points – including audience similarity, organic brand mentions, and subscriber growth – to suggest creators tailored to a brand’s specific identity and campaign goals.
Advertisers can now build a list of best-fit creators and soon will be able to send inquiries to multiple creators at once. This streamlined process includes a dedicated section for managing brand deal links, ensuring that both sides have a clear, organised way to track their collaborations.
Image of YouTube Creator Partnerships AI-Powered Search
To further scale their partnerships, advertisers can use creator partnerships boost (formerly known as Partnership ads). This format allows brands to turn authentic creator content into high-performing assets on Shorts and in-stream, using YouTube’s AI-powered ad solutions, such as Demand Gen, Video Reach, and Video View campaigns, to meet their marketing objectives. Advertisers who promoted creator-led videos on YouTube Shorts saw an average 30% increase in conversion lift.
Measurement that Proves Long-Term Value
Today, 83% of Gen Z viewers prefer watching their favourite creators over studio-produced shows. The influence of a YouTube creator has a lasting impact that other platforms can’t match, because fans know creators are experts, and their content remains relevant long after the upload date. In fact, 40% of a video’s views on YouTube happen more than a month after it goes live. By bringing together measurement across both organic and paid content, creators and advertisers can see a more complete view of how a partnership performs over time.
Brand Lift, Search Lift, and Conversion Lift studies provide the validated results brands need to prove success, and creators need to secure more partnerships. On average, YouTube drives 86% higher incremental long-term ROAS than paid social.