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YouTube Gives Brands Their Own Creator Playbook

Google announced on Monday that it has created a new YouTube Creator Playbook for Brands. YouTube has had a “Creator Playbook” for years. It includes tips, best practices and strategies to...
YouTube Gives Brands Their Own Creator Playbook
Written by Chris Crum
  • Google announced on Monday that it has created a new YouTube Creator Playbook for Brands.

    YouTube has had a “Creator Playbook” for years. It includes tips, best practices and strategies to help marketers build their audiences on the world’s largest video site. Now, brands get their own version.

    The Playbook is 100 pages long. Among its contents are: an introduction; steps to build a content plan; guiding principles; fundamentals to create content people love; tips on developing a programming strategy; optimization tips (metadata, thumbnails, annotations, playlists, channel experience); tips for promoting with paid media; tips for amplifying content through social media; tips for measuring; tracking tools overview; and glossary.

    In a blog post announcing the new Playbook, Vanessa Pappas, Global Head of Audience Development at YouTube does some mythbusting. Common myths, she says, include: Virality is the only measure of YouTube success; I can only be successful on my own; All videos must provide utility; People will watch my video where I want them to; and To keep viewers interested, I need to constantly reinvent my videos.

    “The most successful creators release episodic series to generate high sharing and viral activity, as one video will often break out and then introduce massive audiences to the entire series,” she says. While you should optimize your own channel for discovery, authentic collaborations with YouTube creators can be a hugely impactful way to help new viewers discover your brand.”

    “Don’t get us wrong, how-to and informational videos play a key role in a content strategy, but tapping into the cultural moments and memes that your audience is a part of on YouTube is an integral part of reaching new viewers,” Pappas says. “In reality, a significant percentage of your audience will discover your video from a social feed, search result, or a related video placement. You’ll know you’ve done your job when every episode of your show can be fully appreciated by a first time viewer.”

    This is a sample of the types of advice you can expect to find in the Playbook.

    Google says the original Playbook has helped over 2 million creators crow their audiences.

    Image via Google

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