YouTube has just celebrated its Made On YouTube event, during which it introduced a substantial range of updates and initiatives aimed at advancing the future of the platform and its creators. Among these, we would like to highlight a series of innovations designed to strengthen collaborations between YouTubers and brands.
When considering a sponsorship in a long-form YouTube video, what often comes to mind is a segment that promotes a brand and is part of the video itself—either because it was recorded alongside the main content or added during the editing process. In either case, this sponsorship becomes a permanent segment.
However, YouTube now intends to alter this aspect in order to benefit creators when leveraging these commercial slots. In the near future, YouTubers will be able to dynamically insert branded segments into “interchangeable slots” within their long-form videos.
This means that, once a sponsorship agreement has concluded, YouTubers will have the option to remove that particular segment and resell the slot to another brand or, potentially, sell the same slot to different brands in various markets. On the other hand, this new development may lead brands and creators to review the terms of their agreements or consider new conditions moving forward.
“Creators may select the ideal moment to insert a branded segment and will receive detailed performance information directly within YouTube Studio, which they can also share with the brand,” explains YouTube.
This update is set to begin preliminary testing with a small group of selected YouTubers at the beginning of 2026.
Soon, YouTube creators will be able to include links to a brand’s website within the Shorts that they publish. This feature will make it easier for YouTubers to share offers and highlight their brand collaborations, while also providing users with new opportunities to discover and purchase products of interest.
Creators will have access to performance metrics for tracking direct traffic and conversions generated by their Shorts, enabling them to provide brands with more comprehensive data regarding how their partnerships are positively impacting results.
During the spring, YouTube introduced its Creator Partnerships Hub, a centralized platform within Google Ads whose purpose is to help brands and advertisers identify and connect with creators in order to leverage their potential in advertising campaigns.
The platform has now revealed that its next step is the integration of AI, allowing it to proactively suggest YouTuber profiles that are well suited to a particular brand or advertiser.
Additional YouTube initiatives to foster such connections include bringing together brands and YouTubers during key industry events on a global scale and providing new resources to the platform’s commercial teams to support the formalization of additional agreements.
As of July 2025, YouTube Shopping had registered over 500,000 creators. The platform highlights the growing success of this program, which allows YouTubers to promote products from their own online stores or from other brands.
To further advance YouTube Shopping, an AI-driven system has been developed that identifies the most suitable moment to capture the audience’s attention and displays product tags automatically at that precise time. This not only optimizes audience impact at the ideal moment but also reduces the manual burden of tagging products individually.
YouTube has announced that it will soon begin testing the capability to automatically identify and tag all eligible products mentioned in Shopping creators’ videos by the end of the year.
Furthermore, the platform has started to expand access to YouTube Shopping to more YouTubers and markets, such as Brazil. It has also integrated major brands in the United States (Nike, Etsy, Best Buy, Shark Ninja, Michaels, and Michael Kors) as well as in Korea (Olive Young and ZigZag).
Photo: YouTube
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