The firm announced a number of new options for artists to increase their income at its Made on YouTube event on Tuesday. These include sponsor deals and the YouTube Shopping program, which allows producers to get paid for tagging and displaying products in their work. The biggest change is that YouTube will let creators replace brand sponsorships in long-form films.
Additionally, the firm is launching a new brand link tool for Shorts, auto tagging for qualifying items mentioned in videos, and auto timestamps for product tags.
Creators will be able to dynamically insert brand segments into interchangeable slots in lengthier videos thanks to the new, flexible approach to brand sponsorships. This implies that artists can take the sponsorship out of the video and sell the slot to another company once an agreement with a brand is finalized.
Early in the upcoming year, YouTube will start testing this feature with a select set of producers.
Additionally, the business will use an AI-powered system to determine the best time to mention a product and automatically show the product tag at that precise moment. According to YouTube, this will pique viewers’ curiosity at its peak. Later this year, the platform will also start testing its capability to automatically recognize and tag any qualified product that is referenced in a creator’s video.
In the near future, Shorts producers will have the ability to include a link to a brand’s website that is just for brand deals. This will make it simpler for viewers to find and purchase products while also enabling creators to generate results for brand partners. According to YouTube, creators will have the ability to demonstrate to advertisers how their Shorts generate traffic in a manner that surpasses conventional metrics like views and likes.
Additionally, YouTube said that its creator partnerships hub—a Google Ads tab that facilitates brand-creator connections—will soon have the capability to proactively recommend creators who would be a good fit for companies.
Additionally, YouTube is expanding its YouTube Shopping program to more creators and markets, including Brazil, and adding merchants like Nike, Etsy, Best Buy, SharkNinja, Michaels, and Michael Kors in the U.S., and Olive Young and ZigZag in Korea.
YouTube shared that gross merchandise volume (GMV) has grown 5x year-over-year and more than 500,000 creators enrolled in the program globally as of July 2025. The company also said that it paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies in the last four years.
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