YouTube Unboxes New Features to Boost Creators’ Revenue Potential — Retail Bum | by Retail Bum | Oct, 2023

YouTube is dialing up the shopping convenience for viewers while giving its creator community the keys to driving checkout conversion.

The platform is introducing new, creator-specific features that enable them to incorporate timestamps for highlighted products in their videos and efficiently label their affiliate products throughout their complete video library.

These enhancements are expected to streamline the product marketing process for YouTube videos, potentially boosting sales and generating higher earnings for content creators. These features will also help put products highlighted by content creators in their videos within reach of viewers.

Using the timestamps feature, creators gain the ability to strategically position the shopping button at relevant moments in their videos, such as when showcasing a beloved gadget or beauty product. This feature underwent testing in the U.S. last month, revealing that viewers encountering these timestamps were twice as likely to click on tagged products. It is worth noting that this functionality is exclusive to long-form content and does not extend to Shorts. The video must be at least one minute in duration, with a maximum of 30 seconds between timestamps.

The company is also looking to introduce additional tools for bulk-tagging affiliate products in a creator’s video library based on the products featured in the video descriptions.

To utilize this feature, creators can access the Shopping tab within YouTube Studio. Here, they will find a list of their videos that include products in the description. Creators can select the videos they wish to tag, make any necessary adjustments, and then click “Save” to finalize the process. The feature will enable creators to effortlessly cash in on older videos in their collection that continue to receive significant views with minimal effort, as highlighted by the company.

More to come

While currently unavailable, YouTube is also providing a sneak peek of upcoming insights and analytics for affiliate products. This feature will empower creators to access data such as sales metrics, order information, offer clicks, and impressions directly from the “Analytics” tab within the “Revenue” section, specifically under the “Affiliate program.”

Over the past several months, YouTube has consistently introduced a range of tools to facilitate shopping directly from its video content.

Last year, the platform teamed up with Shopify, giving merchants the opportunity to display their products within videos. In addition, YouTube has sought to pump up its livestream shopping prowess by infusing shopping features into YouTube Shorts.

Originally published at https://retailbum.com on October 19, 2023.