YouTube is experimenting with locally sourced product alternatives for its affiliate tagging option, while it’s also looking to provide creators with more options to ensure compliance with local disclosure laws when promoting products in their clips.
First, YouTube announced that it’s testing alternative retailer options for tagged affiliate products, which should ensure that locally accessible listings are displayed.
As explained by YouTube: “We’re running a small affiliate shopping experiment to show the exact same creator-tagged affiliate product, but sourced from a different eligible local retailer. This test helps us measure if we can improve shopping performance by auto-optimizing which local merchants to serve for a product.”
YouTube said the test will not impact product tags on videos where creators have enabled the Paid Product Placement setting, and the test will only relate to affiliate product tags via its Shopping Affiliate program.
YouTube’s Shopping Affiliate system lets eligible creators tag products in their video clips and earn commissions from any resulting sales. The platform recently announced a significant expansion of the program, with Amazon products now included in the affiliate listings.
This experiment could result in more sales due to shorter delivery times, which could then drive more commission opportunities. Presumably, YouTube is testing to see whether switching to local providers is more beneficial in driving action. If it is, this could become a viable strategy for affiliate listings.
In terms of local compliance, YouTube also announced changes to its paid partnership disclosures to ensure that creators are aligning with local regulations.
The platform is updating its branded content labels to provide more clarity around what these labels mean.
As per YouTube: “As this rolls out, viewers will see a new updated branded content disclosure label that gives them the context they need at a glance.”
YouTube is also giving creators more control over who can see their branded content with new settings to enable age and location restrictions.
YouTube said this will help creators manage specific legal requirements for sponsored content across different countries. This will also facilitate more brand deals with creators because creators won’t have to reject proposals “because of strict demographic or regional constraints,” YouTube said.
The app is also rolling out automated detection to enforce its disclosure policies.
“If our systems detect that your newly uploaded video includes branded content that you did not disclose, we may automatically apply the disclosure label on your behalf to ensure policy compliance and viewer transparency,” YouTube said.
Finally, YouTube announced an updated paid product placement policy, with new terminology created to align with industry standards around branded content.
These are important updates for creators and brands looking to utilize YouTube’s product placement and affiliate marketing options.
