YouTube is now starting to clamp down on creators who are working directly with companies to sponsor their videos with overlay ads and YouTube now wants to get a cut of your sponsorship money.
YouTube has not updated it’s ad policy to block “graphical title cards” from sponsors to promote their product or service.
A revised FAQ document states that video overlays of sponger logos and product branding are no longer allowed – Until the Sponsor itself pays Google to advertise their product or service.
The sponsor wants to have a title card before the video with their brand name and product information. Is this ok?
We allow text-only title cards where there is Paid Product Placement for the purpose of paid product disclosure only. Graphical title cards, including the use of sponsor logos and product branding, are prohibited unless there is a full Google media buyout on the Partner content by the sponsor. You can contact your Partner Manager for more information and assistance.
That is what the updated FAQ document states. This been you are not allowed to put a brands logo that is not yours in your video, as simple as you can’t have a coke can clearly visible in the video.
You can have a logo if you are covering the news!
A YouTube representative is saying that this is a clarified version of it’s exiting policy. This is intended to keep viewers from being stacked with ads.
This prevent YouTube stars and Multi-channel networks from creating sponsorship deals with brands without Google/YouTube getting a cut of it. It seems like YouTube has made this move because it just wasn’t making enough money from the 40% AdSense cut.
However you CAN put a brand’s logo on screen if you are covering the news – For Example: You can have Apple’s logo on screen if you are taking about the new iPhone.
YouTube now does have a new package which advertisers can buy to have a 6 second pre-roll that is not integrated into the video. It’s called “product card”!
Questions:
- How does YouTube know that you are doing a news story from you doing a sponsorship. Right now YouTube’s Content ID system is really bad already so, that question is how is the system going to differentiate a sponsor spot from a news story?
- How much cut of the money will YouTube/Google will take from my “product placement”?
- How I sign up so YouTube/Google gets a cut of my sponsor-spots? Can I do it or the advertiser has to do it?
- What about the video on YouTube that already have a “product placement”? Will they be taken down?
- What If I accidentally have a “product placement”. Like in my vlog where I show a food that I really like or show the logo of a restaurant that I go to?
- Will I have to blur out every single logo out of my vlog that’s not mine?
All of these question have not yet been answered by YouTube.
If YouTube is keeping this policy and keeps doing stuff like this then it might not be far when we all move to Facebook or any other video streaming platform for our videos. Remember, These “product placements” are a big source of money for some YouTubers other then AdSense.
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