- Since March 2026, BrandConnect has been called YouTube Creator Partnerships. Partnership Ads are called creator partnerships boost, in Google Ads “Boost durch Creator-Partnerschaften” in German accounts.
- This runs a creator video as an ad in your Google Ads account, under the creator’s name and profile picture, for example in Demand Gen campaigns.
- According to YouTube, advertisers using promoted creator videos in Shorts increased conversion lift by 30% on average.
- According to YouTube, 40% of a video’s views occur more than one month after publication (analysis by Agentio, USA).
- We use creator videos with audiences from your customer data and evaluate the campaign by new customers.
Without ad budget, a creator video reaches the viewers of their channel. With the creator partnerships boost, the same video runs as an ad in your Google Ads account, to audiences you define.
In this article, we show what YouTube changed in 2026, how a creator video becomes an ad and how we use it in Demand Gen. Whether creator marketing fits your company in principle is covered in our article Creator marketing on YouTube.
YouTube renamed its creator partnership tools in 2026
On March 23, 2026, YouTube reorganized its tools for collaboration between brands and creators:
| Before | Since March 2026 | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| BrandConnect | YouTube Creator Partnerships | Find creators, initiate and track collaborations; for advertisers in Google Ads and Display & Video 360, for creators in YouTube Studio |
| Partnership Ads | creator partnerships boost, in German Google Ads accounts “Boost durch Creator-Partnerschaften” | Creator videos as ads in Shorts and before other videos |
According to YouTube, more than 3 million creators from the YouTube Partner Program are available in Creator Partnerships. In the coming months, Gemini is set to suggest creators, also based on whether a creator already mentions a brand on their own.
A creator video becomes an ad in four steps
- Link: The creator links their video to your Google Ads account in YouTube Studio. Alternatively, you send the request from Google Ads and the creator confirms it. Linked videos are in the asset library under “Received.”
- Clarify rights: According to Google, you are responsible for obtaining the rights to use the video as an ad. This may require a separate agreement with the creator.
- Choose a campaign: According to Google, creator videos run in Demand Gen, Video Reach, Video View, App and Performance Max campaigns. They appear with the creator’s name and profile picture in Demand Gen, Video Reach, Video View and App campaigns for iOS, not in Performance Max.
- Add audiences: According to Google, data segments for targeting your campaigns can be built from the viewers of linked creator videos.
What belongs in the agreement with the creator is described in our article Creator marketing on YouTube.
We use creator videos in Demand Gen
Demand Gen shows ads on YouTube and in Google feeds, including Shorts. There, creator videos run alongside your own videos. You choose the creators, and we advise you on it. As soon as you have the rights to a video, we use it in your campaigns.
- Audiences from your customer data: We build audiences from the data of your most profitable customers so that Google finds people similar to them.
- Evaluation by new customers: We measure how many new customers the campaign brings and what they are worth. We steer the budget accordingly.
- Handover to Search: Anyone who has seen the video encounters you again in Search. This way, the new demand pays into your Search and Shopping campaigns.
According to YouTube, advertisers who promoted creator videos in Shorts increased conversion lift by 30% on average. The basis is Google data, worldwide, from January 2025 to January 2026.
How Demand Gen works compared to Video Reach and Video View campaigns is explained in our article Video View, Video Reach and Demand Gen.
A test with a control group shows what the creator video delivers
For getting started, Google recommends two campaigns with the same budget and the same targeting. The control campaign shows your standard video, the test campaign additionally shows the creator video.
For a more precise evaluation, YouTube offers three studies that compare viewers of the ad with a control group:
- Brand Lift: whether viewers remember your brand better or are more likely to consider a purchase,
- Search Lift: whether viewers search for your brand more often on Google or YouTube afterward,
- Conversion Lift: whether the ad triggers additional purchases or inquiries on your website.
According to YouTube, 40% of a video’s views occur more than one month after publication. YouTube bases this on an analysis by the provider Agentio for the USA from the first quarter of 2026. Therefore, plan the evaluation of a test over several weeks.
How we measure the impact of YouTube advertising in the account, we show in our article How to measure the success of YouTube advertising.
Conclusion: We combine creator videos with your Search and Shopping campaigns
The creator partnerships boost turns a creator video into an ad in your account. Whether it brings profit is shown by the test against your standard video.
We set up audiences, campaigns and measurement and steer the budget by the value of the new customers. More on this on our pages on Demand Gen and YouTube Ads.
