YouTube has made it easier to get your channel in front of brands who are actively looking for creators to work with. It's through YouTube Creator Partnerships – a rebrand of BrandConnect – and it's built directly into YouTube Studio. Brands can search for creators, build shortlists, and send collaboration requests all in one place, while YouTube uses AI to surface the right creators for each campaign.
Alongside it, YouTube is expanding its Shopping affiliate programme to more creators, so you can earn commission from product recommendations without needing external tools. If you work with sponsors, want to, or are looking to add a revenue stream beyond ads, here's what's actually changed and what to do next.
What's changed?
YouTube announced the rebrand to Creator Partnerships at the 2026 YouTube NewFronts. The platform, formerly known as BrandConnect, is now integrated directly into YouTube Studio for creators and into Google Ads for advertisers. This means both sides of a deal have everything they need in one place.
The biggest practical change is how brands can find you. YouTube is using Gemini to help advertisers search across more than three million creators in the YouTube Partner Program. It does this by pulling in signals like audience similarity, organic brand mentions, and subscriber growth to surface the right people for a campaign.
Outreach is also changing. Advertisers can now build shortlists and will soon be able to contact multiple creators at once, guided by the same AI that powers discovery. The real question for creators is whether AI-assisted matching means brands reach out because they genuinely think you're a good fit, or whether it just makes it easier to fire off the same message to hundreds of creators at once.
The Shopping affiliate program is opening up to more creators and markets, so if you've been waiting to get access, it's worth checking whether you're now eligible. And for creators already making shoppable content, there's also a useful practical upgrade on the way. YouTube is rolling out AI-powered product tagging that watches your video and automatically surfaces a product tag at the moment you mention it, so you're not manually hunting for the right timestamp every time.
The program has grown quickly to get to this point. More than 500,000 creators are already enrolled globally, and the total value of products sold through YouTube Shopping has grown five times over in the past year alone. That gives you a sense of how seriously YouTube is investing in Shopping as a revenue stream for creators.
That context matters, because BrandConnect had a mixed reputation among creators. YouTuber Side Hustle Seattle summed up a frustration that many will recognise: even after lowering their rates significantly, months passed without a single brand reaching out through the platform. Creator Partnerships is YouTube's attempt to fix that, though whether the improvements translate into more real opportunities for everyday creators remains to be seen.
Why this matters for creators
Having a dedicated place inside YouTube Studio where brands can find you, shortlist you, and reach out directly is a meaningful shift. Until now, a lot of brand deals started with a DM or a cold email and whether a brand found you at all often came down to luck. Creator Partnerships gives that process a proper home, which means more deals are likely to get done, and more of them are likely to find the right creators.
According to YouTube, creators who share more about their channels with brands were surfaced 60% more often in search results. In other words, simply filling out your profile properly could be the difference between showing up on a brand's shortlist or not.
When they do find you, you're in a strong position. YouTube's own data shows that 78% of viewers consider YouTube to have the most trusted creators for product recommendations, more than any other platform. Creator Partnerships is essentially YouTube's way of connecting brands with the creators who have already built that trust.
If you haven't looked at YouTube Shopping yet, this is a good moment to. Recommending products and earning a cut of sales has traditionally meant juggling external links and tools outside of YouTube, but on-platform Shopping keeps everything in one place. Viewers can discover and buy products without leaving your video, which is better for your conversions and keeps your watch time intact too.
Filmbro co-founder Arnaud Melis captures why this kind of update from YouTube matters: "Because platforms like YouTube promote and invest in creators, people actually spend more time on creating better content, which means more people watch." The more YouTube makes it easy for brands to find and pay you, the more you can reinvest in your work. Better content brings more viewers, which attracts more brands your way.
Uppbeat's take: Get your profile in shape and see what Shopping could do for your channel
These updates give you more ways to get discovered by brands and more ways to earn from the content you're already making. The practical question is whether your channel is set up to make the most of them. Here's what we'd do next:
- Fill out your Creator Partnerships profile. Be specific about your niche, your audience, and the kind of content you make. According to YouTube, sharing more channel insights directly improves how often you show up when brands are searching, so it's one of the quickest wins available to you right now.
- Check whether you're now eligible for YouTube Shopping. If you've looked before and not qualified, it's worth checking again as the program expands. Head to YouTube Studio to see your current status.
- Look back through your existing videos for Shopping opportunities. You may already have uploads that could be working harder for you with a few links added.
- Plan one shoppable video and see how it performs. Pick a topic with a natural product fit, make the recommendation feel genuine, and keep the disclosure clear. Then check your YouTube Studio data to see whether it drives clicks so you can quickly see whether it's worth building into your regular output.
- Update your pitch if you work with brands. With Creator Partnerships now the official home for collaborations on YouTube, it's worth making sure your profile and recent content reflect the kind of partner you are.
When brands do land on your channel, first impressions matter. Keeping your videos feeling polished and consistent with high quality royalty-free music and sound effects rather than whatever happens to be trending. This focus on creating brand-ready content makes it easier for potential sponsors to reach out.
