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We hear a lot about how the media landscape is fragmented, but the data tells a different story. Your audiences aren’t fragmented; they’re choosing YouTube. As 2026 begins, YouTube is not only the No. 1 streaming platform, it’s the No. 1 choice for entertainment and creator content, beating out all other video and social platforms.1 2
And while getting a handle on YouTube’s vast ecosystem of creators, formats, and screens may seem complicated, unlocking the full opportunity of YouTube for your brand can be simpler than it sounds. To help guide you in the year ahead, we’ve created a formula: the four most important approaches brands need to create, capture, and convert demand in ways that only YouTube can.
1. Put your brand at the epicenter of culture
On YouTube, culture is not just about a moment, trend, or show, it’s about the even bigger conversations around them too. From YouTube’s exclusive partnership deals with sports leagues and worldwide events like Coachella to headline-grabbing podcast interviews, YouTube is at the epicenter of culture.
Your audience comes to YouTube to be part of culture, and we’re building new ways for you to find and tap into those opportunities. Insights Finder uncovers new moments and conversations that can help you capture the attention of audiences at scale. That means you can use premium solutions like YouTube Select, Masthead, and Sponsorships with confidence to reach your audience alongside content that’s both personally relevant and some of the most popular on YouTube.
And the opportunity doesn’t stop at ads. Those insights can also give marketers direction on how they can break through to their audiences with organic content, from using Shorts as a testing ground to always popular video formats like explainers.
2. Unlock the best AI for the best ROI
One of the reasons why audiences choose YouTube is they can watch their favorite content however and wherever they want, in the living room and beyond.
Those complex viewing behaviors are a natural pairing with AI solutions. We find that brands that use our AI-powered ads products, like Video view campaigns, Video reach campaigns, and Demand Gen, see an average of 17% higher return on ad spend (ROAS).3 Those results add up. Return on investment for YouTube was 23% higher than social channels and 109% higher than linear TV.4
AI is only as effective as its inputs and that means asset diversity. The greater the variety of assets, the more opportunities for AI-powered relevance. With tools like Asset Studio you can avoid production bottlenecks by easily generating and editing new assets for any format.
Your brand’s organic assets are just the start, though. Bringing YouTube creators into the fold takes this to the next level, increasing the variety and impact of your asset mix. And, on YouTube, partnering with creators is easier than ever.
3. Invest in the most trusted creators
There’s no one who knows YouTube audiences better than YouTube creators. That’s made them both stars and advisers to their fans.
Fans listen to their favorite creators, because they can count on their authentic opinions on products and services they actually use. It’s no wonder that online users are 98% more likely to trust the recommendations of YouTube creators,5 and 80% of viewers in the U.S. agree that YouTube helps them make more confident shopping decisions vs. social platforms.6
And brands are turning that trust and attention into results. For instance, when Pepsi sought to boost awareness and consideration, they partnered with YouTube creators to bring their brands into the cooking conversation. With dozens of recipe Shorts featuring Pepsi as an ingredient, the campaign reached 43% above engagement benchmark, a 11.1% view-through rate, and 34 million views from paid media.
And we’re making it easier for marketers to unlock the potential of creator marketing on YouTube with an end-to-end approach: bringing proven creator assets to YouTube, boosting top creator content with paid media, bridging your strategy to powerful solutions, and building bespoke creator campaigns.
Effective creator marketing starts with finding the YouTube creators who fit your brand best, so we’re building AI-powered solutions for creator discovery and expanding how we support and integrate with influence marketing agencies. When you build or find a YouTube creator video that simply must be seen, YouTube Partnership Ads help you bring those videos to an even wider audience, moving them from watching to considering — and from considering to purchasing.
4. Close the measurement loop
You can’t manage what you can’t measure. YouTube offers a sophisticated suite of measurement tools to help prove your impact across paid, owned, and earned media.
The brand pulse report gives you a big-picture view of the full value of your brand on YouTube. For proving out success with paid media, Brand Lift studies help you measure everything along the customer journey, from ad recall and awareness to consideration and purchase intent, driving significant lift at each step.
Plus, using our Search Lift measurement tools, like Attributed Branded Searches, you can measure the direct lift in search traffic caused by your YouTube campaigns, giving you an idea of when your ads are driving viewers from the living room screen directly to the search bar.
It all adds up to a sophisticated suite of tools designed to measure every angle of your video strategy at every stage of the customer’s journey.
The bottom line: The YouTube Formula turns attention into advantage
By anchoring your brand in the culture, embracing AI for creative velocity, partnering with the most trusted creators, and validating every dollar with cross-screen measurement, YouTube goes from a channel to an essential part of how you grow your brand. The audience has already made its choice. Make 2026 the year you choose to make the most of YouTube.
