YouTube announced a slate of new media, creator, and advertising updates at its Brandcast 2026 event in New York City last week. Highlights from the event include:
- Buy with Google Pay brings two-click checkout to Connected TV. Viewers can now complete purchases directly on their TVs using payment information stored in their Google Account, without having to switch devices or open a separate browser. YouTube reports that conversions from CTV ads grew more than 200% YoY in Q1 2026, and the new feature is designed to compress the path from ad to checkout even further.
- Custom Sponsorships uses AI to match brands with cultural moments. The new tool dynamically surfaces videos tailored to a brand's desired cultural moment, eliminating the need for advertisers to manually select channels and content categories. YouTube also has a dedicated team manually matching its new Creator Shows slate with brand partners for long-term sponsorship deals.
- Affiliate Partnerships Boost lets brands amplify organic creator content. The new tool lets brands pay to promote videos that already feature their products through YouTube Shopping affiliate links, driving additional sales while creators earn more revenue. I absolutely love this one! Anything that positions Creators to earn more revenue from their content is a win in my book. The tool is currently available only to a small creator group with plans to expand.
- Masthead got a Custom Content Shelf. YouTube's premium homepage Masthead ad placement now allows marketers to curate additional content alongside their hero creative, giving brands a way to build more immersive campaigns on the platform's biggest ad slot.
- Multimodal Video Creation pulls Gemini, Nano Banana, and Veo into the ad creation process. The new tool lets advertisers move from creative brief to final video production with just a few prompts, using Google's latest AI models to eliminate production time.
- Creator Shows launched with new exclusive series. YouTube is positioning creators as “the new Hollywood” with a lineup of brand-sponsorable series including Kareem Rahma's “Keep the Meter Running,” Alex Cooper's Met Gala docuseries “Before the Steps,” Trevor Noah's world tour, Cleo Abram's “HUGE* If True,” Erling Haaland's “Road to World Cup,” and Johnny Harris's “The Human Element.”
- Costco and Dollar General joined Google's Commerce Media Suite. Advertisers can now use first-party retailer data from Costco and Dollar General within Display & Video 360 to target high-intent shoppers across YouTube and the wider web, with SKU-level reporting available.
- YouTube doubled down on its “creators sell” pitch with new stats. The company cited internal data showing viewers are 13x more likely to search for a brand and 5x more likely to buy when a creator talks about a product, with Coach's creator-led “Explore Your Story” campaign cited as a case study that drove a 60% jump in Gen Z brand awareness and a six-fold increase in consideration in a single quarter.
CEO Neal Mohan declared “the YouTube Era,” framing Brandcast 2026 as a milestone where YouTube has officially overtaken traditional TV, with executives positioning the platform as a full-funnel destination where brand building and performance marketing can coexist on a single platform. YouTube generated $36.1B in global ad revenue in 2024 and grew it to approximately $40B+ in 2025, with total YouTube revenue (ads + subscriptions) surpassing $60B for the first time, according to Alphabet.
