Did YouTube just destroy Amazon Affiliate marketing on YouTube?

Did YouTube just destroy Amazon Affiliate marketing... on YouTube?

I saw this really small aside mention that an experiment is being rolled out where YouTube will detect products in our videos, and run shopping ads underneath the video.

It was on today's Creator Insider video, "Known Issues" Card on Mobile, Cumulative Subs in YouTube Analytics, YOUR Questions, and more! https://youtu.be/Z8aYgNOzyb0

What does this mean?

Will it make Amazon Associates affiliate links obsolete?

And what exactly IS YouTube Watch & Shop?

Did YouTube just destroy Amazon Affiliate marketing on YouTube?



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

I don't want to panic you and I really don't want this to come off as clickbait but this is really weird 

did YouTube just completely end affiliate marketing on the YouTube platform? 

I saw this today

it was a really tiny announcement on a video on the Creator Insider channel which is where YouTube tends to make announcements to creators 

it's 15 seconds long, and about two minutes into their news flash video that came out today 

and finally we're expanding on an experiment that detects products in your content or related products now we've experimented with this in the past and what it does is allow viewers to decide what to watch next and what to do next 

that's all 

that is all it said 

but look at the screen grab 

can you see it what it looks like is that under the video, YouTube or Google will serve adverts - direct shopping adverts - to the products that appear in the video 

and it looks like those adverts... they kind of look like the adverts on the Google shopping tab 

so does this mean that YouTube is completely wiping out making money on YouTube by using affiliate marketing? 

isn't this like really massive?

I mean people make like six figure sums a year from Amazon Associates 

is this a whole industry on YouTube that's being wiped out? 

and is it me or is there so much to pull apart in this 15 second clip especially if you make money from affiliate marketing 

let's take another look at the screen grab 

it looks like this feature is called watch & shop and sorry it looks so blurry 

this is how it looks on the official YouTube video 

and from this it looks like to me that Google will offer ads underneath our videos to the products that it can see in our videos 

we already know that things like Google Cloud Vision can completely interpret images and YouTube analyzes our videos frame by frame for all of this metadata 

so the idea is if it detects a product it can directly take the viewer to a place to buy the product straight from our videos 

so here's the problem and why I think this is absolutely huge 

if you and I make money from affiliate marketing here's how it works at the moment: 

I make a video where I talk about a microphone - like say this microphone here - and I make that video last about six minutes 

then down in the description there are these links here that link to the products 

in this case they link to Amazon and if you click on the links there and buy the products or other products I make a commission on that link 

but look at this - and I know it's blurry I'm sorry - but this lovely visual box will now automatically appear to whisk your purchase after you've done all that work... the buyer is whisked away and can buy it straight from that Google ad 

so does this mean that Google earns all the money from that sale? 

and I know I'm racing ahead but there are probably a few other things we need to pull apart from this 15 second clip 

the first thing is that we're in 2021 and this is an experiment and finally we're expanding on an experiment - so it might very well come and go but I've got a feeling that if it makes money for YouTube it's not gonna go 

I think it's just gonna come and not go 

the second thing is that it's currently only going to be in the United States 

this is going to apply to US viewers only 

for now 

so that's interesting for non-us affiliate marketing YouTubers like me 

by the way this is how much I earn from Amazon affiliate marketing 

I made a whole video about how much I make in a month the... 

the link is in the description and on screen now 

it is a really tough place to make money 

I guess the biggest takeaway from the announcement is this 

so now we've experimented with this in the past and what it does is allow viewers to decide what to watch next and what to do next 

yeah the viewers 

as you know YouTube will always decide what is best for the viewer not the creator or the affiliate marketer but the viewers 

it's always been this way 

by the way hello I'm Neil Mossey: I'm a development producer helping high achieving creators and performers just like you to get ideas out into the world here on YouTube to make people happier 

I'm wondering could this be absolutely devastating for someone who earns money from unboxing or reviewing products?
But as a viewer - and YouTube is all about the viewer experience - this could be absolutely fantastic because currently it's a really ugly experience wading through links like this instead of really nice shiny... if a bit blurry... a picture probably a bit better than this one 

bit less blurry... but you get the gist right?

but for YouTube this could be great because we'll now have stores competing for that space underneath our videos instead of all that traffic going to to one online store 

now you've probably had exactly the same thought - the same KERCHING thought that I've had which is "huh, what what if YouTube were to actually share that revenue it gets from the sales of products underneath creators videos with the YouTube creator?" 

and so I left that question or suggestion or just out and out begging in the comments of that Creator Insider video 

but then I found out that there was this article from Bloomberg in October 2020 

this article explains that it's an experiment and claims that the YouTube person said: 

"creators will have control over the products that are displayed"

KERCHING! 

I don't know if I've got the right sound effect for that?

[KERCHING SOUND EFFECT] 

that's better 

the link to that article is in the description below but let's take a look at the clip one more time 

and finally we're expanding on an experiment that detects products in your content 

so what do you think? 

leave a comment below 

is what you can see here - I'm treading in all sorts - is what you can see here going to affect you financially do you think? 

and on screen now is a link to that video which could either be really exciting news or absolutely devastating 

so on the other side I've put another video just to cheer you up thanks for watching!

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