How to Mark Paid Promotion on YouTube.

The short answer

To mark YouTube paid promotion, open the video in YouTube Studio on a computer, select More options, tick the box saying the video contains paid promotion, and save. Viewers then see a disclosure message for 10 seconds at the start. YouTube is clear that creators and brands stay responsible for their own legal disclosure.

The tick is where the job starts

It is easy to treat the YouTube paid promotion box as the disclosure. It is not. It is a notice to YouTube, which then shows viewers a short message of its own.

YouTube’s help page says it plainly: “You and the brands that you work with are responsible for understanding and complying with local and legal obligations to disclose paid promotion.” Those obligations can cover “when, how and to whom to disclose this.”

That makes this a process question for anyone who manages Creators or briefs them. The box is one step in a disclosure plan, and the plan has to satisfy the rules where the audience lives, not only the platform. If the video is a joint piece with another channel, the same thinking applies to how YouTube collaborations work.

What YouTube counts as paid promotion

YouTube groups three kinds of commercial content under the box:

• Paid product placements: content made for a third party in return for payment, with the brand or product integrated directly into the content.
• Endorsements: content made for an advertiser, or for a creator’s own brands where the relationship is not clear, carrying a message viewers are likely to take as the creator’s own opinion.
• Sponsorships: content financed in whole or in part by a third party, which generally promotes that third party without working it into the content itself.

YouTube also notes that definitions in local law may differ from its own. So the safe reading is the wider one: if a brand paid or gave something for the video, check the box and then check the law.

How to tick the box in YouTube Studio

YouTube’s help page gives the steps for YouTube Studio on a computer:

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. From the left-hand menu, select Content.
3. Click the video you want to edit.
4. Select More options.
5. Tick the box next to “My video contains paid promotion like a product placement, sponsorship or endorsement”.
6. Select Save.

YouTube’s help gives no steps for the mobile app, so the computer is the reliable route. Build the tick into the upload checklist rather than leaving it for after the video goes live, because the notice only helps viewers who see it from the start.

What viewers see

YouTube says that whenever a video is marked as containing paid promotion, it automatically shows viewers a disclosure message for 10 seconds at the beginning of the video. The message says the video contains paid promotion and links to YouTube’s own help page on the subject.

That is the whole of the platform’s disclosure. Ten seconds, at the top, in YouTube’s words rather than the creator’s. Anyone who skips ahead, arrives through a shared link with a timestamp or watches with the screen half in view may never register it.

What the box does to ads and YouTube Kids

Ticking the box does not switch off monetisation. YouTube says it will still run ads against these videos.

Two things do change. YouTube may replace an ad that conflicts with the creator’s brand partner with a different one, and the video is removed from YouTube Kids in line with its existing policies. For a channel with a young audience, that second point belongs in the conversation before the deal is signed, not after.

The rules a paid promotion still has to follow

The box is not a free pass for the content itself. YouTube says paid promotions must follow Google Ads policies and its Community Guidelines, and it lists promotions that are not allowed, including illegal products, recreational drugs, pharmaceuticals without a prescription, unreviewed online gambling sites and fraudulent or misleading businesses.

If content breaks that policy, YouTube says it will remove it and send the creator an email. A first breach brings a warning, a repeat within 90 days brings a strike, and YouTube says that three strikes means the channel is terminated. It may also age-restrict a video when the product promoted is not suitable for all ages.

YouTube adds that creators should check whether a type of paid promotion is allowed locally at all. Its own example is that certain children’s programmes in the UK and EU may be barred from sponsorships or paid product placements.

What the UK rules ask for

In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority sets the expectation, and its guide for influencers is the document to brief from. Its starting point is that people should be able to recognise advertising immediately, without having to click or interact with it, and without needing special knowledge.

On placement, the guide says the disclosure should be at the very beginning of the advertising content, in whatever people see first: the start of the post text, a title, a thumbnail or an image. Among its don’ts is to disclose part-way through a video.

On responsibility, it is as direct as YouTube: the influencer, the brand and any agents involved in creating or publishing the content are all responsible for making sure it is properly labelled. An agency or a social manager who briefs the video is inside that sentence, which is why disclosure belongs in the brief for any creator work, not in a note after upload.

Is the ten second notice enough?

The ASA guide addresses platform tools directly: “Where a platform provides a tool to label branded content for you, this may be sufficient if the label is upfront and prominent.” If the label blends in or does not make the advertising clear, it says to add a label of your own.

Our view is that YouTube’s notice should be treated as a backstop, not the disclosure. It is upfront, but it is brief, it is worded by the platform, and it does not travel with the title, the thumbnail or a clip cut down for another platform. The guide’s test is whatever people see first, and on YouTube that is often the thumbnail and title in a feed, long before the notice plays.

So the working rule we would brief is simple: tick the box, and also put a clear label where the viewer meets the video. The ASA’s own bottom line is “If in doubt, label it.”

Labels that work and labels that do not

The ASA recommends labels that say what the content is: #Ad, #Advert, #Advertising, #Advertisement or #AdvertisementFeature. It says the hashtag symbol is not needed, provided the label is prominent and separate from other content.

It advises against labels most people do not read as advertising, including:

• Gift or Gifted
• Affiliate, Aff or Afflink
• Collab
• PR, PR Trip or PR Haul
• Supported by, Funded by, In association with or In partnership with
• Thanks to the brand, or Made possible by
• Just tagging the brand
• Sponsored, Spon or Sp, which the ASA says it has previously ruled insufficient

For a YouTube video, we would put “Ad” in the title or on the thumbnail, and say or show it at the opening, as well as ticking the box.

Title cards, end cards and burned-in ads

YouTube allows static title cards and end cards when there is a paid promotion. A title card must be static and five seconds or less, and if it sits at the very start of the video it must be co-branded with the creator’s name or logo. An end card must be static and placed within the last 30 seconds.

What YouTube does not allow is burning an advertiser’s own video ad, or a commercial break, into the upload. That rule does not apply to videos made by or for a brand and uploaded to the brand’s own channel.

What good looks like

Disclosure that does not slip is a step in the workflow, written down once and checked every time:

1. The brief names the label, where it goes and who adds it.
2. “Ad” sits in the title or on the thumbnail, and again at the opening of the video.
3. The paid promotion box is ticked in YouTube Studio before the video goes public.
4. Any title or end card meets YouTube’s static and timing rules.
5. Cut-downs for Shorts or other platforms carry their own label, because the ASA wants each piece of content labelled.
6. One named person signs off disclosure, the same way someone signs off the copy.

If a creator programme runs across several channels, that sign-off step is where most of the risk sits. A missed label is a process failure, not a creative one.

Next step

If your social process is slowing down good ideas, or letting steps like this slip, NBK can help rebuild the workflow behind the content. Our approval process template is a practical place to start putting disclosure into sign-off.