Get started with YouTube Promote

Promote on YouTube is a growth tool that puts the power in the creator's hands. On top of regular channel growth and organic discovery, Promote is an easy way to set up YouTube Ads campaigns to get your videos and Shorts in front of new audiences, helping you to grow your channel and business.

Promotions on YouTube: Set up and manage ad campaigns for your content

Why should I use Promote?

Promote offers you:

• Reach and visibility: Get your videos in front of new audiences who are likely to love your content. You can use Promote to drive engagement and subscriptions to your channel, boost your videos' visibility and increase clicks to your website.
• Simplicity: Launch a promotion in just a few clicks – no complex ad-buying experience required.
• Audience targeting: Choose the locations, languages and interests that matter to you, ensuring that every penny of your budget is spent reaching the right people.
• Flexibility: Whether you want more subscribers, views or website clicks, Promote is built to get you results.

Promote is easily accessible via:

• Desktop: The three-dot menu on any of your videos, the Promote button on the watch page of any of your videos or the 'Promotions' tab within 'Content' on YouTube Studio.
• Android: The three-dot menu on any of your videos

Get started

Ready to reach a wider audience with your videos?

Get started with Promote

To learn more about Promote:

• See these steps on creating a new promotion.
• Get tips from the creator playbook to grow your audience.
• Check the troubleshooting guide for any issues.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Promote and Google Ads?

Promote is a simplified advertising tool on YouTube powered by Google Ads. It provides creators with a quick and easy ad-buying experience directly on YouTube, without having to navigate through the complex campaign options in Google Ads. For more robust features like advanced targeting and in-depth analytics, consider creating your campaign in Google Ads.

Note: Promotions created from YouTube can only be managed on YouTube and are not accessible through Google Ads.

Will subscribers or watch hours gained from promoted videos count towards my YPP eligibility threshold?

Watch hours and subscribers gained through ad campaigns do not count towards YPP eligibility thresholds. You can find more info on YPP eligibility requirements here.

Does Promote affect my videos' organic performance?

No, promotions don't impact your channel's or a specific video's organic performance. Organic recommendations are based on how content performs when it's recommended organically, not when it's run as an ad, so promotions will not impact how your content is recommended in YouTube's typical search and discovery algorithms.

Are the views and subscribers from Promote legitimate?

Yes, all views and subscribers that you gain through a Promote campaign are legitimate.

A promotion may kickstart a viewer's relationship with your channel and, if you continue to provide content that's interesting and valuable to them, there are plenty of ways for them to engage once they're aware of you.

Bear in mind that when we look at eligibility for the YouTube Partner Programme, only organic subscribers will be counted to keep an even playing field for those interested in joining the programme.

What are follow-on views?

Follow-on views are organic views that you get when someone watches your videos after seeing your promoted content. Each video that a user watches counts as an individual follow-on view, helping you measure how well your promotions drive channel growth.

Follow-on views are only available for audience growth promotions and count towards YPP eligibility. You can see this metric in YouTube Studio in the Promotions tab.

EU political paid promotions

Google Ads policies state that any content featuring a public office holder (verbal mention or image) will qualify as an election ad. If this applies to your video and you would still like to promote it, we recommend that you go through election advertising verification. Learn more about political content policies and the election advertising verification.

Important: Starting on 10 October 2025, when new European Union regulations on political advertising come into effect, Google will no longer allow political advertising in the EU. If you are a creator whose promotions through YouTube Promote contain EU political ads, you will still be able to use YouTube Promote on your video. However, you will have to self-declare if your content contains an 'EU political ad' and the promotion will not be available to viewers in the EU. Learn more.

Starting in April 2026, creators with active EU impressions (>0 since October 2025) who have not yet declared their channel-level status will be served a mandatory dialogue when accessing the Promotions tab in YouTube Studio. The dialog will ask them to declare whether or not they promote EU political content through YouTube Promote. Creators can manage their status under YouTube Studio Settings Promotions.

To self-declare your content as containing an 'EU political ad', under the 'Targeting' section, for European Union political ads, select Yes, this promotion has an EU political ad. EU regulation requires Google Ads to ask you to declare if a promotion constitutes an EU political ad.