Using AI to Maximize the YouTube Shopping Creative Process

0:00 Hi Insiders, I'm Lauren Selinsky, head of content at YouTube Shopping and we are

0:04 back with our podcast talking to creators like Roberto Blake,

0:08 who is a creative entrepreneur,

0:11 author and YouTube educator with over 600,000 subscribers who has produced over

0:16 1,700 videos and has been creating on the platform for two decades.

0:20 He's been coaching content creators since 2017 and helping

0:24 them turn their creative work into thriving brands and businesses.

0:29 Roberto, how's it going?

0:31 It's going great.

0:31 Thanks so much for having me.

0:32 For the folks at home who may not know the type of content you make,

0:36 give us some background on on what you make as a YouTube creator.

0:40 Well, where I started was I actually helped

0:42 content creators and freelancers who were learning different software.

0:46 So, basically video editing, graphic design, that sort of thing.

0:49 That got me from zero to 100,000 subscribers.

0:52 Then I actually started getting a lot of questions because

0:55 I got 100,000 subscribers with uh I think in 2015,

0:59 February 2015, I had 20,000 subscribers.

1:01 I woke up in April of 2016 with 100,000 subscribers.

1:06 They were like, "How did you grow so fast?" So,

1:07 they started asking me those questions.

1:09 So, I started shifting my focus and that's

1:11 been uh my content for quite a while now.

1:13 So, I help content creators who want to go full-time, take this seriously,

1:17 go from hobby to pro and make sure

1:20 that they become owners in their own creative business.

1:23 And I think as being an educator,

1:25 you are really on the pulse of all the different ways to monetize on YouTube,

1:29 which is why I'm so glad you're here today.

1:31 Oh, yeah.

1:31 So, let's talk about that for a second, right?

1:34 Obviously, your experience as a creator and as an educator,

1:37 you see all the different ways to monetize on YouTube.

1:41 Can you talk to me a bit

1:42 about how creators should be diversifying their methods?

1:46 And then, of course, specifically about YouTube Shopping.

1:48 Sure.

1:49 I mean, there are a lot of ways to actually make money as a content creator.

1:52 YouTube natively actually has uh 10

1:55 to a dozen now different actual monetization methods.

2:00 Well, some obviously the big popular ones everyone knows are AdSense,

2:03 brand deals and sponsorships.

2:05 You guys integrated even YouTube Brand Connect.

2:07 We have dynamic brand insertions coming to the platform.

2:11 Most people are familiar with fan funding, supers.

2:13 You guys introduced gifts with vertical live streaming.

2:17 So, supers and gifts now.

2:19 And, of course, uh memberships, which has been tremendous.

2:22 And there're just so many ways that like there are at least

2:25 at a minimum 15 main specific ways

2:28 people could be monetizing as a content creator,

2:30 or at least 15 flavors of it I want to say.

2:32 You could probably break those up and find 50 unique ways to monetize.

2:38 So, I just think it's like really great

2:39 and what I really love is that with YouTube Shopping,

2:42 it's introducing a more passive income style of, you know,

2:46 revenue for content creators with the affiliate program.

2:49 Instead of just YouTube Shopping merch, you now have YouTube Shopping affiliate.

2:53 And so, I think with things like uh the automation around tagging,

2:56 things like that, it's just going to be a really

2:58 good way for content creators to make passive income.

3:00 Do you think there is a misconception for a lot of creators about

3:04 utilizing something like a YouTube Shopping

3:07 uh as part of their monetization strategy?

3:09 Oh, absolutely.

3:10 For a lot of creators, one,

3:11 uh so many creators actually just don't think their audience would care

3:15 or would click on affiliate links because maybe they're not a product reviewer,

3:19 but you'd be surprised how much of your audience sometimes

3:21 wants to have something from your background or your setup,

3:25 your aesthetic, your furniture, your clothing.

3:28 You'd be surprised how much they have this connection to you,

3:32 they admire you and that you could incorporate that.

3:35 Uh YouTube Shopping also incorporates into community tab posts,

3:37 so it doesn't always even have to be just

3:39 in a video for you to monetize with that.

3:42 I have creators who sometimes want the same gear as me,

3:46 even though yes, I'm a creator educator.

3:47 Like, you know, we're kind of gearheads.

3:49 And uh YouTube Shopping style, you know,

3:51 if I actually have a story about a creator I work with.

3:54 Um you know, so this creator that I work with, he does homesteading content,

4:00 this tiny home content.

4:02 He did a big commission with YouTube Shopping.

4:05 His first YouTube Shopping sale ever was almost $300

4:09 of commission from something he showed off in a video.

4:12 Amazing.

4:12 And he wouldn't have done that otherwise.

4:14 Oh, no.

4:14 And he's not even the largest like creator.

4:16 He recently just got close to 30,000 subscribers.

4:20 You know, I've been working with him for a little bit here.

4:22 And I yeah, I really did encourage him to say,

4:24 "Hey, incorporate a little bit more YouTube Shopping.

4:26 You don't know what could happen.

4:27 Why not just try it?" And he was really blown away

4:29 that he got that kind of commission off of his first sale.

4:32 I'm really glad you actually mentioned that because

4:33 I think there's a misconception that you

4:35 have to have a ton of subscribers to be able to work within YouTube Shopping.

4:40 And we'll touch on this in some other episodes,

4:42 but specifically since you brought it up, you know,

4:45 I think we find on YouTube, which is so interesting,

4:48 is that it doesn't matter about the size, it's the engagement.

4:52 Yeah.

4:52 And specifically with YouTube Shopping,

4:55 the higher engagement you have with your audience, the higher discourse trust,

5:00 the more likely they are to be

5:02 engaged with something like YouTube Shopping, right?

5:04 Cuz it's enhancing their experience with you.

5:07 Absolutely.

5:07 And a lot of times people also feel this internal guilt in terms

5:12 of how they directly monetize their audience or asking them to buy anything.

5:15 Economic times can feel challenging, but you have to remember,

5:17 even in those economic times, people are still buying things.

5:20 You don't know what your audience situation is one way or the other.

5:23 And there are people that are happy to buy or spend money.

5:26 The question is just whether you're going to be part of that process or not,

5:29 whether you're going to get some value out of that or not.

5:33 There are people in your audience who are happy

5:35 to buy things and are ready to buy things.

5:37 It's just a matter of whether you're going to be a part of that journey.

5:39 So, you just mentioned a ton of different

5:41 ways that creators can monetize on the platform.

5:44 And I have to imagine that may feel overwhelming.

5:47 So, what recommendations do you have on streamlining the process for a creator?

5:52 Well, YouTube actually helps a lot already with that process.

5:55 It's just that creators are telling themselves

5:57 that it's overwhelming when it actually might not be.

6:00 So, for one thing, you already have ad revenue built into the platform.

6:04 Now, you can do auto placement with that or manual placement with that.

6:07 You can decide how much bandwidth you have in terms of wanting to make

6:11 decisions or whether you want to just let YouTube take the wheel here.

6:14 So, that's one thing.

6:15 You already have built-in YouTube Premium revenue without having to do anything.

6:18 So, that's great.

6:19 If you make Shorts content, you're also getting Shorts,

6:22 you know, ad revenue and Premium revenue from that as well.

6:25 Same thing with your live streams.

6:27 So, additional monetization is if you're going live,

6:29 whether it's verticals uh in terms of vertical live

6:32 streaming or the traditional horizontal live streaming on YouTube,

6:37 then in those cases, fan funding is there and available in addition

6:41 to the ad revenue and that's already activated.

6:44 So, just expanding on that is a matter of did you

6:47 make sure to turn those things on in the back end?

6:50 It's kind of set it or forget it.

6:51 So, this doesn't have to be that overwhelming for you

6:54 to add another layer of monetization there with fan funding.

6:57 When it comes to memberships, you could just mention it and then it's over.

7:01 How overwhelming is that?

7:02 So, just to get up to four or five different opportunities

7:06 to earn is not that overwhelming if you don't want it to be.

7:09 And you can also pin something for the memberships uh directly,

7:13 the link to that in pinned comment if you want.

7:16 So, same thing for your merch.

7:18 Your merch store is already activated as long as you

7:21 went ahead and set it up and you made your merch.

7:23 So, you're up to probably five or six ways of monetizing.

7:26 They're just already there.

7:27 If you want to take it further,

7:29 it's not that much more effort if you want to do YouTube Shopping,

7:33 but YouTube is going to take the wheel if you just turn on auto tagging anyway.

7:37 I'm glad you brought that up cuz that's what I was getting at.

7:39 Yeah, cuz like AI is going to take the wheel and it's

7:42 going to monetize and this is why I said it's passive

7:44 income because as long as you opt into this, as long

7:47 as you turn it on, it'll go ahead and it'll auto tag,

7:49 it'll go into the back catalog,

7:51 it'll find mentions and visual representations of when you did the products

7:55 and so on and so forth in your Shorts, in your videos.

7:59 I I think it might do it in your live stream replays once they became VODs.

8:03 So, how much more effort is that really?

8:06 It's not that much.

8:07 And if you wanted to still manually tag, you could.

8:11 And it's a it's a 5-minute process that gives you the ability

8:14 to earn forever off the back of it once it's done.

8:17 So, I think we tell ourselves this is overwhelming.

8:20 I don't think it actually is.

8:21 But you did bring up automation, which I think is a talking about overwhelming.

8:26 Are there misconceptions around utilizing AI features to help streamline,

8:31 to help plan content?

8:33 Do you find that creators you work with are hesitant to utilize AI?

8:37 Only until they talk to me.

8:40 [laughter]

8:40 Well, we had IRL Shopping experience that we did together where we were

8:43 in a room with I think 70 or so creators plus um you know,

8:47 my co-panelist as well as members of Team YouTube.

8:51 And we did talk about that and the misconceptions.

8:53 And one of the things that came up, at least from my perspective,

8:56 is when I tell people about AI and how to use it,

8:59 I'm doing it from the perspective of assistive AI.

9:02 How can we use this as a performance enhancer?

9:04 How can we make this easier in our lives?

9:07 There are plenty of mechanical tasks we just don't even like doing.

9:10 Like, why am I worried about doing a task I don't even enjoy,

9:14 that I don't even like and that I have to do over and over?

9:17 There's no challenge, there's no novelty, there's no actual creativity in it.

9:20 Those are the things we should automate.

9:21 No one's telling you have to automate or use

9:24 AI for things that you enjoy or that are creative.

9:26 You don't use it to replace yourself

9:29 in things you enjoy and that you're passionate about.

9:31 You actually do the opposite.

9:32 You use it to get rid of all the things that you have to do,

9:35 that you don't want to do.

9:37 And then that makes all the difference in the world.

9:39 So, if something's mechanical, give it to a machine.

9:41 If something is creative, you can choose to reserve it for yourself as a human,

9:45 but you could still find mechanical

9:47 or tedious processes in the creative, you know,

9:50 system that you're going through and say, "All right, I like this part of it,

9:54 but not that part of it." Give AI the part you don't like,

9:58 spend more time on what you enjoy.

10:00 With automation, I'm glad that you brought up some

10:02 of the features that we've built specifically for shopping, like auto tagging.

10:06 Um, talk about some of the ways

10:08 that auto tagging can be additive to monetization.

10:12 Well, if you have a deep back catalog of evergreen content,

10:15 something like with me,

10:17 I work with content creators all

10:18 the time around content strategy and monetization specifically.

10:21 I've been doing that for a number of years now,

10:24 and the thing that I always tell people

10:26 is that they don't always have to chase trends.

10:28 There are things that are seasonal and things that are

10:30 evergreen and things that they can anticipate in their industry.

10:33 And when you have that opportunity,

10:35 auto tagging is great because you have this back catalog that's still relevant,

10:39 still getting views, and still getting ad revenue.

10:42 We can add the layer of YouTube shopping affiliate

10:45 on top of that so that you can get commissions

10:47 on sales on top of the passive YouTube ad revenue

10:50 and the passive YouTube premium revenue that you're already getting.

10:54 So, I think that's the benefit of the automation on that side.

10:58 This is going to go even deeper when you

11:00 also have dynamic brand insertions in the future as well.

11:04 So, between those, you now have this really great passive

11:08 income layer where content keeps earning money and is still relevant

11:12 to viewers and still drives buying behavior for affiliates or for brand

11:16 partners or sometimes brand partners and affiliates are the same company.

11:20 Cuz we've even heard that where a creator said, you know,

11:22 I'd back tag something from 10 years ago

11:25 and I was shocked I made money on it, right?

11:27 Because people are still viewing it.

11:30 It's still a video that the audience goes to to research, right?

11:33 A product or a review.

11:35 So, back tagging it now they can actually make income on a purchase being made.

11:41 So Yeah, a lot of people underestimate this.

11:43 Uh, they don't realize how much of a lifespan

11:46 content has on YouTube compared to every other platform.

11:49 YouTube has the best lifespan for your content,

11:52 especially if you're in lifestyle content or education content.

11:56 I know a lot of people are entertainment-based creators,

11:59 but like I said, if you build a connection with your audience,

12:02 they might still care about aspects

12:04 of your brand in terms of wanting something like

12:07 the style of clothing that you were wearing

12:10 or something that might have appeared in your set.

12:12 There may be updates or new versions

12:14 of a product that might have existed in your videos,

12:16 even if you're not product-centric content creator.

12:19 There's still just these things where your audience admires you,

12:22 they want to be more like you, and sometimes there's a purchase involved.

12:25 So, going back to fears around AI, right?

12:27 I think a lot of creators might be worried that utilizing AI as a creative

12:33 assistant tool may make them inauthentic or may take away from, you know,

12:39 the purity of their content.

12:41 How would you utilize AI for creative and content-based help?

12:47 I think sometimes we don't like to admit that some

12:50 of our fears around this come from a place

12:53 of our own ego or how we will be perceived or how we think we'll be judged.

12:57 And that's a big fear for content creators.

12:59 Building in public is hard.

13:00 You feel judged all the time, and you think, well,

13:02 if it's not me or if it's not 100% me,

13:04 then maybe they'll reject it, and that's going to hurt.

13:08 Would you feel that way if you hire somebody and they add something of value?

13:12 Will you feel that way about your team members?

13:14 Well, that's different, they're a human.

13:16 But yes, but it's not still 100% your project now, is it?

13:19 So, for me, while I do understand there's a difference between a human

13:24 being and a tool tools add value to us all the time.

13:28 It's not less inauthentic because you used

13:30 a tool to help you with your thumbnails.

13:32 It's not less you, it's still your face, it's still your photo,

13:35 it's still what you had to do in order to make that happen.

13:38 If I take a photo or I have or better yet,

13:40 I have a photographer take a really good photo of me for a thumbnail.

13:44 And then we don't have the person we

13:46 wanted to maybe do the retouching, you know, uh,

13:50 clean up any like blemishes or like sharpen

13:52 my eyes or a little bit or something like that.

13:55 Then if we just run that through Google Nano Banana, right?

13:59 We run that through Gemini.

14:00 We can just go ahead and have that photo

14:02 retouching and we can have it instantly and we can

14:04 have it exactly the way we wanted without having

14:06 to go back and forth and maybe even frustrate uh,

14:09 a photo retoucher because we're doing something

14:12 at the last minute or something changed.

14:14 So, we're not inconveniencing anybody,

14:15 and then we're also not inconveniencing the audience.

14:17 They're not getting a less qual a lesser quality of packaging now.

14:20 So, I think of it from that perspective.

14:22 If you think about the value for the viewer

14:24 and does this enhance value for the viewer?

14:26 I think that's actually the only thing that matters is does this decision,

14:31 whether I'm using a freelancer on my team,

14:33 a permanent team member, or an AI tool, does this add value to the viewer?

14:38 If it doesn't it's not necessary.

14:40 If it is, it's completely legitimate,

14:42 and I don't think it takes away from the authenticity of it at all.

14:45 I think that the authenticity people are looking for is how you show up,

14:49 how you deliver, how you perform on camera.

14:52 Your authentic personality is what people are looking for.

14:54 They don't really deeply, if they were being honest,

14:58 care about the process that you used to get there unless you make it a thing,

15:03 unless you make the process part of the brand.

15:07 Then that's different cuz now you're not delivering on expectation that you set.

15:11 But none of us have to make the process of how we do

15:14 anything part of the value proposition

15:17 or the brand that we're putting out there.

15:19 A lot of the viewers, they just want to watch a great video.

15:22 You know, we do hear from a lot of creators that burnout, it's a real thing.

15:26 So, what AI tools are there to help with the creative process?

15:33 I'm glad you asked this because every day, and I mean literally every day,

15:37 Monday through Friday, sometimes I silly and I'm doing it on Saturdays, too.

15:41 I'm talking to creators.

15:42 I'm talking to small creators, I'm talking to full-time content creators,

15:45 I'm talking to people with teams.

15:47 So, at every level.

15:49 And the constant conversation is actually around burnout, stress,

15:53 cognitive load for the YouTuber, even for some of the team members.

15:58 And one of the things that we have

16:00 to look at, at least when I'm working with people,

16:02 is we look at their systems, we look at the structure around things.

16:05 We say, okay, content has to be right-sized in your life.

16:08 And even if you have a team, you cannot always put the shortcomings of your lack

16:13 of preparation or planning on your team and then overwork them.

16:16 That's not fair.

16:17 So, what we can do is we can use the tools

16:19 to streamline the process and take less stress off of people,

16:23 whether it's the creator that has to be the visionary of the channel

16:26 and the ambassador of the brand or whether

16:28 it's team members that have very specific tasks.

16:30 We can streamline those, get them back more time for things they enjoy,

16:34 things they like doing,

16:34 things they're good at, get them back home to their families,

16:36 anything we need to do.

16:38 So, for example a lot of creators, a big part of their stress is,

16:42 I don't know what to make or I'm trying to come up with ideas,

16:44 and they're doing it a lot of times in isolation.

16:46 They're doing it alone.

16:47 Not everyone has a writer's room.

16:49 So, what I found is that when people take Gemini,

16:53 for example, or YouTube app studio, and they use that to help them

16:57 with their content planning and to at least brainstorm ideas,

17:01 one, they feel less insane like they're talking

17:03 to themselves the way I do every day.

17:05 And so, talking to the AI actually is very helpful

17:09 and helps them get ideas going out of their head, helps them really brainstorm.

17:14 So, that's like a really good one.

17:15 And I have to imagine something like that is really

17:18 helpful for YouTube shopping because you can go into your analytics,

17:22 you can ask, you know, what are trends you're seeing around the top

17:27 products that are being sold or which

17:29 ones that I talked about that got the most views in the last 90 days.

17:33 You can actually get that specific with YouTube app studio cuz it actually has,

17:36 unlike any other tool, it has direct access to all of your YouTube data.

17:40 If you want to then go in and understand more

17:42 about your niche or even your competitors, you can use Gemini.

17:46 If you want that and you want it to feel more

17:48 conversational and you want to feel like you can absorb it better,

17:50 I've actually got this really good hack.

17:52 I'm using Notebook LM.

17:54 And what I'll do is they'll take five different sources of something,

17:57 maybe uh, a podcast or a couple of articles.

18:00 I'll feed them in as different sources,

18:02 and then Notebook LM will spit back to me something that's a coherent

18:05 podcast that I can listen to when I'm on a walk or when I'm,

18:10 you know, just trying to kill time or I'm on a drive,

18:13 and I'll understand the thing better.

18:15 I will understand it much more clearly than

18:17 if I just read the outputs from the AI.

18:20 It humanizes the context for me, and then I find that that's a lot better.

18:24 So, it helps me tremendously.

18:26 For the visual brainstorming, even just for things that I want to improve

18:31 in my set design or the look of my studio.

18:35 I've sat there and I've used Gemini with Nano Banana.

18:38 I've taken shots of my set and had it help me just reorganize

18:42 things or how something's going to look or help me improve the lighting.

18:45 And tying it back to shopping it's

18:47 also looking and prepping for those sales periods.

18:50 We know they happen every year.

18:52 You know, we can plan much further in advance.

18:55 To your point, we can look at what's working competitively.

18:58 The seasonality, the tentpole events coming up in the industry,

19:01 you could use it to help you map out

19:02 your calendar with your content planning as well as like,

19:05 okay, here's what I'm going to do in spring, summer, fall, winter.

19:09 Here are the things I'm going to focus on or help me

19:12 find things that'll be more evergreen so that when I make them,

19:15 they just have more value to my audience long-term instead of short-term,

19:19 and people will still be interested and people will keep buying.

19:22 They feel happy, I'm making more revenue,

19:25 and they're also getting exactly what they want or what they need.

19:28 And also a new feature worth plugging is that in studio now in analytics,

19:32 you can see who are the top merchants that are driving the most sales for me.

19:36 Uh, what are the top products that are selling for me?

19:39 So commissions.

19:40 Yes, exactly.

19:41 To be able to analyze what are those products that are

19:45 working for me to help you steer your content versus dictate.

19:50 And I think Exactly.

19:51 Yeah.

19:52 I think having these things and looking them as ways

19:53 that they inform your content instead feeling like they're taking over it.

19:57 I feel like you're just better armed

19:58 in how you can create value for your audience.

20:00 Like I made a lot of product center content in the early days of YouTube.

20:04 I did in addition to all the software stuff that I was training people on.

20:07 I was teaching them about their hardware too and what

20:09 to buy especially on a budget cuz I was on one.

20:13 So I was doing that.

20:14 I was doing budget laptop reviews, camera gear, best laptops for video editing,

20:19 best laptops for graphic design, that sort of thing.

20:21 And back then I had to do so much my own research.

20:24 I had to go I had to walk into the stores and I

20:26 had to ask questions and I had to get hands-on at Best Buy.

20:29 I used to harangue them so much.

20:31 It was so they were getting very little compensation for that too.

20:35 several Best Buys in the area.

20:37 Probably.

20:37 Probably.

20:37 Tri-state area.

20:38 Probably at the time or or or I don't know

20:41 if I was their most annoying customer or their favorite customer.

20:43 I don't know cuz a lot of them were passionate.

20:45 They like talking about this stuff.

20:46 It's just I didn't wouldn't then I wouldn't buy anything.

20:50 But when I would go back and make my content

20:52 and I do all this research it would have been

20:54 so much more convenient if I could have gone

20:55 into a dashboard in YouTube and just saw what was what

21:00 and then use that as my jump-off point to help

21:03 me focus because I end up spending a lot

21:05 of time on research that didn't go anywhere or wasn't

21:08 meaningful or ultimately led to a dead end where it's like,

21:12 "Okay, that's not helpful to my audience." This would have just made it

21:15 a shortcut for me understanding where value is and how to present it.

21:19 So now we've got an idea about maybe what products are working,

21:24 what is interesting for our audience.

21:27 Then how do you parlay that into content

21:30 strategy and different creative directions to go?

21:33 What tools would you use for that?

21:36 For a lot of that, I think it's a matter

21:38 of people should try their best to understand their audience more.

21:41 What I usually call in coaching the audience avatar.

21:44 And so when we use Google Gemini, we can put in things about our audience

21:49 and try to better understand what the preferences are.

21:52 So what is it they like more, what their prejudices are,

21:54 what gives them the ick as the kids say, right?

21:56 And also what are their problems and what are

21:59 their priorities so we can get a sense of, "Okay,

22:01 this is how you guys perceive value.

22:03 Here are the things that make something feel less valuable to you.

22:06 Here the things that you align with in terms

22:08 of where your problems are this specific

22:10 or it means you prefer budget products or you

22:13 prefer premium products or this signals this to you,

22:17 this signals that to you." So just being able

22:18 to go back and forth with Gemini and say,

22:20 "Okay, now that you understand my audience what

22:23 would you recommend to me now that you know more about my viewer?" That makes

22:27 it abstract and less abstract I should say, makes it more specific.

22:30 And so you're not just oh typing into a what to make into a prompt,

22:34 you're really having a conversation where "This is who I'm trying to help.

22:38 This is what they're going through.

22:40 What would you recommend or what do you think they

22:42 would prefer given that?" And then you can go, "Okay,

22:45 I feel like that works or it doesn't or hey,

22:47 have you considered this?" So I use it very conversationally.

22:50 I think everybody should.

22:51 I think you could just use it to understand your audience more.

22:54 That's going to lead you organically and authentically to what

22:58 should I make because you will know why they will care.

23:01 Why will they watch this?

23:02 It's the biggest thing we always have to answer.

23:04 It's not always about what you want to make.

23:05 It's really about what they want to watch.

23:08 And your goal and what I've always said is the content

23:10 creator who understands their audience better is the content creator that wins.

23:14 And if you can just use these tools to understand your audience better.

23:17 And when I mean that, I usually just use the four P's, the preferences,

23:21 prejudices, problems and priorities,

23:23 it just helps you see what is relevant to them.

23:25 And we heard from a lot of creators

23:27 that it still has to be content first, right?

23:29 You can understand what products they like,

23:31 you can understand buying behavior, but if the content isn't good, right?

23:36 If the content isn't what they want to watch, none of it matters.

23:40 So I think that's worth also mentioning is that 100%.

23:44 Yes.

23:44 What one of the content creators I work with one

23:46 of the things I told her, she does some homesteading content as well,

23:52 very different than Mike.

23:54 What he does is more of the tiny house retirement side of things.

23:58 So what I told her was "Okay,

24:01 your audience actually really enjoys and values these garden videos.

24:06 They love this whole idea of having stuff they

24:09 grew and then taking it to their own table.

24:11 They like the pantry stuff.

24:12 They like the canning stuff.

24:14 When you want to do integrations, it has to feel organic and has to feel

24:18 authentic and has to feel like something that they

24:20 would enjoy watching regardless of what it is they

24:22 end up buying or even if they don't buy,

24:25 they have to still feel immersed in the content.

24:27 Otherwise it'll just feel like a giant ad.

24:30 And that's something that a lot of creators take

24:32 for granted is a video can do more than one thing.

24:36 It can be something that you enjoy, you like the journey,

24:39 but maybe you wouldn't go on that journey.

24:41 You just like seeing it from someone else's perspective,

24:44 learning a little bit more about different part of the world in some way.

24:48 And then there's the kind of person that desperately

24:50 wants to go on that adventure or already is there

24:53 and they might be looking for guidance or they

24:55 might be looking for comfort in the idea of, "Oh,

24:58 I've also found someone who's crazy stupid

25:00 excited about the same things I am." So if you look at it from that perspective

25:04 as long as that feeling is your priority,

25:06 as long as the viewer is going to enjoy watching this regardless

25:09 of whether they buy anything you haven't

25:12 done anything wrong in monetizing that video.

25:15 You just have to prioritize will somebody who isn't a buyer

25:19 still enjoy this video and get some value from it.

25:21 That makes a lot of sense.

25:23 So when we talk about sales periods, right?

25:26 Whether it's the holidays, back to school,

25:28 things of that ilk how can creators use AI

25:32 tools to help them plan those major sales moments?

25:37 I think the best way they could do it instead

25:39 of the just more mechanical technical way cuz I think

25:41 the viewers watching this, they want to get more involved

25:43 in what does that look like from a storytelling perspective?

25:46 So in terms of things from a storytelling perspective,

25:49 they could use it to kind of just build a system

25:53 around their story brand and also plan their style scapes.

25:56 Primary example is with the products in the content,

26:00 it could actually help them with not just the thumbnail crafting,

26:03 but individual shot planning in the storyboard

26:06 in terms of creating different looks

26:09 for how products are presented and what those segments are going to look like.

26:13 You could generate that with Nano Banana very well actually cuz it's

26:17 really good with products sets physical

26:20 locations and getting those things accurate.

26:22 So you could feed assets into that and say, "Well, here are my products.

26:26 How could I arrange them in an overlay?"

26:29 So in a top-down layout that has this really

26:31 beautiful aesthetic and also helps tell the story

26:34 and really makes people care or feel like it's organized.

26:38 Because if you've ever done like top lay photography

26:41 with products whether it's tech or beauty then you know not.

26:45 Okay.

26:45 Well, like well, you've consumed that content.

26:47 So you like just think about how

26:49 much thoughtfulness has to be put into arranging

26:51 those products and by size or by category

26:54 or color palette to make it look beautiful.

26:57 Okay, that's a talent to do that.

27:00 Somebody might be a very good content creator.

27:02 They might be a very good photographer.

27:04 They might be a very good speaker.

27:06 It doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be a great product photographer

27:09 or be really good at layout or organizing products in a group.

27:14 But the AI can help you with the visual storytelling

27:17 aspect of that and help you with your visual style scapes.

27:20 A creator would just have to think about, "Oh, that's great.

27:25 I don't have to be the greatest creative director

27:27 of all time to still present something very beautiful

27:30 and that's a little bit more thoughtful and that the audience

27:32 will like more." And you can say, "Yeah,

27:34 version A of this looks much better than version B

27:38 or C." But seeing it and having those options before you go

27:41 through the physical trouble and labor of laying this out

27:45 on a table and getting it wrong or it doesn't look right,

27:48 it's just easier and faster to just go ahead and mock it up really quickly.

27:51 So that's just one example.

27:52 And I'll jump in and say, you know,

27:54 we've even heard from creators that are filming a lip gloss

27:57 for example to always use natural light cuz it catches the glimmer

28:01 of the bottle or what it whatever it is and it

28:04 makes it more appealing to the viewer if it's lit well.

28:08 Exactly.

28:08 So just little strategy and nuances when it comes to to your point, products,

28:13 it is a little bit of a different skill

28:15 set than just maybe the content you're used to doing.

28:18 So the AI can help give you recommendations on just

28:22 lighting better for your skin tones and for skin accuracy.

28:25 You know, if the audience really wants a clever way to use all

28:29 these kind of different tools to like make considerable money one of the things

28:34 you could do if you really wanted to is you could figure

28:38 out what some of the higher end best-selling products are in your niche.

28:45 You could look at which ones in the dashboard have the highest commissions.

28:48 And then you could look at AI and you could help have it help

28:52 you craft a specific organic story

28:54 for your viewer avatar and you could actually plan

28:57 and road map how can I throughout

28:59 the course of my content even seasonally throughout

29:02 the year make videos and target these products

29:07 in a way that my audience will resonate.

29:09 And you could specifically single out the high commission products.

29:14 And you could do that.

29:15 And the thing is it like people might think, "Oh, well,

29:17 that's a little ruthless or that's a little strategic." Like yeah,

29:20 it's very strategic.

29:22 But think about it from this perspective.

29:24 An example of this that I would probably do would

29:26 be a cheap versus expensive video in like any category.

29:30 I'm a camera guy.

29:31 So I would love to just break down something, "Oh,

29:34 this is cheap versus expensive." Or you do a here is every this camera gear,

29:40 this thing under this amount.

29:43 And you could have the AI help you strategically plan out those videos

29:46 or you could look at a video that did really well for you in views,

29:50 commissions, ad revenue, all of that.

29:52 Take it to the AI, especially with YouTube ad studio or Gemini Pro,

29:56 and you could ask it,

29:57 "Help me develop a video series of six videos that recapture

30:02 everything that worked for this video." You feed it all the data,

30:06 you tell it what you're trying to achieve,

30:07 you tell it the type of money you're trying to make, and you can have it, "Hey,

30:10 help me produce a series of six more videos that kind of flow together.

30:15 If they like this, they'll like that." And then

30:17 I could prioritize these high revenue videos,

30:20 and I can make them and still make them something my audience really wants,

30:24 really enjoys, cuz I'm recapturing that lightning in a bottle.

30:27 I want to duplicate it.

30:28 Help me accomplish that goal.

30:30 If you're A lot of people, they think that they can do that on their own.

30:34 Sometimes you can.

30:35 Very talented people can.

30:36 But sometimes you're doing that, you're editing,

30:39 you're coordinating with brands.

30:41 The sheer amount of stress on you, the cognitive load,

30:43 it's not your fault that you all don't always have the best ideas right away,

30:48 ready and raring to go.

30:51 Sometimes, just being able to have that second

30:53 brain is really helpful when you already feel overwhelmed,

30:57 or when you're bordering on burnout.

30:59 And a lot of people take that for granted.

31:01 They think that this is AI dependency, when actually what it is is this is just

31:06 a mature way to help you deprioritize the most

31:11 stressful aspect of everything you're putting on yourself until

31:15 you get to the point when you have a team.

31:16 The biggest content creators,

31:17 the most successful content creators, everyone keeps forgetting.

31:20 They have teams of five, eight, or even 20 people.

31:24 They don't just have a second brain, they have a second,

31:26 third, and fourth brain, and they have 20 pairs of hands.

31:30 And that's a really big difference

31:31 from a working class creator or a solo creator.

31:34 And the great thing about these AI tools and how it can help you with revenue,

31:38 especially if you're doing product centric content like shopping,

31:42 is you get to compete with a scaled

31:44 team without having to have that kind of budget.

31:47 You also mentioned something that I think is worth doubling

31:49 down on, which is if you find something that works,

31:53 it's okay for that replication and that repetitiveness,

31:57 especially with products.

31:58 Some of our most successful shopping creators will mention the same

32:02 product across multiple videos because it's something they believe in.

32:07 And the more times their viewers are hearing it,

32:10 the more that trust is is being built.

32:12 It's I really like this thing.

32:14 I'm going to talk about it again.

32:16 analytics, we also see that every time we upload a video,

32:19 often more than 50% of the viewers are new viewers.

32:21 And if you got the thing you all really want,

32:23 which is going viral, if you ever went viral, it mean that more than 90% of all

32:28 the viewers would probably be first time viewers.

32:30 They certainly aren't your subscribers.

32:32 So, what are you really risking by being repetitive there?

32:36 Because it's repetitive to you,

32:38 it's not repetitive to the audience that's discovering it for the first time,

32:42 or who just came into the niche, or just came into the hobby,

32:44 or just came into the brand and started buying those kind of products,

32:47 just started to be able to afford to buy those kind of products.

32:50 The most people you'll find that if anything is growing,

32:55 if the the niche you're covering,

32:56 anything is growing, more of the people are new.

33:00 And so, you're going to be reaching those new people all time.

33:03 I tell creators I work with, make every video

33:05 as if the majority of people watching this are perfect strangers,

33:08 because if everything goes right, they will be.

33:11 They will have never seen or heard from you.

33:13 If you want 100,000 to a million views, that's only going to happen because,

33:19 unless you're already mega famous and you have 10 million subscribers,

33:22 the only way that happens is it means that everybody

33:24 watching that video is watching you for the first time,

33:27 maybe the second or third time.

33:28 They don't know you, they haven't burnt out,

33:31 they aren't There's not this viewer fatigue yet.

33:34 There's nothing wrong with repeating yourself 10 times within a year,

33:38 because I promise you most people are not going to watch all 10 of those videos.

33:42 You'll have a very small vocal minority of loyal, die-hard fans.

33:46 I pray for you for the problem of viewer fatigue,

33:49 because if you have 100,000 people that are

33:52 always showing up and are fatigued now, you've done something right.

33:55 You've had the best outcome of all time.

33:57 And then you can freshen things up a bit.

33:59 But I think a lot of people put so much pressure on themselves

34:02 to always be original in every single thing and start over from zero.

34:06 They're thinking so much like an artist, and I think it's actually hurting them.

34:10 I think that if they really just understood that show

34:13 up every single time like it's the first time,

34:17 that that would actually be much better

34:20 because you are allowed to just be consistent.

34:24 You are allowed to double down and triple down,

34:27 and don't worry until the majority of the audience

34:30 is telling you they're sick of seeing you, you're fine.

34:32 And on the flip side of it, if it's a video that did really well,

34:35 at least from a product perspective, products change.

34:38 So, last year's haul you did around the holidays,

34:42 people want to see the version for this year.

34:45 Oh, they absolutely have a recency bias.

34:47 Yeah.

34:47 Even if something is only 6 months outdated,

34:50 like it's very possible people will will where's the new version?

34:53 Or constantly.

34:55 Yeah, and and I think especially with YouTube shopping when it comes

34:58 to the way that you are reviewing something or highlighting a product,

35:02 if you find a format that works,

35:04 the viewers are telling you they want to see it again.

35:07 So, the repetition breeds trust, right?

35:09 Yeah.

35:10 A lot of people are afraid of repetition and consistency.

35:12 Repetition, consistency allowed you to breed familiarity,

35:16 and that leads to trust.

35:18 We trust what is familiar.

35:20 It brings us comfort.

35:21 It brings us continuity.

35:23 It's not you being boring, it's you being reliable.

35:27 And going back to trust, not this is not AI related,

35:30 but going back to trust again, one of the biggest things we see on our platform

35:34 is that trust in the creator and making sure

35:38 that the products you are recommending are ones that you

35:41 believe in, are ones that you really would use,

35:43 so that you never lose that trust.

35:45 Which is why I tell creators a lot of times

35:46 the best way to establish that, even in the thumbnail,

35:49 is to have the product in your hand.

35:51 It's very hard to fake that, even in an AI world, very accurately.

35:55 Have the product in hand so that people know

35:58 that you have it and that you've used it,

36:01 or at least that they see the representation of that.

36:03 I tell them also, for product centric content,

36:06 whether it's tech, beauty, lifestyle,

36:08 try to make sure in that first 3 to 5 seconds that they

36:11 see the product physically being represented by you in the real world,

36:15 whether it's you using it or in their hand,

36:17 even if it's in a couple of frames of the cut.

36:20 Just make sure that there's there,

36:21 cuz that breeds the immediate trust that we went from, "Okay,

36:24 that was the topic, that was the title, that was the thumbnail.

36:25 I clicked on that.

36:27 Hey, don't make me regret it.

36:28 Validate the video that I just feel like I clicked on from a title and thumbnail

36:32 standpoint." Immediately do that in the first

36:35 few seconds of the video for your hook.

36:37 Even if it's with B-roll, because that just establishes that trust and says,

36:42 "Okay, they weren't messing with me, they didn't clickbait me,

36:46 they actually have it." And tying back to teaching and educating, right?

36:50 It is still a newer feature.

36:53 It may be new to your audience.

36:54 So, teaching your audience how to use this feature, right,

36:59 is paramount to them understanding and buying into the whole experience, right?

37:05 So, I'm sure that a big part of people that are using it for the first time,

37:09 creators using shopping for the first time,

37:12 the advice would be teach your audience how to use it, how to shop with you.

37:17 One of the practical things to do that, because people may not feel

37:21 like they want to do that in this like evergreen video that they're making,

37:25 or this video that they want to be polished, or as their little art project,

37:28 I think that one of the best ways to do that is go live a little bit more often,

37:33 especially if you're a product centric creator, cuz that brings trust,

37:36 and those are also the people who tune into you the longest and have the most

37:41 highest possibility of ever buying from you

37:43 is going to be that live viewing audience.

37:45 I think that interjecting that micro tutorial of how to get these things

37:51 that I'm showing off in the live stream is a really good

37:54 idea and a really good segment where you just have something you

37:57 maybe pre-recorded that shows them the process so that they just know, "Hey,

38:00 this is how you get the things that I'm talking about in my videos." And so,

38:04 if that is just a small segment that exist in your live streams,

38:09 and you're going live every week or every other week,

38:12 then you have your strongest audience that has the most loyalty,

38:15 is the most connected.

38:16 I tell people the live audience is the loyal.

38:18 Well, what about for us,

38:19 like with long form being the predominant way and and shorts for shopping?

38:22 So, If you could just do a very short screen

38:25 recorded micro clip where you voice over and say,

38:28 "Hey, and to get anything that I mentioned in this video,

38:31 you could definitely do that with YouTube shopping.

38:33 Just click here, do this, do And just

38:34 make it like a quote unquote micro tutorial,

38:37 the same way that you would do an ad read for a sponsored video.

38:40 And so, if this video isn't sponsored, you could think of it as, "Hmm,

38:45 this video sponsored by my affiliate links today." And you could just

38:48 think of it as anywhere from a 15- to 30-second ad read.

38:52 It's no more interruptive than if you had a sponsor spot.

38:55 The difference is you can earn from it indefinitely,

38:58 unlike most sponsor spots, until dynamic ad brand insertion comes.

39:02 And I think, you know, another way of looking at it,

39:04 on the flip side of it not feeling like

39:06 a sponsored bit or not feeling like an ad,

39:09 is sharing that it's a new way for your audience to engage with you.

39:13 "Hey guys, I know you always ask me about this microphone, this sign.

39:18 Guess what?

39:19 Everything is tagged in this video.

39:21 If you want to buy it, now you can.

39:23 All right, back to what we were doing." So, it can feel

39:25 just did a perfect You did it perfectly.

39:29 And what was that?

39:29 Less than 5 seconds?

39:31 Yeah, so I think the education component is is super helpful.

39:34 What advice would you have for creators who, even after hearing all of this, are

39:38 still a little wary about using YouTube shopping?

39:43 They don't see themselves as a salesperson or they

39:45 don't see themselves as someone who knows about products.

39:50 What would you say to them?

39:51 You know, I'd say to you, just think about the last time that somebody

39:55 helped you get something that you wanted

39:57 to have or that you wanted to understand

39:59 more about or gave you a good recommendation.

40:01 You know, if you're a content creator,

40:03 there's probably somebody who helped you improve your audio,

40:05 helped you get a better microphone.

40:06 There's probably somebody who told you what light to buy

40:09 that was going to really help your videos pop,

40:11 help with your you know, your skin tones.

40:14 There's probably someone who recommended a software

40:16 that really saved you a lot of time.

40:18 Did you feel sold to by them or did you feel grateful?

40:22 Think about it from the perspective that I always say, value for the viewer.

40:25 If your viewer can benefit from this in some way or there's a possibility

40:29 that some subset of your viewers would benefit from this in some way,

40:33 then you are not being salesy, you're being helpful.

40:38 But guess what?

40:39 When you're helpful, you're allowed to capture some of that value.

40:43 That's why you're a content creator now.

40:44 You're helping people watch videos that are part of their day

40:48 and you're getting paid for that with YouTube Premium,

40:50 YouTube ad revenue, YouTube monetization.

40:52 So, you're capturing some of that value.

40:54 But it's not the only way you can capture some of that value.

40:57 If there are people who want the things that you show

41:00 off in your set design or your clothing or a product

41:03 that you're highlighting or product that was part of your big

41:05 experience or experiment or extravaganza or whatever you're doing,

41:09 then if you don't actually find a way to capture that, you've given away

41:13 free promotion and you've done all this effort

41:17 and you haven't captured any of it.

41:19 That might be really great for your viewer,

41:21 that's certainly great for the brand that gets that sale,

41:25 but you're not capturing any of the value that you created for that company.

41:29 And now you can.

41:30 And so, I don't think it's about you feeling salesy.

41:33 I would say that I'm more afraid of you underselling yourself and not capturing

41:38 value that you created and doing more work and capturing less benefit from it.

41:44 I'm more afraid for you of that and I think you should

41:47 be more afraid of that for yourself than you are about feeling salesy.

41:52 And I think that you just have to do

41:53 it in a way that's natural and just remember,

41:56 you're allowed to take pressure off your audience.

41:58 You're allowed to say, "Hey, for those of you who want it,

42:00 if anybody here can't afford these things,

42:03 I have more affordable options a link in the description

42:06 or something like that." You could always do that.

42:08 If you feel self-conscious about oh, well,

42:10 in this economy or people are spending money, link to an option.

42:13 They might still need to solve the problem that a product solves for.

42:17 Just help them maybe get to something that's in their budget.

42:20 And by the way, you don't have to do that in every video.

42:22 Another video could accomplish that.

42:23 Hey, I covered this before.

42:25 Some of you asked me for budget options that fit you,

42:28 so I made this other video to help you out.

42:30 Go watch it.

42:31 It's linked here in my end card or whatever.

42:34 You just have to meet your audience where they are and remember, you are there,

42:37 whether it's to solve the problem of them being bored,

42:40 whether there's something in their lifestyle that they want to improve,

42:42 their health, their fitness,

42:43 their well-being or even just their aesthetics or if there's something

42:45 they want to learn that helps them become a better person,

42:48 more educated or about their career, get more skills.

42:51 You're facilitating solving some kind of problem for the audience.

42:55 Meet them where they are, understand them, value them,

42:58 care about them and realize that when you put something out there,

43:02 they get to decide whether it's valuable for them

43:03 or not and it's okay if some of them say no.

43:06 And then you can use AI to analyze the comment

43:09 section and understand sentiment for each of your videos.

43:13 Well, yeah, absolutely can and everything.

43:15 And you know, for some of you,

43:17 you might want AI to take over the comment section at this point.

43:20 Because it's a perfect place to end this.

43:22 Roberto, thank you so much.