Driving brand growth with YouTube creators

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Unleashing the power of creator connection to drive impact across the funnel with Context Lab
Megan Danielson
Megan Danielson, Director, Agency Sales & Agency Data & Measurement Solutions, Google, said“This Kantar meta analysis proves YouTube’s creator ecosystem is most effective when paired with brand advertising, outperforming other platforms with their respective short-form video formats. By blending creator trust with YouTube’s scale, brands can turn cultural relevance into measurable business impact.” 
In today's fragmented and fastmoving media environment, brands are under growing pressure to not only capture attention, but to forge authentic connections and drive lasting impact at scale. With audiences increasingly drawn to creator-led content, marketers need robust evidence to understand how creator advertising performs and how it integrates with brand advertising to drive growth. That's why Google partnered with Kantar on a Context Lab meta analysis to measure the impact of YouTube creator ads and creator partnerships boost.

What are YouTube creator ads and creator partnerships boost?

YouTube is home to millions of creators who build deep, trusted relationships with their audiences across formats, from Shorts to longform video.

  • YouTube creator ads: These ads feature creators as talent in content hosted on the brand's own channel. Often produced in partnership with a third-party production agency and the brand, these ads preserve creator authenticity while scaling the brand's reach.

  • Creator partnerships boost: Through this feature, brands can promote authentic creator videos directly within their YouTube campaigns. By utilizing native co-branding features - where both the brand and creator's identities are featured - advertisers can "boost" organic storytelling with paid media. This approach leverages the creator's unique audience data to drive measurable results across every stage of the marketing funnel.

Approach

Kantar conducted a comprehensive US Context Lab meta-analysis, commissioned by Google, to evaluate the effectiveness of YouTube's creator ecosystem.

The research analysed 40 brand campaigns across 11 major verticals, including Automotive, Financial Services, Media & Entertainment, Retail, and Technology. Campaigns ran on mobile devices and were measured against exposed and control groups.

The meta-analysis evaluated performance across the full funnel, including aided brand awareness, ad recall, consideration intent, recommendation intent, purchase intent, and long-term brand equity. Long-term brand equity was measured using Kantar's Meaningful Difference framework, averaging lift across established dimensions such as sets trends, meaningfulness, difference, and affinity. This allowed the study to capture not only short-term impact, but also indicators of sustained brand growth.

Crucially, the analysis compared three distinct strategies:

  1. Creator ads alone
  2. Creator partnerships boosts alone
  3. Brand ads alone (i.e., traditional ads created by brands and hosted on brand channels, without creators involved)
  4. Combined creator + brand strategies

By benchmarking these results against competitor platform norms, Kantar identified the incremental value of creators as both a standalone lever and a multiplier when paired with brand advertising.

Insight

The findings are clear: on average, YouTube creator ads and creator partnerships boost deliver significantly stronger results when run alongside brand ads. In Kantar's study, we found that creators amplified brand advertising by driving greater incremental performance throughout the entire funnel, from awareness to long-term brand equity.

According to Kantar, on average, YouTube creator ads and brand ads work better together. Combined they increased:

  • Aided brand awareness by 9%, outperforming brand ads alone by 1.6x, and outperforming competitors by 3.4x 1

  • Long-term brand equity by 9%, outperforming brand ads by 1.3x, and outperforming competitors by 4.1x 2

    1 Among 1849 year olds, US, 2025; 2 Among 2554 year olds, US 2025 

These results demonstrate that creator authenticity doesn't replace brand advertising - it amplifies it.

YouTube creator ads amplify brand ad performance

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The Shorts advantage: Breaking through the noise

Promoting creator content on Shorts using creator partnerships boost proves to be one of the most powerful ways for brands to break through. Research shows that creator partnerships boost unlocks significantly stronger performance across every major brand metric, outshining other shortform video platforms by a wide margin.

According to Kantar, on average, advertisers who promoted creator content on Shorts using creator partnerships boost saw:3

  • +4.3% higher absolute lift in aided brand awareness, outperforming other platforms with shortform video formats by 3.4x

  • +7.4% higher absolute lift in ad recall, outperforming other platforms with short-form video formats by 1.2x

  • +3.8% higher absolute lift in consideration intent, outperforming other platforms with short-form video formats by 1.6x

  • +2.7% higher absolute lift in purchase intent, outperforming other platforms with short-form video formats by 1.4x

  • +5.0% higher absolute lift in long-term brand equity, outperforming other platforms with short-form video formats by 3.1x

    3 Among 2554 year olds, US 2025

These figures make a compelling case: Creator partnerships boost on YouTube Shorts delivers stronger lift, deeper engagement, and more durable brand impact than any other shortform video platform.  
 

Creator partnerships boost in action  

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Why creators drive performance: Attention and relevance

Kantar's findings reinforce why creators are such a powerful force on YouTube, noting their mastery of two critical pillars: attention and relevance.

  1. Sustained attention: YouTube creator ads and brand ads work better together. Combined, they increased ad recall by 15% and aided brand awareness by 9% amongst 18-49 year olds. This performance highlights the creator’s ability to capture and sustain attention across the entire YouTube ecosystem, from quickfire Shorts to immersive longform storytelling. Designed for how people actually watch today, creator partnerships turn attention into meaningful brand impact.

  2. Authentic relevance: By building communities around shared passions, creators deliver relevance and resonance at scale. Creator ads place brands inside content that audiences actively choose and trust, making the integration feel naturally aligned rather than interruptive. This advantage is supported by Kantar research, with 92%4 of US viewers agreeing that YouTube content is relevant to their needs, compared to an 82% average for competitor social media platforms.

    4 Source: Source: Google/Kantar, Future of Video, n=1001 YouTube viewers, n=2160 weekly video viewers 18-64 (US), fielded from (1/28/25-2/10/25). The competitive set includes 9 market competitors: Linear TV, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Max, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat

Impact

This Context Lab meta analysis proves that YouTube creator partnerships are a powerful growth driver, especially when paired with brand advertising. By combining creator authenticity with Google’s media amplification and Kantar’s robust measurement, brands can deliver stronger results across the funnel, from awareness to long-term brand equity. 

The takeaway for marketers is clear: creators are no longer just a tactic — they’re a strategic advantage. 

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