How To Add Cards To Youtube Videos

Estimated read fourth dimension: six minutes

Driving ~~clicks~~ results from anywhere is usually a goal for marketers. Aye, there'southward value in brand sensation. But if we can become people to click over to our landing folio and maybe buy something that'southward even better!

On websites nosotros add links in articles to drive people to next steps. On podcasts we may ask our listeners to text u.s.a. for a deal or to subscribe.

In YouTube videos you can verbally inquire people to do something. Especially when the call to action is embedded contextually in educational content it can work. I even exercise this myself. I ran a session in the Agora Pulse Summit on how to create a content performance culture.

As you tin can run into in the video I even hold upward my book as a very gentle reminder that you tin can also read near the topic in in that location.

Exact call to deportment do have piece of work on the user part. Even when they hear me and see the book title, now they have to get to Google or Amazon and search for "Content Performance Culture."

A clickable call to action makes that user experience and flow easier. That'southward where YouTube cards come up in.

What are YouTube cards?

Some other way to add calls to action to your YouTube video is YouTube cards. YouTube cards are basically calls to activeness that show up on screen – normally in the top right corner. In this example, below the YouTube card CTA reads "Don't await to learn." I later changed that to "Get the book at present" to be clearer. "Don't wait to learn" could be a link to an online grade or a reminder to go on watching the video.

YouTube cards example

Once clicked the YouTube card shows more content and can be clicked on to a landing page:

YouTube cards extended example

What I beloved about YouTube cards

I tin can easily add together them at the right spots in the video inside context:

Talk about my book, add a carte to my book landing page
Talk almost podcasting, add a link to a blog mail that dives deeper into the issue
Demand to share a visual that wasn't shared on-screen, link to information technology?

Adding links to more visuals is kind of cool. As you tin run into in the video, I didn't use a PowerPoint or any visuals – other than my hands. That's because I was recording on an iPad and I couldn't effigy out how to add together a PowerPoint while the iPad was also recording me. The session even so received five-star reviews.

How to add YouTube cards to your videos

I wasn't able to do this from the iPad YouTube app, just information technology did piece of work from Safari and by going to YouTube.com. Sometimes it tin can be a hassle to finish the iPad from trying to open in the app. If you are on a laptop or desktop that'south not a problem for you.

Get to your channel

Click on YouTube Studio

YouTube studio

Click on videos (1)

So hover – or gently tap – over the video to get the edit push to appear (2)

How to edit a video in YouTube Studio

Click on CARDS in the bottom right to get the screen to add cards

Once in the video you become the ADD CARD button on the right. Before clicking on that, go to the time code where you want to add the card. If you are at 0:00 the card volition prove up directly at the offset.

One strategy might exist to sentry your video again and think nigh what other content y'all take that you can link to on your associated website. Yous can add links via cards to:

Other videos
Playlists
Other YouTube channels – a good strategy if you interview or mention another YouTuber or company with YouTube aqueduct
Your approved associated website
Approved merchandising sites
Approved crowdfunding sites

You can also run polls.

YouTube cards example

My YouTube channel's associated website is Authenticstorytelling.net so I tin add together cards linking to hither with no trouble. YouTube doesn't but permit us link to whatever website but only to things internal to YouTube or approved external sites.

Once I'm in the right spot in the video, I click Add Carte and that I want to insert a link to my associated website.

For some reason, the http and not the https URL of my site shows upward. In this use example that doesn't seem to be a huge consequence equally the http click just gets forwarded to the https version. Only the offset fourth dimension I added the page link to the URLs and used the https version in that field, YouTube gave me an error. The https version is not technically the linked site.

You can send people to any page on your chief domain.

From there you lot fill up out the copy for the carte du jour. The teaser is what shows upwardly as people watch the video at the time code when you prepare information technology to offset. The call to action shows once people click on the teaser. The YouTube card automatically pulls in the page's preview image – like virtually social media channels. Don't like the preview image? Click Change IMAGE to add a custom image.

Click CREATE CARD and you lot are done.

You can add many more cards. YouTube recommends to not put them likewise close to each other as the video plays.

Why YouTube cards may non work for you

There'south a place to use YouTube cards and when your videos get a good amount of traffic they may even show results. In the overall scheme of social media channels, YouTube is by far not the highest performing channel for me. I don't look my videos to drive huge results right this 2d.

With that in mind, I add some cards but don't spend hours on this strategy. As I was working on this I thought of older videos and went to wait which videos are my highest performing ones.

Tin can I add together YouTube cards to older videos on my channel?

Yeah, and I would recommend doing that with videos that have something to do with your electric current goals and business concern. I went to my channel and sorted videos by "nigh pop" (i.east. near views).

Videos with most views

Some of the high performers were from the days of Eastern Iowa News, a at present defunct local news startup. They are non that relevant today. Iii videos of the pinnacle xvi are still relevant, though. One already had YouTube cards added even.

Could I nevertheless easily add cards to the other two? Yes.

Click on the video.

And so click on EDIT VIDEO

From there the process is the aforementioned equally outlined above.

YouTube cards wrap

If you upload videos to YouTube, there's really no reason to not add cards and calls to action to something else that is relevant. Just don't overdo information technology.

And it's hands done even from an iPad. That'southward a bonus for us mobile content creators.

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