Google YouTube Creator Playbook Guide Version 2 - Manual (Page 51)

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How-To Steps
1. Learn how to create annotations
Understand the different types and uses of annotations, as well as how
to create and edit them.
2. Add annotations to new uploads after publishing
Determine the right use of annotations for your content and audience.
Avoid creating distracting annotations or too many. Use annotations for
calls to action encouraging the viewers to take certain community
actions such as ‘favoriting’, ‘liking’, and sharing the video.
Decide if any static annotations make sense for your videos. Add a
‘Subscribe’ annotation and/or a ‘Newest Episode’ annotation that is
present for the entire video to provide easy navigation for the viewer at
any moment.
Utilize annotations at the end of the video to direct viewers to another
video, your channel, or to some other action such as subscribing.
Create an ‘End-Card’ to addend your videos and use annotations to
make it clickable.
Annotations will affect metrics depending on what you use them for and
what actions you’re directing viewers to take. If you use annotations for
community actions, subscribers and linking to other videos, track
overall growth of these metrics. Focus on one specific action or
initiative to measure specific effectiveness.
Publishing & Optimization Annotations
3. Update annotations on high-performing archive videos
Add and update annotations on high-performing archive videos to help
leverage these views to new initiatives or new uploads.
Use annotations to repackage old content for new purposes along with
updated metadata.
4. Be creative
Experiment with annotations to use them in new ways that will help you
increase engagement, build audience, or simply make your content
better and more compelling.
Include elements in the video with the intention of enhancing with
clickable annotations after upload.