What does “Includes paid promotion” mean on YouTube?

Where does the label come from?

Creators set it themselves. When uploading, or later in YouTube Studio, they answer the paid promotion question with “Yes, my video includes branded content”. YouTube says this adds a disclosure that appears at the beginning of the video.

YouTube's viewer help page groups branded content into sponsorships (videos financed in whole or in part by a company), product placements (a product included directly in the content) and endorsements.

Do creators have to disclose sponsors?

YouTube makes creators responsible for complying with the law where they publish and points to regulators such as the FTC in the US and the ASA in the UK. YouTube's own article notes that it is not legal advice.

The FTC's guide for influencers says to disclose any financial, employment, personal or family relationship with a brand, including free or discounted products. For videos, it says the disclosure should be in the video itself, not only in the description, and that disclosures in both audio and video are more likely to be noticed. It also says not to assume a platform's disclosure tool is enough on its own.

What the label doesn't tell you

The label is useful but blunt:

• It doesn't say where in the video the promotion is, or how long it lasts.
• It depends on the creator ticking the box; a missing label is not proof a video is unsponsored.
• It doesn't separate a 60-second ad read from a video that is entirely about a sponsored product.

• Sponsor reads, product placement and self-promotion compared

Does YouTube Premium remove paid promotions?

No. The disclosure and the promotion are part of the creator's video. YouTube says Premium members may still get disclosures for sponsored content added directly by creators.

• Does YouTube Premium skip sponsor segments?

How to skip the promotion itself

When the promotion is a separate sponsor read, a sponsor skipper can find and skip it. SponsorSkip reads the captions, marks the sponsor read on the progress bar and jumps past it. Product placement that is part of the content usually can't be removed without removing the video.