The Infographic Spectacle of YouTube’s 2017 Data

Infographic - Mind Numbing YouTube Facts,Figures and Statistics

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Since YouTube.com domain was first registered more than a decade ago, it has become one of the most used video sharing platforms on the planet. Former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steven Chen and Jawed Karim founded YouTube in 2005 and only a year later their platform was one of the world’s fastest growing websites, surpassing MySpace with more than 100 million video views in the July of the same year. It wasn’t long before YouTube was purchased by Google on November 13. 2006 and since then the world’s most popular video sharing platform has grown continuously.

In 2017, more than 500 hours of video content are being uploaded to YouTube each minute, and over 1.5 billion active users utilize it to share their memories, music they love, business ideas or anything else they feel strongly about. The following infographic will present some of the most interesting YouTube facts and statistics that will enable you to understand better one of the most popular websites ever created.

It’s hard to pick highlights from such an interesting and comprehensive read, but a couple of key stats shine out.

• YouTube has just 0,5 billion users less than Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg is perhaps one of the best-known business geniuses who made his fortune by creating the social network everyone wanted to be a part of. With more than 2 billion active users Facebook is the largest online community on the Internet today. YouTube has 1.5 billion active monthly users which makes it the second largest platform of its kind, well ahead of Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.

• People aged 24 to 44 watch the most videos on YouTube

This information isn’t particularly surprising since younger generations use the Internet more frequently than the older ones. 49% of all YouTube users are aged between 24 and 44, but this statistic will likely change in the future since YouTube’s popularity can only increase. What comes in as a surprise is the fact that men spend 24% more time on YouTube than women. Could it be that men are more interested in music, short videos or promotional business videos than women or perhaps, women are simply more practical and thus tend to spend less time aimlessly going through endless video content.

• 9% of the videos are taken down because of the copyright infringements

At one point in the early 2000’s, it seemed as if the copyright laws will be changed forever by the Internet. Since then countless initiatives have prevented YouTube users to view, upload or share content that they don’t have the permission to use. In 2017, 9% of all videos uploaded on YouTube are taken down by the copyright holders. This means that YouTubers must make sure that all content they upload is unique or that they at least have a permission to use it.

• An average person spends 40 minutes on YouTube each day

YouTube is probably one of the best pastimes the Internet can offer, and for that reason, a common person spends 40 minutes on YouTube per day. When you add an average life expectancy into the equation the math shows that during their lifetimes, people spend nearly 2 years on YouTube, or 1 year and 10 months to be exact.

• Pop music singers are the most popular celebrities on YouTube

Naturally, music is the most searched term on YouTube, and celebrities like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry or Rihana have millions of subscribers with billions of total video views. Unlike Facebook where the most popular celebrities are Christiano Ronaldo or Vin Diesel, an actor and a football player, YouTube stars are mostly musicians and Pop Culture icons whose music is available to fans across the globe because of this platform. Some of the historically most viewed videos on YouTube are Luis Fonsi’s Despacito, Psy’s Gangnam Style or Tayler Swift’s Shake it Off that all have a staggering amount of views.

Let us know what you think about these interesting facts about YouTube in the comments below and feel free to share this article with your friends and colleagues.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Since YouTube.com domain was first registered more than a decade ago, it has become one of the most used video sharing platforms on the planet. Former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steven Chen and Jawed Karim founded YouTube in 2005 and only a year later their platform was one of the world’s fastest growing websites, surpassing MySpace with more than 100 million video views in the July of the same year. It wasn’t long before YouTube was purchased by Google on November 13. 2006 and since then the world’s most popular video sharing platform has grown continuously.

In 2017, more than 500 hours of video content are being uploaded to YouTube each minute, and over 1.5 billion active users utilize it to share their memories, music they love, business ideas or anything else they feel strongly about. The following infographic will present some of the most interesting YouTube facts and statistics that will enable you to understand better one of the most popular websites ever created.

It’s hard to pick highlights from such an interesting and comprehensive read, but a couple of key stats shine out.

• YouTube has just 0,5 billion users less than Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg is perhaps one of the best-known business geniuses who made his fortune by creating the social network everyone wanted to be a part of. With more than 2 billion active users Facebook is the largest online community on the Internet today. YouTube has 1.5 billion active monthly users which makes it the second largest platform of its kind, well ahead of Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.

• People aged 24 to 44 watch the most videos on YouTube

This information isn’t particularly surprising since younger generations use the Internet more frequently than the older ones. 49% of all YouTube users are aged between 24 and 44, but this statistic will likely change in the future since YouTube’s popularity can only increase. What comes in as a surprise is the fact that men spend 24% more time on YouTube than women. Could it be that men are more interested in music, short videos or promotional business videos than women or perhaps, women are simply more practical and thus tend to spend less time aimlessly going through endless video content.

• 9% of the videos are taken down because of the copyright infringements

At one point in the early 2000’s, it seemed as if the copyright laws will be changed forever by the Internet. Since then countless initiatives have prevented YouTube users to view, upload or share content that they don’t have the permission to use. In 2017, 9% of all videos uploaded on YouTube are taken down by the copyright holders. This means that YouTubers must make sure that all content they upload is unique or that they at least have a permission to use it.

• An average person spends 40 minutes on YouTube each day

YouTube is probably one of the best pastimes the Internet can offer, and for that reason, a common person spends 40 minutes on YouTube per day. When you add an average life expectancy into the equation the math shows that during their lifetimes, people spend nearly 2 years on YouTube, or 1 year and 10 months to be exact.

• Pop music singers are the most popular celebrities on YouTube

Naturally, music is the most searched term on YouTube, and celebrities like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry or Rihana have millions of subscribers with billions of total video views. Unlike Facebook where the most popular celebrities are Christiano Ronaldo or Vin Diesel, an actor and a football player, YouTube stars are mostly musicians and Pop Culture icons whose music is available to fans across the globe because of this platform. Some of the historically most viewed videos on YouTube are Luis Fonsi’s Despacito, Psy’s Gangnam Style or Tayler Swift’s Shake it Off that all have a staggering amount of views.

Let us know what you think about these interesting facts about YouTube in the comments below and feel free to share this article with your friends and colleagues.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Since YouTube.com domain was first registered more than a decade ago, it has become one of the most used video sharing platforms on the planet. Former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steven Chen and Jawed Karim founded YouTube in 2005 and only a year later their platform was one of the world’s fastest growing websites, surpassing MySpace with more than 100 million video views in the July of the same year. It wasn’t long before YouTube was purchased by Google on November 13. 2006 and since then the world’s most popular video sharing platform has grown continuously.

In 2017, more than 500 hours of video content are being uploaded to YouTube each minute, and over 1.5 billion active users utilize it to share their memories, music they love, business ideas or anything else they feel strongly about. The following infographic will present some of the most interesting YouTube facts and statistics that will enable you to understand better one of the most popular websites ever created.

It’s hard to pick highlights from such an interesting and comprehensive read, but a couple of key stats shine out.

• YouTube has just 0,5 billion users less than Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg is perhaps one of the best-known business geniuses who made his fortune by creating the social network everyone wanted to be a part of. With more than 2 billion active users Facebook is the largest online community on the Internet today. YouTube has 1.5 billion active monthly users which makes it the second largest platform of its kind, well ahead of Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.

• People aged 24 to 44 watch the most videos on YouTube

This information isn’t particularly surprising since younger generations use the Internet more frequently than the older ones. 49% of all YouTube users are aged between 24 and 44, but this statistic will likely change in the future since YouTube’s popularity can only increase. What comes in as a surprise is the fact that men spend 24% more time on YouTube than women. Could it be that men are more interested in music, short videos or promotional business videos than women or perhaps, women are simply more practical and thus tend to spend less time aimlessly going through endless video content.

• 9% of the videos are taken down because of the copyright infringements

At one point in the early 2000’s, it seemed as if the copyright laws will be changed forever by the Internet. Since then countless initiatives have prevented YouTube users to view, upload or share content that they don’t have the permission to use. In 2017, 9% of all videos uploaded on YouTube are taken down by the copyright holders. This means that YouTubers must make sure that all content they upload is unique or that they at least have a permission to use it.

• An average person spends 40 minutes on YouTube each day

YouTube is probably one of the best pastimes the Internet can offer, and for that reason, a common person spends 40 minutes on YouTube per day. When you add an average life expectancy into the equation the math shows that during their lifetimes, people spend nearly 2 years on YouTube, or 1 year and 10 months to be exact.

• Pop music singers are the most popular celebrities on YouTube

Naturally, music is the most searched term on YouTube, and celebrities like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry or Rihana have millions of subscribers with billions of total video views. Unlike Facebook where the most popular celebrities are Christiano Ronaldo or Vin Diesel, an actor and a football player, YouTube stars are mostly musicians and Pop Culture icons whose music is available to fans across the globe because of this platform. Some of the historically most viewed videos on YouTube are Luis Fonsi’s Despacito, Psy’s Gangnam Style or Tayler Swift’s Shake it Off that all have a staggering amount of views.

Let us know what you think about these interesting facts about YouTube in the comments below and feel free to share this article with your friends and colleagues.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Since YouTube.com domain was first registered more than a decade ago, it has become one of the most used video sharing platforms on the planet. Former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steven Chen and Jawed Karim founded YouTube in 2005 and only a year later their platform was one of the world’s fastest growing websites, surpassing MySpace with more than 100 million video views in the July of the same year. It wasn’t long before YouTube was purchased by Google on November 13. 2006 and since then the world’s most popular video sharing platform has grown continuously.

In 2017, more than 500 hours of video content are being uploaded to YouTube each minute, and over 1.5 billion active users utilize it to share their memories, music they love, business ideas or anything else they feel strongly about. The following infographic will present some of the most interesting YouTube facts and statistics that will enable you to understand better one of the most popular websites ever created.

It’s hard to pick highlights from such an interesting and comprehensive read, but a couple of key stats shine out.

• YouTube has just 0,5 billion users less than Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg is perhaps one of the best-known business geniuses who made his fortune by creating the social network everyone wanted to be a part of. With more than 2 billion active users Facebook is the largest online community on the Internet today. YouTube has 1.5 billion active monthly users which makes it the second largest platform of its kind, well ahead of Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.

• People aged 24 to 44 watch the most videos on YouTube

This information isn’t particularly surprising since younger generations use the Internet more frequently than the older ones. 49% of all YouTube users are aged between 24 and 44, but this statistic will likely change in the future since YouTube’s popularity can only increase. What comes in as a surprise is the fact that men spend 24% more time on YouTube than women. Could it be that men are more interested in music, short videos or promotional business videos than women or perhaps, women are simply more practical and thus tend to spend less time aimlessly going through endless video content.

• 9% of the videos are taken down because of the copyright infringements

At one point in the early 2000’s, it seemed as if the copyright laws will be changed forever by the Internet. Since then countless initiatives have prevented YouTube users to view, upload or share content that they don’t have the permission to use. In 2017, 9% of all videos uploaded on YouTube are taken down by the copyright holders. This means that YouTubers must make sure that all content they upload is unique or that they at least have a permission to use it.

• An average person spends 40 minutes on YouTube each day

YouTube is probably one of the best pastimes the Internet can offer, and for that reason, a common person spends 40 minutes on YouTube per day. When you add an average life expectancy into the equation the math shows that during their lifetimes, people spend nearly 2 years on YouTube, or 1 year and 10 months to be exact.

• Pop music singers are the most popular celebrities on YouTube

Naturally, music is the most searched term on YouTube, and celebrities like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry or Rihana have millions of subscribers with billions of total video views. Unlike Facebook where the most popular celebrities are Christiano Ronaldo or Vin Diesel, an actor and a football player, YouTube stars are mostly musicians and Pop Culture icons whose music is available to fans across the globe because of this platform. Some of the historically most viewed videos on YouTube are Luis Fonsi’s Despacito, Psy’s Gangnam Style or Tayler Swift’s Shake it Off that all have a staggering amount of views.

Let us know what you think about these interesting facts about YouTube in the comments below and feel free to share this article with your friends and colleagues.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Implementing YouTube’s Custom Markup Guide

How to Use YouTube Cards and Annotations?

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

YouTube Annotations and Cards are both tools for linking viewers to your other videos or to off-YouTube webpages. Two of the major differences between them are:

Annotations are not clickable on mobile devices.

You cannot choose the size or positioning of Cards.

This article will teach you about both Cards and Annotations and discuss the best uses for each of them.

Part 1: Annotations

Annotations are messages that float overtop of your videos in the YouTube player. Usually, annotations are clickable and take users to other content created by you.

Section 1: Types of Annotations

There are five types of YouTube annotations:

Notes are colored boxes placed over the top of your videos.

Speech Bubbles look like dialogue boxes in a comic strip. They have tails that you can adjust so it looks like one of the people in your video is saying what is written in the annotation.

Spotlights have a subtle border and are completely clear inside. Your text only appears when a viewer’s cursor hovers over top of these annotations.

Labels are like spotlights except that viewers do not have to hover over them for your text to be visible.

Any of these annotations can be used to link viewers to other videos, or as subscribe links. You can also add a simple Title to your video through the Annotations menu.

Section 2: How to Use Annotations

*Note: the above video mentions Pause annotations, which are no longer available.

Here are two of the best uses for annotations:

Clickable End Cards / Outros

One of the best ways you can use spotlight annotations is to create clickable end cards for your videos.

When your video finishes playing the YouTube player will display a selection of suggested videos that might direct viewers away from your channel. You can keep more of these viewers watching your content by creating your own ‘suggested videos’ card and putting it at the end of your videos.

Put thumbnails of two or three of your other videos on your end card, or use ‘picture-in-picture’ to actually imbed footage from them. Then, after you upload your video, go in and place clickable spotlight annotations over top of your video thumbnails.

This is one use for annotations that cannot be duplicated with cards.

Promoting Your Videos

You should not wait until the end of your video to start linking viewers to other content. Many viewers will click away before they see your end card because your video is not exactly what they were looking for. By placing note or speech bubble annotations occasionally throughout your videos you can catch some of these people before they click off of your channel.

This works especially well if you link to videos on similar subjects to the one you are annotating.

Instead of just linking to another video of yours, try to link to that video on a playlist. Once a viewer is on a playlist your videos will auto-play after each other, which is good for both your view count and watch time.

You can also use the newer YouTube Cards for this, but Annotations might still be a better choice because viewers only need to click once vs. twice for Cards.

Try both and see which performs best for your channel. It might be in your best interest to keep on using both as they target different audiences – Cards are clickable on mobile devices, for example, but Annotations are not.

Part 2: YouTube Cards

YouTube Cards are newer than annotations and a lot of people believe they will one day replace Annotations. While there are benefits to Cards – like embedding images to represent your links – you cannot choose the shape, size, or placement of them. This means they have limited uses.

When viewers click on a Card they are shown additional information and a thumbnail representing the page they will be taken to if they choose to click again. This extra step could be either help viewers decide to click your links or give them a second chance to decide they would rather not.

Section 1: When to Use Cards

A linked Annotation is simply a call to action viewers can click on. A Card is a call to action as well, but instead of taking the viewer directly to where its link leads when it is clicked a Card opens up into a larger version of itself with a thumbnail image.

Crowdfunding pages (Patreon is a great choice for video creators), charity fundraising pages, and merchandise stores are all examples of links that benefit from the format of YouTube Cards.

When you link a viewer to a non-YouTube page you break up their session time, which negatively impacts your watch time and SEO ranking. You want to make sure that the viewers you are directing away from YouTube are the ones most likely to convert after they leave. By ‘convert’ we mean to contribute to your Patreon campaign, donate to the charity you are promoting, or buy some of your merchandise.

Giving viewers more information and a thumbnail through a Card can help ensure the most interested viewers are the ones clicking your links.

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Filmora, which is equipped with its own footage stock Wondershare Filmstock and will definitely enhance your productivity and helps you to make money by making videos much easier.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

YouTube Annotations and Cards are both tools for linking viewers to your other videos or to off-YouTube webpages. Two of the major differences between them are:

Annotations are not clickable on mobile devices.

You cannot choose the size or positioning of Cards.

This article will teach you about both Cards and Annotations and discuss the best uses for each of them.

Part 1: Annotations

Annotations are messages that float overtop of your videos in the YouTube player. Usually, annotations are clickable and take users to other content created by you.

Section 1: Types of Annotations

There are five types of YouTube annotations:

Notes are colored boxes placed over the top of your videos.

Speech Bubbles look like dialogue boxes in a comic strip. They have tails that you can adjust so it looks like one of the people in your video is saying what is written in the annotation.

Spotlights have a subtle border and are completely clear inside. Your text only appears when a viewer’s cursor hovers over top of these annotations.

Labels are like spotlights except that viewers do not have to hover over them for your text to be visible.

Any of these annotations can be used to link viewers to other videos, or as subscribe links. You can also add a simple Title to your video through the Annotations menu.

Section 2: How to Use Annotations

*Note: the above video mentions Pause annotations, which are no longer available.

Here are two of the best uses for annotations:

Clickable End Cards / Outros

One of the best ways you can use spotlight annotations is to create clickable end cards for your videos.

When your video finishes playing the YouTube player will display a selection of suggested videos that might direct viewers away from your channel. You can keep more of these viewers watching your content by creating your own ‘suggested videos’ card and putting it at the end of your videos.

Put thumbnails of two or three of your other videos on your end card, or use ‘picture-in-picture’ to actually imbed footage from them. Then, after you upload your video, go in and place clickable spotlight annotations over top of your video thumbnails.

This is one use for annotations that cannot be duplicated with cards.

Promoting Your Videos

You should not wait until the end of your video to start linking viewers to other content. Many viewers will click away before they see your end card because your video is not exactly what they were looking for. By placing note or speech bubble annotations occasionally throughout your videos you can catch some of these people before they click off of your channel.

This works especially well if you link to videos on similar subjects to the one you are annotating.

Instead of just linking to another video of yours, try to link to that video on a playlist. Once a viewer is on a playlist your videos will auto-play after each other, which is good for both your view count and watch time.

You can also use the newer YouTube Cards for this, but Annotations might still be a better choice because viewers only need to click once vs. twice for Cards.

Try both and see which performs best for your channel. It might be in your best interest to keep on using both as they target different audiences – Cards are clickable on mobile devices, for example, but Annotations are not.

Part 2: YouTube Cards

YouTube Cards are newer than annotations and a lot of people believe they will one day replace Annotations. While there are benefits to Cards – like embedding images to represent your links – you cannot choose the shape, size, or placement of them. This means they have limited uses.

When viewers click on a Card they are shown additional information and a thumbnail representing the page they will be taken to if they choose to click again. This extra step could be either help viewers decide to click your links or give them a second chance to decide they would rather not.

Section 1: When to Use Cards

A linked Annotation is simply a call to action viewers can click on. A Card is a call to action as well, but instead of taking the viewer directly to where its link leads when it is clicked a Card opens up into a larger version of itself with a thumbnail image.

Crowdfunding pages (Patreon is a great choice for video creators), charity fundraising pages, and merchandise stores are all examples of links that benefit from the format of YouTube Cards.

When you link a viewer to a non-YouTube page you break up their session time, which negatively impacts your watch time and SEO ranking. You want to make sure that the viewers you are directing away from YouTube are the ones most likely to convert after they leave. By ‘convert’ we mean to contribute to your Patreon campaign, donate to the charity you are promoting, or buy some of your merchandise.

Giving viewers more information and a thumbnail through a Card can help ensure the most interested viewers are the ones clicking your links.

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Filmora, which is equipped with its own footage stock Wondershare Filmstock and will definitely enhance your productivity and helps you to make money by making videos much easier.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

YouTube Annotations and Cards are both tools for linking viewers to your other videos or to off-YouTube webpages. Two of the major differences between them are:

Annotations are not clickable on mobile devices.

You cannot choose the size or positioning of Cards.

This article will teach you about both Cards and Annotations and discuss the best uses for each of them.

Part 1: Annotations

Annotations are messages that float overtop of your videos in the YouTube player. Usually, annotations are clickable and take users to other content created by you.

Section 1: Types of Annotations

There are five types of YouTube annotations:

Notes are colored boxes placed over the top of your videos.

Speech Bubbles look like dialogue boxes in a comic strip. They have tails that you can adjust so it looks like one of the people in your video is saying what is written in the annotation.

Spotlights have a subtle border and are completely clear inside. Your text only appears when a viewer’s cursor hovers over top of these annotations.

Labels are like spotlights except that viewers do not have to hover over them for your text to be visible.

Any of these annotations can be used to link viewers to other videos, or as subscribe links. You can also add a simple Title to your video through the Annotations menu.

Section 2: How to Use Annotations

*Note: the above video mentions Pause annotations, which are no longer available.

Here are two of the best uses for annotations:

Clickable End Cards / Outros

One of the best ways you can use spotlight annotations is to create clickable end cards for your videos.

When your video finishes playing the YouTube player will display a selection of suggested videos that might direct viewers away from your channel. You can keep more of these viewers watching your content by creating your own ‘suggested videos’ card and putting it at the end of your videos.

Put thumbnails of two or three of your other videos on your end card, or use ‘picture-in-picture’ to actually imbed footage from them. Then, after you upload your video, go in and place clickable spotlight annotations over top of your video thumbnails.

This is one use for annotations that cannot be duplicated with cards.

Promoting Your Videos

You should not wait until the end of your video to start linking viewers to other content. Many viewers will click away before they see your end card because your video is not exactly what they were looking for. By placing note or speech bubble annotations occasionally throughout your videos you can catch some of these people before they click off of your channel.

This works especially well if you link to videos on similar subjects to the one you are annotating.

Instead of just linking to another video of yours, try to link to that video on a playlist. Once a viewer is on a playlist your videos will auto-play after each other, which is good for both your view count and watch time.

You can also use the newer YouTube Cards for this, but Annotations might still be a better choice because viewers only need to click once vs. twice for Cards.

Try both and see which performs best for your channel. It might be in your best interest to keep on using both as they target different audiences – Cards are clickable on mobile devices, for example, but Annotations are not.

Part 2: YouTube Cards

YouTube Cards are newer than annotations and a lot of people believe they will one day replace Annotations. While there are benefits to Cards – like embedding images to represent your links – you cannot choose the shape, size, or placement of them. This means they have limited uses.

When viewers click on a Card they are shown additional information and a thumbnail representing the page they will be taken to if they choose to click again. This extra step could be either help viewers decide to click your links or give them a second chance to decide they would rather not.

Section 1: When to Use Cards

A linked Annotation is simply a call to action viewers can click on. A Card is a call to action as well, but instead of taking the viewer directly to where its link leads when it is clicked a Card opens up into a larger version of itself with a thumbnail image.

Crowdfunding pages (Patreon is a great choice for video creators), charity fundraising pages, and merchandise stores are all examples of links that benefit from the format of YouTube Cards.

When you link a viewer to a non-YouTube page you break up their session time, which negatively impacts your watch time and SEO ranking. You want to make sure that the viewers you are directing away from YouTube are the ones most likely to convert after they leave. By ‘convert’ we mean to contribute to your Patreon campaign, donate to the charity you are promoting, or buy some of your merchandise.

Giving viewers more information and a thumbnail through a Card can help ensure the most interested viewers are the ones clicking your links.

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Filmora, which is equipped with its own footage stock Wondershare Filmstock and will definitely enhance your productivity and helps you to make money by making videos much easier.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

YouTube Annotations and Cards are both tools for linking viewers to your other videos or to off-YouTube webpages. Two of the major differences between them are:

Annotations are not clickable on mobile devices.

You cannot choose the size or positioning of Cards.

This article will teach you about both Cards and Annotations and discuss the best uses for each of them.

Part 1: Annotations

Annotations are messages that float overtop of your videos in the YouTube player. Usually, annotations are clickable and take users to other content created by you.

Section 1: Types of Annotations

There are five types of YouTube annotations:

Notes are colored boxes placed over the top of your videos.

Speech Bubbles look like dialogue boxes in a comic strip. They have tails that you can adjust so it looks like one of the people in your video is saying what is written in the annotation.

Spotlights have a subtle border and are completely clear inside. Your text only appears when a viewer’s cursor hovers over top of these annotations.

Labels are like spotlights except that viewers do not have to hover over them for your text to be visible.

Any of these annotations can be used to link viewers to other videos, or as subscribe links. You can also add a simple Title to your video through the Annotations menu.

Section 2: How to Use Annotations

*Note: the above video mentions Pause annotations, which are no longer available.

Here are two of the best uses for annotations:

Clickable End Cards / Outros

One of the best ways you can use spotlight annotations is to create clickable end cards for your videos.

When your video finishes playing the YouTube player will display a selection of suggested videos that might direct viewers away from your channel. You can keep more of these viewers watching your content by creating your own ‘suggested videos’ card and putting it at the end of your videos.

Put thumbnails of two or three of your other videos on your end card, or use ‘picture-in-picture’ to actually imbed footage from them. Then, after you upload your video, go in and place clickable spotlight annotations over top of your video thumbnails.

This is one use for annotations that cannot be duplicated with cards.

Promoting Your Videos

You should not wait until the end of your video to start linking viewers to other content. Many viewers will click away before they see your end card because your video is not exactly what they were looking for. By placing note or speech bubble annotations occasionally throughout your videos you can catch some of these people before they click off of your channel.

This works especially well if you link to videos on similar subjects to the one you are annotating.

Instead of just linking to another video of yours, try to link to that video on a playlist. Once a viewer is on a playlist your videos will auto-play after each other, which is good for both your view count and watch time.

You can also use the newer YouTube Cards for this, but Annotations might still be a better choice because viewers only need to click once vs. twice for Cards.

Try both and see which performs best for your channel. It might be in your best interest to keep on using both as they target different audiences – Cards are clickable on mobile devices, for example, but Annotations are not.

Part 2: YouTube Cards

YouTube Cards are newer than annotations and a lot of people believe they will one day replace Annotations. While there are benefits to Cards – like embedding images to represent your links – you cannot choose the shape, size, or placement of them. This means they have limited uses.

When viewers click on a Card they are shown additional information and a thumbnail representing the page they will be taken to if they choose to click again. This extra step could be either help viewers decide to click your links or give them a second chance to decide they would rather not.

Section 1: When to Use Cards

A linked Annotation is simply a call to action viewers can click on. A Card is a call to action as well, but instead of taking the viewer directly to where its link leads when it is clicked a Card opens up into a larger version of itself with a thumbnail image.

Crowdfunding pages (Patreon is a great choice for video creators), charity fundraising pages, and merchandise stores are all examples of links that benefit from the format of YouTube Cards.

When you link a viewer to a non-YouTube page you break up their session time, which negatively impacts your watch time and SEO ranking. You want to make sure that the viewers you are directing away from YouTube are the ones most likely to convert after they leave. By ‘convert’ we mean to contribute to your Patreon campaign, donate to the charity you are promoting, or buy some of your merchandise.

Giving viewers more information and a thumbnail through a Card can help ensure the most interested viewers are the ones clicking your links.

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Filmora, which is equipped with its own footage stock Wondershare Filmstock and will definitely enhance your productivity and helps you to make money by making videos much easier.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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