YouTube watermark - best practices
What is a YouTube Branding Watermark?
A YouTube Branding Watermark is a feature that allows creators to add any image (typically a logo) to all YouTube videos.
- It boosts branding of your channel;
- When clicked on image – viewers can subscribe to your channel.
So, usually the main point of having a YouTube watermark is to boost subscribers to your channel. The watermark will appear on your videos in the right-hand corner of the video player
When viewer hovers over YouTube watermark, subscription link will appear.
How to upload YouTube branding watermark?
- Go to studio.youtube.com
2. Click on Customization in the sidebar.
3. Go to Branding tab and scroll down to watermark.
4. From here you can replace or remove YouTube watermark.
And also adjust display time.
- End of video
- Custom start time
- Entire video
Availability
The channel watermark is available in landscape view on computers and mobile devices (not clickable on mobile).
Channel watermarks do not show on custom YouTube chromeless players or Adobe Flash.
How to change or remove YouTube watermark?
In the branding tab just click change or remove. That's it.
YouTube Watermark – best practices and ideas
1. Make it visible
Make your YouTube watermark clearly visible – so it stands out on your video. Otherwise, people just won’t notice it.
As you can see on this channel (source), YouTube watermark isn’t visible at all.
Remember, one of the main points for your watermark is to get more subscribers. If it’s barely visible, that can be hard.
Try some high contrast image – which clearly differentiates from your video.
2. Watermark image
You can be really creative here.
But, in fact there are two main trends:
- use your logo;
- use subscribe button.
Also, follow this advice:
- Don't leave it square – make it transparent
- You can use your avatar, but add something extra
- Make sure your logo fits the constraints
- Get a head start by using a YouTube logo template
Some channels, e.g. Ahrefs, just put their logo.
A lot of growing YouTube channels, which have an aim to boost their subscription count – just put a Subscription like button. Check out Neil Patel’s, Backlinko’s and other channels.
Brian reported, that changing watermark to a subscribe button increased number of subscribers by nearly 70%!
In my experience, just putting a red YouTube subscribe button - was the best performing option. Sometimes, your logo might not clearly indicate subscribe as a call to action. So, if you have doubts, just download some standard watermark png and use it with your channel. It works!
3. Choose time wisely
Unfortunately, there isn’t an option to change YouTube watermark specifically for each video. Only for the whole channel.
So, there are three options:
- End of video
- Custom start time
- Entire video
There are different scenarios, which can depend on your content. So, I think the best option would be just to test individually, what works better for you.
Some approaches:
- display watermark from 0:00 – you can get the viewer click on it, but he or she can be distracted from your video itself;
- display watermark 0:30-1:00, or right after your intro – viewer will be able to get most important first part of the video, and also click on the button;
- display in the of video (safest option) – viewers are not distracted and still are able to click on your watermark.
4. Don’t block other info
Plan your videos, watermarks and other elements, so they don’t conflict each other. For example, watermark can appear above some important text or information in your video.
5. Track performance
You can see your watermark stats in YouTube analytics. Know how many people click on it vs. how many times it was shown. Hint, don’t expect a great conversion rate.
Note: after a recent update, “branding watermarks aren’t available on videos set as made for kids. If you previously added a branding watermark, but your video is now set as made for kids, viewers won’t see the watermark”.
Analyze YouTube branding watermark
The best way to know how many more subscribers you got because of the YouTube watermark is to use Subscription source report in YouTube Studio Analytics.
It is a good idea to add different images and test if they increase your subscription rate.
Best YouTube watermark makers
FAQ
YouTube watermark minimum size
- Minimum 150x150 pixels.
- Square image less than 1 MB in size.
YouTube watermark on mobile
On mobile, the watermark is in the same bottom-right corner, but is not clickable and does not act as a subscribe button.
Watermark analytics
You can check how many people subscribed via watermark via Subscription source report in YouTube Studio Analytics.
