If you aren’t using Cards, you are missing a trick when it comes to video marketing on YouTube. Instead, take a few minutes to understand what Cards are, how they can help you and how to add them to videos. If you want more views and subs, you should also see Everything You Need To Know About Adding An End Screen.
What is a YouTube card?
You use cards to engage viewers and encourage them to interact with more of your content. You’ll see cards on the right-hand side of the video popping up with some text as it plays.
Cards are like a teaser – the icon opens up to show a bit of text and maybe a visual when the user interacts with them. So if that Card item is a video then the graphic will be the thumbnail. Or perhaps it is a poll and the viewer can select an answer to share their opinion.
Remember:
- You can add up to 5 cards per video (spread them out so they aren’t too close together).
- Cards don’t work in Flash.
Sounds like it will look nice… but what can you actually do with a YouTube card?
What you can do with a YouTube card
- Link to a video or playlist.
- Link to a Channel (maybe a partner you are working with or one of your other Channels).
- Conduct a poll – with a choice of up to 5 answers.
- Link to an approved website – you must be on the YouTube Partnership Program to do this.
Convinced? So how do you add a card to your video on YouTube?
How to add a card to your video
1. First sign into your account and go to the video you want to edit and you’ll see a menu of tabs running across the top.
2. Select Cards, then select the Add Card button (the blue one on the right) and choose what type of card you want to add, e.g. a video in this example.
3. Choose either a single video or playlists. Or you could enter the URL address of the video or playlist you want to add into the specified box.
4. Add any customised text via the drop down menu.
5. Select Create Card.
6. Look at the timeline below the video and you will see the card represented by a line. Hover over it to see more information and click and drag it to place it where you want it to appear on the playlist.
7. Check that the card has saved. You don’t need to press a button but it should say so on the top right hand of the screen. If it is having trouble saving you probably have a connection problem.
8. Repeat to add up to 5 cards to your video, including: links to a video or playlist; links to a Channel; links to an associated website (if on the YouTube Partnership Program); or a poll with up to 5 possible answers.
Learn more about managing your YouTube channel:
- Everything You Need To Know About Adding An End Screen (increase views and subscriptions).
- The Different YouTube Roles Explained.
- How To Add A Manager To YouTube (or any role.
Watch the video above to see the process for yourself. OR if you prefer to outsource your video marketing get in touch.
Video transcript
Welcome to Let’s Talk Video Production, let’s look at how to add a card to your video
Hit the subscribe button for tips how to’s and videos about business and video marketing
What is a YouTube card?
You use cards to engage viewers and encourage them to interact with more of your content. You’ll see cards on the right-hand side of the video, cards are like a teaser that show up as an icon with a bit of text, maybe a visual.
You can add up to 5 cards to a video and viewers can then scroll through them whilst watching but cards don’t work in Flash.
There are a number of things that you can link to so what are the options for a card?
You can view a video or playlist, link to another channel, conduct a poll with up to 5 possible answers or have an external link to an associated website. You do need to be on the YouTube Partnership Program for that.
So how do you add a card to your video?
First sign into your account and go to the video you want to edit. I’m doing that via the Video Manager and you’ll see the menu running across the top here, these tabs.
Select cards, select the add card button, the blue one on the right here and choose what type of card you want to add. Let’s add a video and poll so I’ll upload a single video but you could select playlists or you could enter the URL address of the video or playlist you want to add there. There is an option for customised text here too. I’m just going to add the video simply here and just leave the text.
And let’s add a poll as well, we’ll just go for something really simple. You could add more choices, you could have multiple choice answers up to five there but we’ll just leave that at the two and create card.
On the timeline below the video you can see the cards sitting on the video here at different timings so you can choose to move those to where you want and then preview. Either click on this cards timeline here or on the video timeline there to place the playhead and press play and see the card popping up here and anyone who’s looking at that would be able to open it up and browse and have a look at that as well as the other one.
Let’s close that, see what the second one looks like. You see it’s a prompt and then you open it up and you see maybe the graphics a bit more information any personalised text that you added in there and also the question, the poll questions there so I could vote.
Again, you can add a link to another channel or a link to an approved website if you’re on the YouTube Partnership Program and just check that all changes have been saved, you don’t have to press the Save button but just check that all changes have saved.
You are done hope that was helpful, if it was you’re helping me out by giving this video a like. Maybe you know someone who would find this useful please do share if you’re not subscribed to this channel please do so now, new videos are uploaded weekly so don’t miss out, get subscribed and learn more about video marketing. Thanks for watching.
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