YouTube's traditional Annotations tool will be gone in less than two months. Annotation presets, links and templates that businesses currently use will be left intact, but there will be no more editing or creating new annotation links after May 2, 2017.
According to YouTube, the classic Annotations tool was built before a majority of viewers switched from desktop to mobile devices. The tool just wasn't built for mobile.
We launched the annotations editor in 2008, before the world went mobile. With 60% of YouTube’s watch time now on mobile, why go through the work of creating annotations that won’t even reach the majority of your audience?
In lieu of annotation links and related playlist/sharing options, YouTube is (and has been) introducing smart alternatives in the forms of End Screens and Cards. These options retain full functionality on mobile devices and are far less cumbersome for end-users (which also, thanks to some clever limitations, eliminate much of the potential for abuse).
Here's YouTube's Support page on annotations and the platform's new link options. It's a quick read and very important for businesses using annotation links to drive traffic from YouTube to their websites.
The End of Annotations
YouTube's Annotations tool is finally being phased out by-and-large due to poor user experience. YouTube annotation links are intrusive, they don't work on mobile (this is the big one) and audiences rarely click on them (on purpose, at least). With rising competition with video marketing software and the options they provide for businesses, it should come as no surprise that YouTube's tired Annotations tool is being replaced.
In fact, the tool's replacements, End Screens and Cards, offer a streamlined way to gain subscribers, drive audiences to related content, and, most importantly, redirect traffic from YouTube to business websites.
YouTube expects Screens and Cards to be a better replacement for annotations... YouTube says both tend to get much more clicks (to the tune of 7x) than annotations, the latter of which users typically just close, says the company. End Screens in particular are easier to make, too.
While YouTube Annotations gave marketers great customization choices and unique ways to use hyperlinked fields and windows, the feature was often an intrusive means of promotion that, in the end, didn't really work.
YouTube's new linking features, End Screens and Cards, are a step in the right direction. They're YouTube's version of video CTAs; unintrusive, simple and able to be tailored to the user.
Up Next: YouTube End Screens
YouTube's new End Screen feature, which is both a boon and a hurdle in its simplicity, enables businesses to do three basic things at the end of their videos:
- Direct viewers to other videos on the business's channel, or those on other channels
- Drive viewers to the business's website
- Encourage quick and easy channel subscriptions
There may be instances where your end screen, as designated by you, may not appear. For example, we may skip the end screen when your video is playing in background mode, or adjust placement on very small screens. For these reasons, we don’t recommend pointing to elements or adding crucial content to the end screen part of the video.
Note: End Screens can play for, at most, the last 20 seconds of a video. Additionally, videos must exceed 25 seconds to feature an End Screen.
Up Next: YouTube Cards
Cards, on the other hand, offer a more conventional alternative to video annotations, and can be implemented at various stages throughout a video. Uploaders can use cards to provide valuable and relevant buttons for:
- Other videos or playlists
- Channel links
- Donation buttons
- Polls
- Website links
However, like conventional annotations, don't be surprised if YouTube cards are also phased out in the near future. Cards serve essentially the same function as End Screens without the simplicity, and can be much more intrusive to users depending on how they are used.
Note: Businesses can add up to 5 cards to their YouTube uploads to drive engagement and conversions.
As annotations are slowly ushered out of YouTube's platform, businesses using YouTube as a marketing tool must change how they edit and present their video content. That's not necessarily a problem: End Screens and Cards also enable businesses to add in-video conversion elements that can be replicated across screen sized and devices (unlike annotations).
What we recommend is that businesses keep their existing videos (and their annotation links) live, but change their strategy in future projects to keep up with YouTube's new features.
Alex Dunn
Alex is a University of South Florida mass communications graduate and Video/Media Specialist at Bluleadz. He is a big movie nerd, loves (possibly dangerous) concerts and enjoys taunting co-workers with a camera. He's probably seen The Royal Tenenbaums 14 times by now.