Ever wondered how to make those clickable buttons that show up on some YouTube videos?

Wonder no more -- I'one thousand here to teach you lot how.

Why? Because trivial annotations that prompt viewers to "Subscribe" or "Follow us" or "Click hither to acquire more" encourage them to actually engage and interact with your content -- and maybe even head back to your website.

And, as it turns out, annotating YouTube marketing videos is actually really unproblematic. In one case you've uploaded your video to YouTube, the annotation tool lets y'all easily layer text, links, and spotlights to your videos.

(Annotation: Annotations appear on standard YouTube players and embedded players, but they don't appear on YouTube chromeless players, or on mobile, tablet, and TV devices.)

Nosotros annotated one of HubSpot'southward YouTube videos to prove you how the process is done. Let's get through the steps together.

How to Annotate a YouTube Video

Before you begin, make certain the video you'd similar to annotate is already uploaded to YouTube.

Step 1: Log in to YouTube, click into your channel folio (by clicking "My Aqueduct" in the left-hand navigation bar), and get to your Video Director.

annotate-youtube-video-1

Step two:  Find the video yous want to add annotations to using the search bar. Click the arrow side by side to "Edit" and choose "Annotations" from the drop-down carte du jour.

annotate-youtube-video-2

Step 3: Click "Add Annotation" to add a new notation, and cull from the v notation types in the pull-down bill of fare: Speech chimera, Note, Title, Spotlight, or Label. For this tutorial, we chose the notation pick.

add-annotation

Here's what they all look similar:

Speech bubblesare pop-upwards speech bubbles containing text. You lot can movement the "signal" of the Oral communication Bubbles to face whatsoever direction you'd similar. They're also linkable -- we'll talk near links in the next step.

speech-bubble

Notesare popular-up boxes containing text, which y'all can use to add on informative information. You can choose the font size, font color (limited to blackness and white), and background color of your Note. Notes are likewise linkable.

youtube-notes

Titlesare text overlays used to title your video. The title annotation is useful if y'all didn't put a championship in your video earlier uploading it to YouTube. They're not linkable.

youtube-titles

Spotlights highlight a specific area in a video, divers by you, with a nighttime grey box. When the viewer moves the mouse over the box, a text box appears underneath information technology. Spotlights are linkable, and they're useful for making specific areas of the video frame clickable to other websites, YouTube videos, and and so on.

Here's what a Spotlight looks like when your mouse isnothovering over it:

youtube-spotlights-1

And hither's what the same Spotlight looks like when your mouseishovering over information technology:

youtube-spotlights-2

Labels are quite like to spotlights, except they have a slightly dissimilar look: The text appears withinthe frame you divers, instead of underneath information technology. The configuration options are too a little unlike from Spotlight, so test both of them out and run into which one works best for your needs.

Here's what a Label looks like when your mouse is non hovering over information technology:

youtube-label-1

And here's what the same Label looks like when your mouseishovering over information technology:

youtube-label-2

Stride 4: Add text, choose your font, size, background color, and transparency. Cull exact first and cease times for the annotations. To add together a link, tick the checkbox next to "Link" and cull what type of page yous'll link to.

We linked our Note annotation to a landing folio, then we chose to link to an "Associated Website." Pro tip: Use tracking tokens on the website URL to gauge the success of this annotation using your own marketing software.

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Step 6: Use your mouse to elevate the annotation where y'all desire information technology. Resize information technology by dragging the corners. (Annotations can comprehend upwards to 30% of the screen.)

Step vii: Utilise the timeline to motion your annotation to a specific time in your video. Y'all can change where the annotation starts and ends by dragging with your mouse.

Links to specific times may not be 100% precise, according to Google Back up.

Pace viii: Click "Publish" when you're washed to make the annotations show up in your video!

Here's the last result of our video. Y'all'll encounter the notation pop upwardly 9.ii seconds into the video, and then disappear xx seconds subsequently.

To edit your annotation afterward publishing, just go back into the "Edit Annotation" tool and click "Edit existing annotation," which is located under the "Save" and "Publish" buttons to the correct of the video frame.

edit-existing-annotation

Happy annotating!

Originally published Oct 24, 2014 12:00:00 PM, updated October xxx 2019