By Gustav Lindell, Pixly Co-Founder & CEO
The social media platform where brands are missing the most opportunities is, surprisingly, one of the oldest: YouTube. It’s the most powerful and misunderstood channel in the entire creator economy.
For more than 20 years, YouTube has been the place where creators build real communities and where long-form content is consumed and trusted. It’s the most-watched platform by a wide margin, according to Nielsen. Yet brands still treat it like a side dish in their marketing mix. And in doing so, they overlook the platform that consistently delivers the deepest engagement, longest shelf life, most scalable creator partnerships, and strongest performance.
YouTube works extremely well when you use it correctly. Most brands don’t.
Here are five of the biggest mistakes brands make on YouTube and how to avoid them:
Stop Running YouTube Like It’s Just Another Channel
Too many brands view YouTube as merely a platform for re-running TV ads or creating shorter versions of existing ads for pre-roll. That approach completely misses what YouTube actually is.
YouTube is built on creators, for creators. Their audiences come for connection, storytelling, and personality which leads to a level of trust with their audience that brands can’t replicate on their own. A polished 15-second ad won’t connect the way a creator’s endorsement will.
Nike still invests in cinematic ads on YouTube, but some of its most effective work has come from collaborations with creators. For example, partnering with fitness YouTubers like Chloe Ting allows Nike gear to be showcased in real workouts, tutorials, and lifestyle content. These integrations feel native and build trust in a way traditional repurposed commercial cannot.
Don’t Put All Your Eggs in the Instagram & TikTok Basket
Nine out of 10 brands overspend their influencer budget on Instagram and TikTok. That imbalance makes no sense, and the spend is way too much, considering the sizable role YouTube plays in people’s day-to-day platform attention
Engage with Instagram and TikTok, but don’t miss out on YouTube’s singular offering. Its content has deeper storytelling, a longer shelf life, and massive scale. Failing to allocate an appropriate portion of your media mix to it means leaving a significant opportunity on the table – one that your competitors can take advantage of.
Stop Trying to Script Everything
On Instagram, a brand can post a highly-edited image and write a grammatically-perfect caption. YouTube is different. The fastest way to ruin a YouTube integration is trying to script it like a brand ad. Creators know how to deliver a message that feels true to them. If you hand them a word-for-word script, you remove what makes YouTube work: authenticity. Brands that win on YouTube understand they’re entering a creator’s world, not asking the creator to enter theirs.
Warner Bros. paid YouTubers to promote “Shadow of Mordor,” but imposed strict requirements on their content. Audiences quickly noticed the lack of honesty, and the FTC even stepped in, ruling the campaign deceptive. Creators know their communities. You can set guardrails, but then get out of the way and let them do what they do best.
Don’t Undervalue YouTube’s Long-Term Impact
Unlike Instagram Stories or TikTok trends, YouTube content lives forever. A single video can drive views, engagement and performance for years. Add in formats like Shorts, podcasts, and livestreams, and you’ve got more ways to connect than any other platform.
Many brands miss YouTube’s compounding effect of content that keeps working long after the campaign ends.
Back in 2006, Blendtec started uploading videos of its blenders pulverizing everything from iPads to golf balls. Those videos are still racking up views nearly 20 years later, with millions of organic impressions. The campaign turned the brand into a cultural reference point.
Don’t Isolate YouTube from the Bigger Picture
A creator campaign should tie into your bigger strategy, including events, product launches, paid ads, or even e-commerce funnels. YouTube can amplify those efforts if you build it in from the start.
Think about LEGO. Instead of running YouTube separately, they weave it into product cycles. It integrates YouTube content into new product launches, collaborating with creators who develop and review products. Those videos tie into broader marketing pushes, retail campaigns, and in-store events.
The Bottom Line
Every platform requires its own strategy. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are not interchangeable. They each serve different behaviors, different formats, and different moments in the customer journey. The smartest brands build intentionally across each platform’s strengths. Short-form is great for velocity and discovery. But long-term influence, trust, and measurable performance live on YouTube, which offers the biggest growth opportunity in the entire influencer landscape. The companies that recognize that, and plan for it, will win the next phase of creator marketing.
