YouTube just gave creators the power to turn their entire back catalog into reoccurring revenue while finally giving brands measurable impressions instead of expensive gambles. It's called dynamic ad insertion and it's about to transform creators into media mogul while solving one of the biggest problems in advertising. I'm Neil Patel and I run an advertising company that manages billions in digital ad spend. In this video, I'll show you how creators can unlock new income streams, how brands can spend smarter on ads that actually work, and why this update is rewriting the rules of modern media. When YouTube launched in 2005, it accidentally created the biggest problem in modern advertising. See, YouTube gave creators an amazing platform to build audiences. Millions of people could now create content and find viewers. But there was one massive flaw in the system. Creators had to choose between making good content or making money. Here's what I mean. Let's say you're a creator in 2015. You make a video about productivity tips. It gets 2 million views. A productivity app company reaches out and offers you $20,000 to mention their product. But here's the catch. Once you record that sponsorship into the video, it's burned in forever. that sponsor gets to ride the wave of that video success for years, maybe millions more views, while just paying you once. And for the creator, that's the end of the deal. You can't resell that sponsorship slot. And aside from the trickle of AdSense revenue you get, there's no way to turn those future views into new sponsor revenue. The brand keeps collecting exposure long after the check clears while you're locked out of earning more from that video. This created a lose-lose lose situation. Creators left massive money on the table. Brands had no way to measure if their sponsorships actually worked and audiences got stuck with outdated ads for products that might not even exist anymore. But YouTube was watching this broken system for years and they just released an update that fixes everything. Here's how YouTube looked at this broken system and said, "What if creators could operate exactly like TV networks?" Dynamic ad insertion lets creators place swappable ad slots into their videos. Instead of burning sponsors permanently into content, creators can now insert, remove, and replace sponsored segments whenever they want. This is exactly how TV networks have operated for 70 plus years, selling the same time slot to different advertisers throughout the year. Creators just got the same capability. Think about it like this. Remember that productivity video that got 2 million views? With dynamic ad insertion, the creator can now sell that ad slot to that productivity app for 3 months. When the deal ends, replace it with a different sponsor. They can also test different brands to see which converts better. They can even sell the same slot to different companies in different countries. Creators just became TV networks selling real guaranteed ad slots in their back cataloges, not just oneshot sponsorships baked into the video forever. For brands, this is a revolution. Instead of rolling the dice on a lump sum deal and hoping a video delivers, you pay based on the exact performance. Want $100,000 guaranteed impressions? Pay the set CPM. say $2,500 at a $25 CPM. If the video only hits 50,000 impressions, you only pay half. You never are overpaying for missed reach. What if the video goes viral and hits a million views? Once your campaign reaches its cap, the next sponsor rotates in and the creator keeps earning. If the creator's audience is highly engaged, niche, or especially valuable, expect a premium CPM because just like TV, in- demand slots cost more, just like Super Bowl ad slots. Now, both brands and creators win. Brands pay for real, measurable results, and creators maximize their earnings, charging premiums for top content and hard-to-reach audiences with every new sponsor slot, transparently tracked by YouTube. It's TV level ad buying, programmatically controlled, and built for the creator era. Finally, advertising that makes sense for everyone. Now, this may sound complicated, but stick with me because I'm about to show you exactly how creators can use this to build media empires. [Music] Here's where creators need to completely shift their thinking. You're not just making videos anymore. You're building a media network. Let me paint a picture of what this looks like. Imagine you're a tech reviewer with 200 videos in your back catalog. Under the old system, maybe 10 of those videos had sponsor deals that paid you once. The other 190 videos, they're just sitting there making little to no money. With dynamic ad insertion, every single one of those 200 videos becomes advertising inventory. Your iPhone review from 2022, that still gets 10,000 views per month. That's 120,000 annual impressions that you can sell. Your laptop comparison from 2021, another 80,000 yearly impressions. Suddenly, you're not just running a YouTube channel, you're running a tech media network with quantifiable, sellable inventory. That means you can start thinking about your content the way TV networks think about programming. TV networks create shows with natural advertising breaks. They don't just randomly stick in ads anywhere. They create natural moments where sponsors can integrate seamlessly. As a creator, you can now do the same thing when you're planning your next video. Think to yourself, where are natural moments for brand integration? How can I structure this content so sponsors can fit in authentically? Maybe it's a before we dive into technical details moment. Or maybe it's speaking of productivity transition. You're not just creating content, you're creating advertising real estate. But this only works for brands that understand how to use this new superpower. And that's what most companies are completely missing. Most brands are still thinking about creator partnerships completely wrong. They're approaching creators like freelancers instead of what they actually are, individual TV networks with measurable audiences. Here's how smart brands are going to dominate with dynamic ad insertion. First, the portfolio approach. Instead of putting all your budget behind one creator and hoping their videos go viral, you can now spread your budget across 20 plus creators and optimize based on performance. Just like buying programmatic ads across multiple sites. Second, testing paradise. Want to test which message resonates better? Create two different 30-cond ads and test them in the same creators video slots. Want to test geographic differences? Run different ads for the US versus a UK audience in the same content. Third, audience segmentation. That tech creator we talked about, their audience probably breaks down into different segments. Gamers, professionals, students. You can now create different ads for each segment and serve them dynamically based on viewing patterns. Fourth, long-term partnerships. Instead of one-off deals, you can now build ongoing relationships with creators. Hey, I want to buy 500,000 impressions across your catalog over the next 6 months. Optimize for conversions and let's see what happens. This is exactly how TV advertising works. NBC doesn't just sell one commercial saw and hope for the best. They sell you ongoing access to the audience with measurement, optimization, and guaranteed delivery. Creators just got the same capabilities. So, let me give you an example for how I would do this in my YouTube video. If you're a brand watching this and thinking, "I need to get ahead of this shift, but I have no idea where to start." We're already helping those companies do exactly that at my ad agency, NP Digital. We're building creator partnership strategies for major brands right now. The same approach that I just explained. Go to npdigital.com, book a call, and we'll show you how to lock in the best creator partnerships before your competitors even know this exists. See what I did there? Now, back to the video. Let me give you some numbers that'll blow your mind. Traditional TV advertising generates around $60 billion a year, but it's shrinking by mids single digits annually, down roughly 27% over the past decade. YouTube advertising does around 36 billion annually and growing at 13% this year. Traditional TV viewership has aging audiences, declining engagement, and it's impossible to measure accurately, while YouTube viewership has younger demographics, higher engagement, and precise measurement. For decades, big brands have been stuck buying TV ads because that's where the audiences were. But TV had massive problems. You never knew if your ads actually work. You couldn't target specific demographics effectively. You paid the same price whether 1 million or 10 million people saw your ad. and dynamic ad insertion just solved all these problems while giving your brands access to younger, more engaged audiences. You're about to witness the biggest wealth transfer in media history. From TV networks to individual creators, the top 100 US advertisers spend well over hundred billion each year to reach consumers. Companies like Nike, Coca-Cola, Apple, and Amazon. With TV viewership declining fast, these brands are shifting more of their budgets to platforms like YouTube where audiences are younger, more engaged, and easier to measure. YouTube's new tools make it easier than ever before for these brands to target exactly who they want, unlocking a new era of video advertising. And here's the beautiful part. This creates more value for everyone. Audiences get more relevant ads instead of random commercials. Creators get sustainable revenue instead of feast or famine cycles, and brands get measurable results instead of expensive guesses. But there's a window here that's already starting to close. Testing for dynamic ad insertion starts in late 2025. Full roll out happens in 2026. That means you need to get started now. If you're a creator, start thinking like a media company right now. Audit your content library and identify your evergreen videos, the ones that still get consistent views. These are the most valuable advertising slots. Begin structuring your new content with natural sponsor integration points. Study how TV shows create seamless advertising moments and incorporate those techniques into your videos. Most importantly, start conversations with your existing brand partners about dynamic deals. Instead of one-off sponsorships, propose ongoing partnerships where they get reoccurring access to your audience. for brands. Stop thinking projectbased and start thinking media buy. Identify creators in your space who have strong back cataloges and engage audiences. These are your future media partners. Begin testing small dynamic partnerships even if full feature isn't available. You can start structuring deals that mirror what's coming. The media landscape just fundamentally changed and most people don't even realize that it's happening. Dynamic ad insertion isn't just a YouTube feature. It's a blueprint for how advertising will work across every digital platform. If you want to see how this connects to the broader transformation happening in digital marketing from AI search optimization to emerging advertising channels, check out one of these videos X.