If you’re eligible, you can manually tag products or use auto-tagging to automatically tag products featured in your content.
Understand how product tagging works
If you’re eligible, you can tag products featured in your content. When you tag products in your content, a "Shopping button" (when tagging in long format videos) or a “Shopping product sticker” (when tagging in Shorts) will show up on your content. Viewers can select the label to review a list of the products you tagged.
This feature is only visible to viewers in select countries or regions. Learn more about how viewers browse and buy products on YouTube.
Tag products in Shorts
For Shorts, a Shopping product sticker will appear for the first product in the tagged product list. If you want the Shopping product sticker to showcase a different product, reorder your list of tagged products. The Shopping product sticker is in the bottom-left corner by default, but you can move and resize it in the YouTube mobile app.
Note: The sticker automatically adjusts its height to avoid overlapping with Shorts UI elements, such as channel names, video descriptions, or ads. Moving the sticker disables this feature.
Viewers can click on the Shopping product sticker to navigate to the retailer’s website. If viewers click on the downward arrow, they will open the full list of products you have tagged. To explore where placement and sizing is available, see How to tag and manage products.
Tagging grouped products
We've enhanced product tagging to allow you to tag products as product groups that include multiple options. You can now simplify product tagging by using grouped products, a new feature that offers multiple product variations (e.g. different colors or sizes) from a single product tag. Tagging grouped products reduces the likelihood of products going out of stock and may increase your earnings.
To add specific attributes like color or size, tap on the options group.
Tagging guidelines
If you're eligible for this feature, only tag products in your content if they meet all of the following guidelines:
- Products are easily identifiable and featured prominently in your content: Products featured in your content should also be verbally or textually mentioned so they can be easily discovered.
- Products are meaningfully related to your content: Your content should authentically integrate products in a way that provides value to your viewers. This includes demonstrating or reviewing a product or brand.
- A viewer may reasonably want to learn more or buy a product based on your content: Product design or functionality should be depicted clearly. Avoid brief, blurred, or obscured depictions.
- Products are used as intended. This means that your use of the product aligns with the manufacturer’s intent and promotes safe usage: Products featured in content should follow the manufacturer's intended use.
These guidelines apply to all content formats such as Shorts, live streams, or standard videos.
Products are easily identifiable and featured prominently in your content
- Wearable apparel: Feel free to tag clothing apparel or fashion accessories you're wearing, as long as they're prominently featured and verbally or textually mentioned in your video. If the exact color/style isn't available, variations of the same product are permitted.
- Character-based products: If your content features characters (like in game reviews), you can tag products with that character on them (e.g., t-shirts, mugs) as long as the character is prominently featured in your content, and the product is meaningfully related to the character.
- Animated products: Tagging animations of featured products is also allowed, as long as the animated product is a representation of a real product, and the tagged brand matches the animation.
Products are meaningfully related to your content
In certain cases, you can tag products that are related to your content, even if they aren't showcased.
- For example, you can tag products that are used as part of an activity, such as paintbrushes in a home renovation video.
- You can also tag products that enhance a product or activity shown in the video, such as headphones for a phone demonstration.
A viewer may reasonably want to learn more or buy a product based on its appearance in your content
- If you tag products in the background, ensure they're relevant and something viewers might reasonably want to learn more about. These products should still be verbally or textually mentioned in your video to keep them relevant.
Sponsored content:
- To tag products from your brand sponsors, you must still follow the tagging guidelines above.
- When creating sponsored content (like a podcast) that is uploaded to YouTube in multiple segments, be sure to reference the brand/product in all segments in which you plan to tag their products.
- Please ensure to also follow the paid product placement policy.
I believe some of my tagged products have been removed in error, how can I have them reviewed again?
Meeting guidelines
We want viewers to have the best possible experience discovering products featured in your content. Therefore, product tags should be related to your content and should not mislead viewers. Spam tagging products, or indiscriminately tagging many unrelated products in content does not provide a trusted shopping experience for viewers. Tags that don’t meet our guidelines may be removed.
What happens if my product tags don’t meet the guidelines?
If we find instances of product tags that don't comply with our guidelines, we'll send you notifications to help you understand the issue and how to correct it. These messages are designed to educate and remind you of the proper tagging practices.
It's important to pay close attention to these notifications. Repeated instances of non-compliant tagging could result in your channel losing access to the YouTube Shopping affiliate program.
How can I find videos with removed product tags?
To assist you, a new filter will be available in YouTube Studio, allowing you to easily identify videos where non-compliant product tags have been removed. To look at your videos with removed product tags, please follow these steps:
- Log into YouTube Studio.
- Head to the "Content" page.
- Using the filter, filter for "Products" then for "Tagging violation" to view your videos that contain removed tags.
Troubleshooting product tags
You won’t be able to add a product tag if:
- Your content's audience is set as made for kids.
- Your content has a copyright claim against it.
- Your content is deemed limited or ineligible for monetization.
- Your content includes a revenue sharing track from Creator Music.
- You are trying to use a non-shopping sound on a Short with a product sticker. Instead, you must select an eligible shopping sound, remove all sounds, or remove the product sticker.
- Your viewer is not in an eligible country/region.
- Your viewer is watching your content on a mobile browser, smart TV, or game console.
- Products were removed by brand/retailer due to reasons which include but are not limited to the product being out of stock.
- Your tagged products were removed by the brand/retailer for not meeting their brand needs.
- If you don't see products when searching for them from a specific brand/retailer, it means that their products are not available for you to tag at the moment. You may choose to tag these products from other brands/retailers.
How to tag and manage products
Tag, remove & rearrange products while uploading new content
To tag products while uploading new content
- Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- Upload a video or Short.
- On the "Details" page, go to the video description
click Products.
- Click
and enter the name of the product that you want to tag in the search box.
- Enter the name of the product that you want to tag in the search box.
- Select the product and drag it to the indicated area in the tool. You can tag up to 60 products.
- For Shorts, you can rearrange the list to choose which product appears as the Shopping product sticker. You can also adjust the size and placement of the Shopping product sticker directly inside the YouTube mobile app while tagging.
- Post uploading, you can also adjust placement and sizing, see how to adjust the placement and sizing of a Shopping product sticker.
To help your viewers shop the products tagged in your videos at the right time, add timestamps to your tagged products:
- In the “Details” page, go to the video description.
- After tagging your products, click Add timestamp next to the individual product you want to add a timestamp for.
- The intuitive interface to timestamp will pop up. Select the product you’d like to add a timestamp to.
- You can drag and edit the timestamp duration across the video utilizing the intuitive interface.
- Once you are done adding your timestamps, click Done
Notes:
- Timestamps can only be added to your tagged products using a computer.
- Timestamps are only available for long-form videos that are at least 1 minute long.
To add a product sticker when uploading:
- Navigate to the YouTube mobile app and upload your Short.
- Tap stickers
- Enter the name of the product that you want to tag in the search box.
- Select the product and add it to your video.
- You can tag up to 60 products.
If multiple products are tagged, the first product tagged will appear as a sticker. Rearrange the list of tagged products to choose which product appears as the Shopping product sticker.
To adjust a product sticker’s size and placement for existing content:
- Navigate to the YouTube mobile app.
- Select the "You" tab at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap Your videos.
- Choose the desired Short and select Menu
- Tap Tagged products
- Adjust the size and placement as needed, then tap Done to save your changes.
To tag products in live streams
To remove a product
- Find a product that you’ve already tagged.
- To remove it from the list, click Delete
next to the product.
To rearrange two or more products
- Find a product that you've already tagged.
- Drag it to the desired position.
- Select Continue to save the change.
Tag, remove & rearrange products in existing content
To tag products in existing content
- Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- From the left menu, select Content.
- Click a video’s title or thumbnail.
- On the "Details" page, go to the video description
- Click
- Select the product and drag it to the indicated area in the tool. You can tag up to 60 products.
Add timestamps to your tagged products
To help your viewers shop the products tagged in your videos at the right time, add timestamps to your tagged products:
- In the “Details” page, go to the video description.
- After tagging your products, click Add timestamp next to the individual product you want to add a timestamp for.
- The intuitive interface to timestamp will pop up. Select the product you’d like to add a timestamp to.
- You can drag and edit the timestamp duration across the video utilizing the intuitive interface.
- Once you are done adding your timestamps, click Done
Notes:
- Timestamps can only be added to your tagged products using a computer.
- Timestamps are only available for long-form videos that are at least 1 minute long.