Affiliate links and section 4D confusion

[StuffSnag]

You won't have much luck as Google has a strong stance about discussing policy outside of whom it employs or has NDAs with.

I perused a little more and it seems partners have a possible loophole. In monetization options, there is an option for paid product placements. However, there is a section of the FAQ for placements mentioning baking in prerolls, but nowhere is it clearly defined if we can include direct links (or affiliate links provided by the sponsoring organization) to the organizations for whom we make such videos.

In fact that Paid Product Placements are allowed would appear to be in direct conflict with the Terms of Service (4D):

I sent a message to partnersupport about this, but I doubt I'll get a response. Can anyone testify as to whether partners have such an exemption. It would seem they do as long as the video conforms to other policies, and the placement adds value to users.

 

[ARTFXSTUDIOS]

Hmmm I'm interested in this as well cause I'm in a similar position somehow. I make videos about making electronic music, where I teach people the ins and outs of music production. I'm also an official partner with a big company in music production who sells packages of audio samples (like drum hits and such) and audio loops (like full drum beats, percussion loops and those things). I'm also part of their affiliate program which I use on my website where I have ads coming from the company specifically, and if somebody makes a purchase I get a tiny share of the revenue (it's not much at all, but it is revenue). I also provide my viewers a special discount code which they can use on a purchase to get a 10% discount when buying from my partners webshop (I also get a small share of every purchase made with that code). The thing is, I've been doing this for over a year now and have never been in any problems because of it, and I have a pretty decent, good running channel.

I do think there is a huge difference in being an affiliate partner just for the sake of making as much money as possible (changing your videos content to match the affiliate's products) and being an affiliate partner because the products of your partner actually match your content. I mean my viewers are mostly music producers, DJ's and audio engineers and they benefit from this the most, since I give them a way to actually get a hand on products they most likely will use a lot.

 

[Gabriel]

I perused a little more and it seems partners have a possible loophole. In monetization options, there is an option for paid product placements. However, there is a section of the FAQ for placements mentioning baking in prerolls, but nowhere is it clearly defined if we can include direct links (or affiliate links provided by the sponsoring organization) to the organizations for whom we make such videos.

In fact that Paid Product Placements are allowed would appear to be in direct conflict with the Terms of Service (4D):

I sent a message to partnersupport about this, but I doubt I'll get a response. Can anyone testify as to whether partners have such an exemption. It would seem they do as long as the video conforms to other policies, and the placement adds value to users.

You tick that option if your video has a product placement in it. Say, Prada paid a female YouTuber $500 to show off a bag of theirs for like a minute of a 5 minute video in that case you would tell YT you were paid to have a product placement in your video and you'd tick that option to let advertisers know that they may be put off advertising on a video with product placements in it. That option doesn't have anything to do with the video description, annotations, etc.