While one could argue that Annotations – especially Spotlight Annotations – were better than Cards or End Card Screens, they were often not properly or were altogether neglected. Sometimes they were overused, and the combination of a tough learning curve and the clunky interface led to the equivalent of MySpace CSS Customization Clutter we saw 10 years ago… Well, YouTube has announced that the ability to Add or Edit Annotations is going to End on May 2nd, 2017.
That means existing annotations will remain, provided you do not replace them with End Cards, but you won’t be able to add new annotations past this time. It appears existing Annotations may not be modified, but perhaps you will be able to remove them.
For many years, some content creators have created “Post-Roll Annotation” screens with images built into the end of their YouTube videos, over which Spotlight Annotations were built. We have done this ourselves for many years, and it is an effective approach. YouTube responded to this phenomena months ago by creating End Card Screens that are generally easier to add, and now the legacy approach of adding YouTube Annotations is coming to an end. It would be a good idea to look at any of your videos that may still need annotations, and add them now while you can. Then, going forward, optimize your new videos for the use of End Cards Screens, which overlay during the last 20 seconds or less of your video. Again, May 2nd, 2017 is the deadline.
If you have any questions about best practices, or if you are interested in how you can have a constant flow of Video and Written content in the form of a Constant Content Flow Video Marketing Program, contact Media Blitz Publicity and see our videos on the subject.