How to Create Impactful Video Elements: Cards/Annotations

How to Use YouTube Cards and Annotations?

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

YouTube Annotations and Cards are both tools for linking viewers to your other videos or to off-YouTube webpages. Two of the major differences between them are:

Annotations are not clickable on mobile devices.

You cannot choose the size or positioning of Cards.

This article will teach you about both Cards and Annotations and discuss the best uses for each of them.

Part 1: Annotations

Annotations are messages that float overtop of your videos in the YouTube player. Usually, annotations are clickable and take users to other content created by you.

Section 1: Types of Annotations

There are five types of YouTube annotations:

Notes are colored boxes placed over the top of your videos.

Speech Bubbles look like dialogue boxes in a comic strip. They have tails that you can adjust so it looks like one of the people in your video is saying what is written in the annotation.

Spotlights have a subtle border and are completely clear inside. Your text only appears when a viewer’s cursor hovers over top of these annotations.

Labels are like spotlights except that viewers do not have to hover over them for your text to be visible.

Any of these annotations can be used to link viewers to other videos, or as subscribe links. You can also add a simple Title to your video through the Annotations menu.

Section 2: How to Use Annotations

*Note: the above video mentions Pause annotations, which are no longer available.

Here are two of the best uses for annotations:

Clickable End Cards / Outros

One of the best ways you can use spotlight annotations is to create clickable end cards for your videos.

When your video finishes playing the YouTube player will display a selection of suggested videos that might direct viewers away from your channel. You can keep more of these viewers watching your content by creating your own ‘suggested videos’ card and putting it at the end of your videos.

Put thumbnails of two or three of your other videos on your end card, or use ‘picture-in-picture’ to actually imbed footage from them. Then, after you upload your video, go in and place clickable spotlight annotations over top of your video thumbnails.

This is one use for annotations that cannot be duplicated with cards.

Promoting Your Videos

You should not wait until the end of your video to start linking viewers to other content. Many viewers will click away before they see your end card because your video is not exactly what they were looking for. By placing note or speech bubble annotations occasionally throughout your videos you can catch some of these people before they click off of your channel.

This works especially well if you link to videos on similar subjects to the one you are annotating.

Instead of just linking to another video of yours, try to link to that video on a playlist. Once a viewer is on a playlist your videos will auto-play after each other, which is good for both your view count and watch time.

You can also use the newer YouTube Cards for this, but Annotations might still be a better choice because viewers only need to click once vs. twice for Cards.

Try both and see which performs best for your channel. It might be in your best interest to keep on using both as they target different audiences – Cards are clickable on mobile devices, for example, but Annotations are not.

Part 2: YouTube Cards

YouTube Cards are newer than annotations and a lot of people believe they will one day replace Annotations. While there are benefits to Cards – like embedding images to represent your links – you cannot choose the shape, size, or placement of them. This means they have limited uses.

When viewers click on a Card they are shown additional information and a thumbnail representing the page they will be taken to if they choose to click again. This extra step could be either help viewers decide to click your links or give them a second chance to decide they would rather not.

Section 1: When to Use Cards

A linked Annotation is simply a call to action viewers can click on. A Card is a call to action as well, but instead of taking the viewer directly to where its link leads when it is clicked a Card opens up into a larger version of itself with a thumbnail image.

Crowdfunding pages (Patreon is a great choice for video creators), charity fundraising pages, and merchandise stores are all examples of links that benefit from the format of YouTube Cards.

When you link a viewer to a non-YouTube page you break up their session time, which negatively impacts your watch time and SEO ranking. You want to make sure that the viewers you are directing away from YouTube are the ones most likely to convert after they leave. By ‘convert’ we mean to contribute to your Patreon campaign, donate to the charity you are promoting, or buy some of your merchandise.

Giving viewers more information and a thumbnail through a Card can help ensure the most interested viewers are the ones clicking your links.

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Filmora, which is equipped with its own footage stock _ Wondershare Filmstock _ and will definitely enhance your productivity and helps you to make money by making videos much easier.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Essential History Vids: Student Edition of Top 10 Lists

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Do you enjoy watching the YouTube history channel? Well, for the fact that you are looking for articles like this, your answer should be yes. The thing is that because you enjoy watching history channels on YouTube, this doesn’t mean that you know a lot about them. You might just watch them for fun, but one thing is knowing the right place to go for history videos. What this means is that You have to know about the best YouTube history channels to really enjoy history topics. Well, we have ten of the best history YouTube channels on this list that are known to provide adequate information and provide information as frequently as possible.

Part 1: Top 10 History YouTube Channels to Follow

Down to business, we have ten of the best history channels on YouTube provided for you on this list.

1. History

This has to be the most obvious one on the list because whenever you click to watch a video on the History YouTube channel, you always get what you came for. The History Youtube Channel as it was formerly known as is known for posting about topics like. World Wars, ancient recipes, and listicles of female species. There is a lot to learn about history from this channel. The user who is based in New York makes a post at least four times a day and has been working like this since 2009.

2. Weird History

This channel follows the name that they gave to themselves, they dedicated their channel to posting topics on weird history like the chronicles of history, crystal Pepsi, gout, life in a medieval castle, and the Victorian pastimes. All the videos are weird, most times they seem funny and spooky but they are just videos that make you think deeply because they seem too weird. Video is here makes you feel like a police officer chasing a man with the power to turn into a leopard. That is how confused you get from watching this channel. They usually make their posts every day. The channel provides videos for their subscribers 3 to 4 times a week

3. Tasting History With Max Miller

This channel is just a brilliant channel, why do we say this? Well, see what they do here. You might have an interest in learning about the dishes that are served in amazing series like Game of Thrones and other historical movies. You just want to know how they make those historical cuisines on these epic series, this is the channel for you. They recreate the dishes made in movies and series like Vikings and the rest. This channel was created to pass time by a Disney employee but he got the most out of it and has made it a full-time job, posting two to three videos daily.

4. History Civils

A YouTube channel created by someone who loves Rome like he were from there. A Rome freak who created a channel based on the Roman Empire. There are several histories to talk about when it comes to Rome, for instance, talking about NATO and Cleopatra. The videos on the channel are very short but they hit the nail directly on the head so you get to gain knowledge about old Rome and what it was before. Most of the videos are on the wars that were fought but they were also other Roman histories involved. This channel posts videos every week, at least once

5. Kings And Generals

This is another good history channel on Youtube, they provide the information through animated historical documentaries. From the channel from the title, you would know that the channel talks mainly in battles and politics, hence the name kings and generals. Aside from the war niche, the videos talk about some of the important happenings in history. The user makes a post on this channel for you to learn about the different kings and generals in history who lost and won their battles and crowns. Videos are posted twice a week

6. The Great War

This is a channel that has dedicated its time to learning about the great war known as World War 1. The channel shares videos telling the public about the era of World War 1. This is a major part of history and so it is something we ought to learn about. This isn’t just about the soldiers on the battlefield or how the bombs went off to destroy the enemies but it covers everything that happened within that period, from the kind of food they are to the way they dress and the technologies used. Even the different tribes, arts, and cultures. They post videos twice a week

7. Oversimplified

Normally, no one likes the idea of listening or learning from someone who makes things too complicated. Also, when learning, it is more interesting if you could understand it in the best way that you can. Not everything can be learned that way and not everyone can make something that easy to grasp. Channels like oversimplified make things easier for everyone to understand. They oversimplify their contents. They give you histories like the French revolution and the battle of Hastings and make it funnier and twist the storytelling to a way that people would find it interesting and funny sometimes. Videos are posted three times a week

8. The History Guy

The history guy is known well for the short time he takes in his video. Other history videos online are short but they are much shorter because they take 5 to 15 minutes. Even with this short time, he tends to cover different histories. They are a little bit odd histories but they seem interesting. Things like the wild wide west and the New York blackout that happened in 1977. Other things like how Europeans discovered Alaska and the great olive poisoning that happened in 1919. He makes the videos short because he aims at getting the audience in their spare time. Videos are posted 3 to 4 times a week

9. Timeline

This is a timeline popularly on YouTube as the home of world history. What they do here is drop a video once a week that talk about documentaries and other things. They explore around all of ancient Egypt, shedding their whole light on the former dark ages.

10. Epic History TV

Epic history TV tells you a lot about history and its most important occurrences talking about things like world war one and the epic history of nations like Russia and the story of legends like black beard the pirate. The TV only posts one video every month where you stand a chance to learn about different events that happened in the past.

Part 2: How to Avoid Being Misled by Fake History

For sure everyone knows the concept of fake news, this is like a rumor that people spread around to implicate those around them. Everyone is well aware that not every news is as authentic as it seems. Relating to the history part, you shouldn’t just go ahead and believe what everyone says on YouTube. Make sure you don’t fall for a fake history story. Sometimes, while trying to avoid fake history, you have to get a mindset that is critical, ensure that the source you get it from is checked, check the story out, take a look at the evidence given, and try to make sure it sounds believable.

Final Words

Sometimes it might help your mental health if you can take out time to watch some videos on YouTube, it has so many niches so you can choose the ones you like. History should be a good one for everyone.

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