If your marketing strategy involves working with creators or running YouTube ad campaigns, then here are some new tools that could be helpful. Google unveiled a series of innovative Gemini-based tools on June 23, 2026, at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity for YouTube to help brands and agencies get better matches between creators, discover trends, and make more informed decisions regarding their campaigns.
The announcement came at one of the top advertising-related events each year and signals how important creator marketing is to Google. This is no small change. It affects multiple areas of brand planning and campaign execution on YouTube, and it comes in a time when the creator economy is worth more than most traditional media outlets.
Why Creator Marketing Matters More Than Ever
Before getting into the specific tools, it helps to understand why Google is investing this much in creator-focused features.
Creator advertising is growing rapidly. According to the IAB, creator ad spend was projected to reach $37 billion in 2025, up 26% year over year and nearly four times faster than the overall media industry’s growth. During three years, creator advertising has more than doubled – from $13.9 billion in 2021 to $29.5 billion in 2024.
YouTube is in the middle of that growth. “YouTube creators are the undisputed voices shaping global culture and driving viewer trust,” stated Sean Downey, President of Americas and Global Partners at Google, at Cannes. “The attention economy has arrived on YouTube, and we believe there isn’t a more important place for marketers than here.” That was Chris Bellinger, Chief Creative Officer at PepsiCo US’s take, “As the creator economy continues to evolve, the way brands must engage with consumers is fundamentally changing. Attention, rather than awareness, will be the currency.”
These tools are Google’s direct response to that shift.
The Four Updates Google Announced
Google Ads has always had Insights Finder that helps marketers understand their audiences’ interests. Now, the tool has expanded trending insights specifically for the US market. Advertisers get more detailed data on what is gaining traction on YouTube so they can act on trends early.
Brand Pulse data integrated into Insights Finder
As previously mentioned, Brand Pulse is a reporting feature that tracks brands’ performances on YouTube via both paid and organic content. Before, it lived separately from Insights Finder. Now, certain Brand Pulse metrics are pulled into Insights Finder to give marketers a consolidated view of their presence on YouTube. Having paid and organic data in one place is especially useful for teams managing both.
Content and Creator Insights API
This update is primarily aimed at agencies and other marketing partners. Google introduces a new Content and Creator Insights API to get even richer data about YouTube creators and their audiences, which is supposed to make the process of creator selection more systematic and data-driven.
The process of choosing the right creator used to be rather manual, based mostly on marketing professionals’ instincts and relationships within the network. With the API, agencies get access to the data about audience to be able to better match creators based on that. Earlier this year at NewFronts, YouTube introduced Creator Partnerships, a Gemini-powered tool that allows marketers to search for creators using natural language prompts. This API is designed for agencies and marketing partners, not individual advertisers.
Gemini Creative Recommendations for Demand Gen
This update is still rolling out. Soon, according to Google, Gemini will provide creative optimization recommendations for YouTube’s Demand Gen campaigns, suggesting visual elements and other creative ideas that may be helpful for improving performance. This way, advertisers get feedback about their creatives before spending money on a full campaign.
How These Tools Fit Together
All of these updates cover different stages of YouTube campaigns. Expanded Insights Finder helps with planning, providing information about trends and consolidated performance data about your brand. Creator Insights API helps with partnerships, providing data needed to select creators. Gemini creative recommendations help with execution, suggesting possible improvements.
For agencies that manage large YouTube budgets, the API access is likely the most important update among these. Suggestions for creatives are great, but better creator matching at scale is solving a very real problem, costing brands time and budgets.
Where This Fits in YouTube’s Bigger Push
These updates were not announced randomly. For most of 2026, YouTube has been developing its ecosystem for data-driven creator marketing.
Earlier this year at NewFronts, the platform has repackaged its existing BrandConnect tool into Creator Partnerships, adding to it a Gemini-powered functionality allowing agencies to search for creators using natural language prompts. Marketers can type something like “find me US tech creators reviewing sports gear with high Gen Z retention” and get matched creators with their channel insights and sample videos. The Content and Creator Insights API announced at Cannes is extending that infrastructure for agencies working at scale.
The big picture behind these moves is that YouTube is positioning itself not only as an ad video platform but as a full marketing platform. From the combination of Creator Partnerships, Insight Finder updates, Brand Pulse integration, and upcoming Gemini creative suggestions, it tries to control the whole process – from trend identification to creator selection to performance measurement.
For marketers who feel that YouTube is hard to navigate because of a lot of guesswork, these features directly solve that problem.
What Advertisers Should Know
The updated Insights Finder trending data and Brand Pulse integration are already available in the US. The Content and Creator Insights API is available for agencies and marketing partners. The Gemini creative recommendations for Demand Gen are coming soon, with no exact release date announced.
For brands that considered YouTube a second-choice channel, and had trouble measuring creator partnerships’ value, these updates will make it easier to adopt both features systematically. The data has improved, the tooling is becoming more accessible, and creator advertising shows no sign of stopping. Getting to know these features now will give you an advantage as they keep maturing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q 1: What did YouTube announce at Cannes Lions 2026?
At Cannes Lions in 2026 on June 23rd, YouTube announced the launch of four Gemini-powered new tools: trending insights expansion within Insights Finder, Brand Pulse integration, Creator Insights API for agencies, and upcoming creative recommendations for Demand Gen campaigns powered by Gemini.
Q 2: What is the Google Ads Insights Finder update?
The update of Insights Finder contains more trends-specific to YouTube in the USA, providing brands with more granular insights on what topics and types of content become popular on the platform.
Q 3: What is Brand Pulse and why does it matter here?
Brand Pulse measures the presence of the brand on YouTube through paid and organic metrics. Thanks to this update, selected metrics from Brand Pulse have been added to Insights Finder, allowing marketers to get information on the performance of their content from one place.
Q 4: What is the Content and Creator Insights API?
This is a new API providing richer data on YouTube creators and their audience for agencies and partners. This tool aims to provide more data-driven creator selection and matching based on audience characteristics rather than on the guessing or network of an agency.
Q 5: Who can access the Creator Insights API?
This API is aimed for agencies and marketing partners and not advertisers. This tool is another step from YouTube to help larger organizations manage creator marketing using actual data about the audience.
Q 6: What are the Gemini creative recommendations for Demand Gen?
It is an upcoming feature allowing Gemini to review the assets used in the Demand Gen campaign and make suggestions on how to improve the visuals and other creative elements of the campaign. Google has not provided the exact date when this feature will be launched.
Q 7: Why is YouTube building so many creator-focused tools right now?
According to IAB data, creator ad spend grew almost twice since 2021 ($13.9 billion) to 2024 ($29.5 billion). YouTube is responding to that growth by giving brands better tools to find and work with creators more effectively.
Q 8: Which of these tools are available right now?
Expanded Insights Finder with the trending data and Brand Pulse integration are already available in the USA. Creator Insights API is available for agencies and partners, and Gemini creative recommendations are rolling out.
Q 9: Do these tools replace the need for human judgment in creator marketing?
No. These tools will provide data and recommendations while the decision on whom to cooperate with and is a good fit in a cultural moment is still up to the marketer.
