The news: Google announced several new insights tools for YouTube at Cannes Lions 2026, designed to help companies and agencies reliant on the video platform maximize the potential of its creator marketing opportunities and tap into trending content.

• Google introduced a trending insights feature within Google Ads Insights Finder to give brands a granular overview of what’s trending on YouTube in real time.
• Certain brand pulse report metrics will begin appearing in Insights Finder, giving brands a deeper understanding of their paid and organic YouTube presence.
• A new Content & Creator Insights API gives brands more thorough details on YouTube creators and viewers, with the goal of improving agencies’ media planning process.
• Google’s flagship AI offering Gemini will soon be able to help brands optimize their YouTube Demand Gen campaigns, offering creative insights and recommendations on how to boost content performance.

Why it matters: Google’s updates could make YouTube feel more like a full-funnel creator marketing platform by connecting more pieces of the marketing puzzle in a single place.

The tools unite trend discovery, creator planning, paid media, and creative optimization—making YouTube far more versatile than simply running video ads. If successful, the tools could help marketers use YouTube for awareness through trends and creators, consideration with richer, more relevant content and storytelling, and conversion through Demand Gen Ads and AI recommendations.

The features are particularly important as influencer marketing gains relevance with audiences and brands.

• 58% of consumers over 18 have purchased products because of an influencer endorsement, per the National Advertising Division of BBB National Programs.
• Marketers use influencer strategies to support several key business objectives, including brand awareness (66% of marketers), audience engagement (59%), and revenue growth (55%), per Sprout Social. That indicates a strategy that is well-suited to support marketers throughout the marketing funnel.

Recommendations for marketers: Google’s announcement signals that YouTube marketing is becoming more creator-led, data-driven, and AI-assisted within the ad planning workflow.

• Marketers can move faster from trend detection to creative briefs. Real-time trend visibility can help marketers identify what audiences are already watching and translate those signals into creator briefs, paid media tests, and campaign messaging while the opportunity is still relevant.
• Creator selection should become more data-driven. YouTube’s trend and creator insights can help marketers move beyond choosing creators primarily for reach, and instead evaluate which combinations of creator, audience, topic, and trend best align with campaign goals.
• Marketers should plan paid, organic, and creator activity together. As brand pulse insights begin appearing in Insights Finder, marketers will have a clearer read on their broader YouTube presence. That should encourage teams to treat creator partnerships, organic content, and paid media as connected parts of the same funnel, rather than as separate efforts.