This article was published on June 15, 2016

YouTube Director app helps business owners on a budget create DIY video ads


YouTube Director app helps business owners on a budget create DIY video ads

YouTube today announced a new suite of tools to help business owners get started with creating video ads on a budget.

The YouTube Director suite comes in three parts: the first is a free iOS app that lets you shoot your own commercial using a template and step-by-step instructions of what to shoot. There are also tools to add text and animation as well.

It should feel familiar to those who’ve used apps like Snapchat, as it lets you tell a video story through your own smartphone, except the app offers prompts to get you started with what to say or do in the shot.

If you don’t trust your shaky hands, you can also opt for a professional filmmaker to shoot your ad. Called YouTube Director onsite, the service will be available for free to those who spent $150 or more on ads and will come first to major metropolitan areas like Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington DC, with more cities to be added “soon.”

Lastly, if your business is an app, you’ll likely already have graphics and video assets ready to go, so you can use the YouTube Director automated ad tool to generate a video based on graphics you already have when your app launched in the App or Play Stores.

It’s interesting to see the Director app come to iOS first (given that YouTube is a Google company, after all) – but we wouldn’t be surprised to see an Android version follow very soon.

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