What YouTube’s Brand Partner Access Code Lets a Brand Do

YouTube’s brand partner access code is not just a reporting link. It connects a specific sponsored video to a brand partner’s Google Ads account, enabling access to organic and paid performance metrics and promotion through Creator Partnerships Boost. Brands and agencies acting for them can receive this access. YouTube’s help guide describes both permissions together.

For creators, the practical rule is simple: agree on paid use before sending the code—even if the request arrives as “we just need your analytics.”

Platform details checked October 8, 2026.

What permissions does the code share?

YouTube’s September 23, 2026 announcement introduced the one-click code as a way to share performance and enable paid amplification. The detailed permissions are video-level:

Access	What it means for the creator
Performance reporting	Shares public and non-public metrics for the associated video—not just its public view count.
Audience insights	Includes viewer age, gender, country and region.
Engagement and viewing data	Includes watch time, average view duration, average percentage viewed, shares and other listed metrics. Selected metrics are split by organic versus paid traffic.
Creator Partnerships Boost	Lets the partner promote the video through the Boost workflow in Google Ads.

These are the permissions listed in YouTube’s video-access documentation. YouTube also says creator-initiated sharing adds a Paid promotion label to the content. If the deal covers reporting only, offer an agreed report instead of treating this bundled permission as read-only access.

This is different from channel-management access. YouTube’s separate channel permissions system gives invited people roles for channel data, tools and features. A brand asking to report on or Boost one sponsored video does not need your password or an Editor/Manager invitation for that purpose.

Who can generate a code?

According to YouTube’s current eligibility rules:

• YouTube Partner Program creators can generate a code or search for a brand.
• All creators can select an existing reported brand deal.
• All creators can receive brand-initiated access requests.

So a missing code option does not necessarily mean there is no access route. If you are outside YPP, ask the brand about a direct request or the relevant reported campaign rather than giving it channel access.

How to generate and share the code

For a published sponsored video, YouTube’s desktop instructions are:

1. Open YouTube Studio → Content.
2. Click the video’s title or thumbnail.
3. Under Details, click Show more.
4. Under Brand partnerships, select Share access code.
5. Copy the unique URL and send it to the agreed brand or agency contact.

The “code” is a clickable link. When the partner clicks it, the video automatically connects to its Google Ads account. YouTube says you can share it while the video is public or unlisted.

Before sending it, confirm which brand or agency account should receive access and who will operate the campaign. Treat the link as an access credential, not something to paste into a public brief.

For a brand-initiated request, use Content → Filter → Brand access → For review to find pending requests. Use Shared to review videos already granted access.

What should be agreed before access goes live?

The platform connection does not settle the commercial terms. Google’s Boost guidance explicitly makes advertisers responsible for securing sufficient advertising rights, potentially through a separate agreement with the creator or other rights holders.

Confirm the exact video and advertiser, paid-use dates, markets and placements, edit permissions, fee, and who will stop the campaign and remove access. Keep the creator’s fee distinct from the brand’s media budget. The Boost code and usage-rights guide covers those contract terms and a worked deal example in more detail.

How to remove access—and its limit

To remove an individually linked brand, open the video’s Details, find Brands, select Remove, confirm and save.

To revoke the code, open Show more → Brand partnerships → Share access code, choose the menu, select Delete access code, confirm, then save the video. Deleting the code removes access from all brands using that code, according to YouTube’s removal instructions.

Removal withdraws consent to share non-public metrics and to promote through Creator Partnerships Boost. But YouTube warns that the video may still be promoted in other ad contexts. Do not treat revocation as a universal advertising stop switch: at the agreed end date, remove the relevant access and obtain confirmation from the paid-media operator that campaign use has stopped.