YouTube Creator Partnerships is the platform's own system for matching brands with creators for paid deals and running those videos as ads. YouTube's help page now lists both the UAE and Saudi Arabia among the countries where advertisers can find creators through it. To appear, creators must be 18 or older, be in the YouTube Partner Program and have no active Community Guidelines strikes.
How we got here
At its Brandcast event on 7 November 2025, YouTube said it would launch a Creator Partnerships hub and an open call across the Middle East and North Africa in 2026. On 23 September 2026, in its Made on YouTube announcements, it said Creator Partnerships was now available in 20 countries, and Campaign Middle East and Communicate both reported on 1 October that the expansion includes the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
What Ask Studio adds
Ask Studio is YouTube's AI assistant inside YouTube Studio. YouTube says it will soon let creators quickly write tailored responses to brand briefs and adjust their media kits for each one. Timing is uncertain: YouTube says soon, while one regional report says early 2027. Separately, the general Ask Studio assistant is coming to the Studio mobile app this autumn.
YouTube also said it is putting hundreds of millions of dollars into incentives for agency partners, without regional detail, and that its Shopping affiliate programme has more than 1.3 million creators and will reach 35 countries by the end of the year.
How big YouTube is here
- YouTube cited reach among adults 18 and over, as of September 2025, of 7.5 million in the UAE and more than 20 million in Saudi Arabia, according to Communicate.
- At Brandcast, Arab News reported YouTube claiming 94 percent penetration in the UAE, and that 54 percent of UAE Shorts users do not use Instagram Reels. These are YouTube's own figures.
- We found no 2026 numbers for the YouTube Partner Program or Shorts in the region.
Younger audiences
Since 2 July 2026 YouTube has offered supervised accounts for children across the region, with three content levels, a Shorts timer, no autoplay and no personalised ads. Khaleej Times linked the launch to the UAE's new rules on children's social media accounts, which ban personal accounts for under-15s once platforms' 12-month transition period ends.
What agencies should do
- Use Creator Partnerships to search, not to decide. It shows creators who are eligible and open to deals; your own vetting of audience, content history and fit still matters.
- Check eligibility early. A creator outside the Partner Program, or with an active strike, will not appear and cannot be run as a partnership through the tool.
- Prepare for faster, more polished pitches. If Ask Studio helps creators answer briefs, expect more responses that look alike. Write briefs that ask for specific ideas, not general enthusiasm.
- Confirm every UAE creator holds a valid Advertiser Permit before contracting, whatever tool found them.
- Ask your YouTube contact about the agency incentives and what they require.
The YouTube engagement rate calculator on this site checks how a channel's recent videos perform against its size, a quick test before shortlisting.
