Google’s Gemini has launched extensions that integrate with external platforms. Its YouTube extension is live and available for activation in the Gemini settings behind the “Extensions” tab.
The extension lets users search and summarize YouTube videos inside Gemini. Here’s how it can help video marketing.
Find Top Videos
Native YouTube search is highly personalized by viewing history and subscriptions. To see non-personalized results, searchers must log out or use a browser’s privacy (“Incognito”) mode. Even then, the results differ among users.
Moreover, exporting search results from YouTube is burdensome, requiring copying each video’s URL without the parameters.
Gemini’s extension produces the top five search results without personalization. Users can watch any video inside Gemini without impacting their viewing history on YouTube.
Watch YouTube videos without leaving Gemini. Click image to enlarge.
Simply prompt:
@YouTube search for
Or create a more advanced prompt:
@YouTube search for and return results as a table containing the video title (linked), number of views, and creator’s name (linked)
My results for the query “how to build a website” are below. I’ve reproduced Gemini’s table for this article.
Produce Video Ideas
Like any generative AI platform, Gemini is a good brainstorming tool. It can suggest helpful video topics to research and refine. The YouTube extension can find competing videos on each proposed topic.
Here’s my prompt:
My target phrase is “how to build a website.” Generate specific video ideas for that audience @YouTube.
Here are two of Gemini’s suggestions:
- Building a website with HTML in 30 minutes or less (targets beginners who want a quick and easy introduction).
- Creating a simple portfolio website using HTML and CSS (targets those who want to showcase their work online).
My next prompt (link):
Search @YouTube for each idea and produce examples.
Gemini’s results are well-ranking videos for each idea.
Gemini produced well-ranking videos for each idea in this partial list. Click image to enlarge.
Improve Video Descriptions
Gemini’s YouTube extension can create detailed descriptions of videos on YouTube and add clickable timestamps.
In my testing, Gemini responds better to one task per prompt. Here’s my first prompt: a YouTube video from Brian Dean, “SEO for Beginners: Rank #1 In Google (2023).”
@YouTube Summarize this video by pulling key takeaways and action items https://www.practicalecommerce.com/geminis-youtube-extension-streamlines-marketing.
Here is Gemini’s response:
The main takeaways and action items:
Find low-competition long-tail keywords that are trending:
- Use Google Autocomplete to find these keywords.
- Look for keywords that are more specific and answer user queries in detail. For example, instead of targeting a broad keyword like “skin care routine”, target a long-tail keyword like “skin care routine for dry skin”.
Create high-quality content that satisfies search intent:
- When creating content, make sure it answers the questions users have behind their search queries.
- Focus on providing value and insights instead of just creating generic content.
- Look at the content structure of websites like Investopedia where they answer user queries directly and in a clear way.
Optimize your content for on-page SEO:
- Include your target keyword in the title, the first couple of hundred words of your content, and a few other times throughout the content.
Optimize your content for user experience:
- Make sure your content is easy to read and navigate.
- Use short paragraphs, subheadings, and bullet points to break up your text.
- Front-load the value by placing the most important information at the beginning of your content.
Build backlinks to your website:
- Create content that is link-worthy, such as content with unique data or insights.
- Target specific statistics in your niche that other websites might want to cite.
My next prompt:
Add a timestamp for each takeaway from the video. The format: mm:ss.
Here’s Gemini’s response with clickable timestamps:
- Target low-competition, long-tail keywords that are trending and not yet mainstream (01:53)
- Create content that satisfies search intent and gives searchers exactly what they’re looking for (02:51)
- Optimize your content for on-page SEO by adding your keyword to your page a couple of times (04:11)
- Optimize your content for user experience by making sure people can get value as soon as possible after landing on your site (04:22)
- Build backlinks by being the source for a specific statistic in your niche (05:04)
