YOUTUBE BRAND ACCOUNT vs REGULAR (PERSONAL) – Which Is Best?

Should you create a brand account or a regular personal account when starting a YouTube channel?

In the video below, you’ll learn the pros and cons of starting a brand account versus a regular account, how to check if you have a brand account, how to create a brand account, or how to move your personal account to a business account.


Pros and Cons of Brand Account vs Regular Account

  1. Multiple people can manage a YouTube account from the Google account.
    You don’t need to create a separate username and password, and also, you don’t have to give them login access to your Google account. Once you’ve given them permission as a manager, they can just log in to YouTube account.
  2. Use a different name on YouTube than your Google account.
    The name that you have for your Google account doesn’t have to be the same as your YouTube account. Your YouTube channel can have a different name and different photo to your Google account.
  3. Use one or two words for your channel name.
    For the personal account, you’re going to use two words but if you have a brand account, you can use multiple words like three or four words in your channel name.
  4. Recover a deleted account.
    If you accidentally deleted your brand account, you can recover it.

How To Check If You Have A Brand Account Or A Regular Account

  • Go to youtube.com/account_advanced
  • Click on Advanced settings. If you see Move channel to a brand account, it means you just have a personal account. If you just started YouTube channel, you won’t be eligible for a custom URL until you have a hundred subscribers.

    If I have a brand account, I’ll see Move channel to your Google account or to a different brand account. If I click on Account and click on Add or manage your channel, and here’s all my channels under my brand account.

    If I click on Create a new channel, the brand account can have a different name than your personal account. For example a business name or another name that you choose. So I can put my business name in here and then click Create.

    If I go to myaccount.google.com/brandaccounts I can see all my brand accounts listed. If I click on one of my brand accounts, the you can see my brand account details. I can edit my account info; change roles, invite, and remove users.

    If I click on Manage permissions, I’ve got myself as a primary owner. If I click on Invite new users, then I can add others to help manage my business info, customer reviews, and YouTube videos. All I have to do is add names or email addresses in here, and then I just choose a role like owner, manager, or communications manager.

    If I choose Manager, then that name or that email address will allow them to log in my account and manage my YouTube account. I don’t have to give them my Gmail login access.

Here’s how to move your personal account to a brand account without deleting it.

  • I’m first going to create a personal YouTube account that’s connected to my Gmail account.
  • Log to Gmail account
  • Click Create a channel,
  • Click Get started. It says use your name or use a customer name. In this case, I’m just going to use my name
  • Click Select. Now, I can upload a profile picture,
  • Go to youtube.com/account_advanced, and here it says move channel to brand account. This account that I have is a personal account, but I have to first create a brand account. Here’s the brand account that I just made. Here’s another brand account that I created before.
  • Here’s my personal account called Herman Drost, and I want to transfer that to a brand account. I got to select one of these brand accounts below. It says My Brand Account is already connected to another YouTube channel. If you move your channel to Brand Account,
  • My Brand Account, the currently connected channel will be deleted. The brand account that I just created will be deleted, and then the Herman Drost will become the new brand account.
  • So I’ll click Delete channel. Here’s a connected account Herman Drost, and the channel after the move means Herman Drost become My Brand Account.
  • Click Move channel. So Herman Drost is the currently connected account, and it’s going to become My Brand Account.
  • Click Move channel. It says it may take up to 10 minutes for updates to your account to be completed. Herman Drost has now become My Brand Account. I can change the name by just clicking on Edit on Google, pick Add or manage your channel. I’ve got all the channels listed here.
  • I’ll click View advanced settings and get a custom URL after I’ve got 100 subscribers. I can also move my channel to a Google account or a different brand account. I can also delete my channel. I’ll move my personal account, Herman Drost, to a branded account called Brand Account.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you move your personal account to a brand account

  • ,Your comments will be lost during a transfer.
  • You also lose your custom URL, but you can claim a new one when you’ve created the account.
  • If you accidentally delete the account, you can restore the branded account. If you’re going to claim a custom URL, you have to have at least 100 subscribers.

Click here to watch my video on how to claim a custom URL.

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