YouTube setup

Overview

Test how a creative performs when it appears as a YouTube Short, using Decode's Social Media In-Context block for YouTube Shorts.

Add the block

Click the + icon in the left panel to open the block selection panel. Under Social Media In-Context, select YouTube Shorts.

Upload your creative

Click to upload or drag and drop your file into the block. You can upload up to 10 creatives per block.

File upload limits: maximum 10 files, 20 MB per file, maximum video duration 60 seconds. Supported formats: MP4, M4V, JPG, JPEG, PNG.

YouTube Shorts doesn't have a content format option, your creative is shown in the standard YouTube Shorts format.

Customize the post

Click into your uploaded creative to set:

• Creative Name — an internal label for your results, not shown to participants
• Profile Name — the name shown as the poster
• Caption — the post caption shown alongside the creative
• Custom CTA — the call-to-action button text, for example, "Learn More"

A live preview on the right shows exactly how the post will look to participants as you make changes.

Set duration and tracking

Duration controls how long the creative stays on screen before the participant moves on, the default is 60 seconds, but you can adjust this if your creative needs more or less time to make its point.

Category and Subcategory classify the creative for benchmarking, so its performance can be compared against similar creatives you've tested in the past, rather than viewed in isolation.

If you want to measure how participants actually responded, not just what they clicked, enable Facial Coding to capture emotional reactions like happiness or surprise, or Eye Tracking to see which parts of the creative drew the most visual attention. Both work in the background without interrupting the participant's experience.

Add follow-up questions

Add questions directly after the block to collect stated feedback immediately after participants view the creative.

What to do next

Once your study is live, see Read in-context results to see how your YouTube creative performed.