YouTube is one of the most widely used and popular video streaming platforms available today. With over 2 billion active users per month, YouTube is able to turn independent content creators into household names. There is a lot of content on YouTube, with over 300,000 hours of video uploaded every hour. Luckily, parent company Google has made it as easy as it could be to share YouTube content with others. All of the content on YouTube can be shared via multiple social media platforms, as well as from copying and sending a URL link.
Since all of the content on YouTube can be shared via URL, then it can also be distributed easily through a YouTube QR code - an image that can be scanned with the camera of a smartphone or mobile device and linked to a variety of content, including images, documents, and in the case of YouTube, URL web addresses.
It’s super easy to create YouTube QR codes and share them all over. In this piece, I will go over how to generate QR codes for YouTube content, as well as some tips on how to best distribute your codes.
How can you use YouTube QR codes?
You can use YouTube QR codes to share and distribute just about all of the content available on YouTube. This can include pieces created by your favorite creators or your own works. YouTube QR codes make it especially easy to share web addresses since you don’t need to type in a long URL or even copy it. All you need to do is hover over the code with your phone’s camera and tap the link when it pops up. QR codes can be created easily by copying the URL link into QR Codeveloper, or any other generator of your choice.
You can use YouTube QR codes for:
- Sharing content with friends and loved ones
- Distributing your own content to a wider audience
- Sharing playlists and songs
How to create a YouTube QR code
Step 1: Copy the URL on your desired piece of content from YouTube.
Step 2: Go to QR Codeveloper and select the Create Code, and then the Website option.
Paste the URL into the bar
Step 3: select the pencil icon next to Preview to enter customization mode. Here you can further customize your code and even add a YouTube logo in the center.
Click Apply when you are done.
Step 4: Click Generate.
Step 5: Generate your code and test it on multiple devices.
Where to place your codes
When deciding where to put your code, it’s important to keep in mind that YouTube QR codes are scanned with the camera on a phone or mobile device. Therefore, they must be placed on a flat surface with no warping so that the camera can easily read it. Posters, fliers, stickers, and business cards are among the best places to place a QR code. Uneven surfaces like telephone poles or warped walls would not be a smart location to place a QR code, as the code can become distorted and unreadable.
The best places to physically place a QR code are:
- Posters
- Business cards
- Fliers
- Stickers (on a flat surface)
Why make YouTube QR codes?
YouTube has been the premiere website for user created, long and short form video content. Since the site’s founding in 2005, there have been billions and billions of video content uploaded to the site, by both professionals and amateurs. While short form video apps like TikTok have been gaining steam, YouTube still remains the best place to upload both short form and long form videos to reach a wide audience.
In 2024 there were over 113 Billion visits to the site per month, with over 2.5 billion active users. Last year, around 2.4 million videos were uploaded to the platform daily, and the service amassed over 100 million subscribers to YouTube’s premium ad-free program.
To compare, TikTok had around 1 billion active users in 2024, less than half of YouTube’s, and currently offers no premium version. Additionally, competing service Vimeo had 230 million active users, with 1.5 million opting for the premium service. While TikTok and Vimeo are still very viable media streams, YouTube is the place to distribute long form content to the widest audience.
Monitoring code usage
With the tools available on QR Codeveloper, as well as other code generators, you can monitor the usage of any code you create. This can include how many times a code has been scanned, where it has been scanned, on what device, using what browser, and more. With these tools you can figure out which codes are reaching the most people and where to focus any advertising efforts.
With QR Codeveloper you can monitor:
- Number of scans.
- Number of scans by operating system.
- Scans by browser.
- Scans by country.
- Scans by city.
- Scans by language.
- Unique scans.
Additional information on how to monitor code usage and increase code visibility can be found here.
Tips for better exposure
- Only place codes on a flat surface
- Make sure contrast on code is high
- Provide additional information on where the code links to
- Know your audience
- Keep track of analytics
- Test codes on multiple devices to make sure they work
Conclusion
As you can see, it is very easy to create unique YouTube QR codes for just about any piece of content. From single videos, playlists, content creators, songs, movies, and channels. Creating a scannable QR code for YouTube content is as easy as copying the share link and pasting it into your chosen code generator. Likely, you will spend more time designing the cosmetics of your code than actually creating the code.
So if you have some content on YouTube you want to share via a poster or a flier or whatever, go ahead and make a QR code for it now! You’ll be surprised and pleased by how simple and easy the process is.
