Rebuilding YouTube: Why It’s Time to Localise your content

YouTube is a search engine, content platform, streaming channel, and creative playground - all rolled into one. And today, there are more than a hundred local versions of YouTube that lets users discover content relevant to their region, and in over 80 languages. But, while your audience is likely global, your content strategy probably isn’t.

And, if you’re a marketer for a global brand with a presence on YouTube, that presence likely looks a little like this: .

Multiple regional channels. Inconsistent branding. Some videos subtitled, some dubbed, and some still in English. And no shared measurement. 

Ultimately, without a centralised plan, it’s highly possible  that your good intentions aren’t translating  into the impact you deserve.

It’s understandable - YouTube’s global growth happened fast since it was acquired by Google in 2006 and so many brands have found themselves with patchwork strategies or have treated their channel as a dumping ground for content, with no strategy. But, this is all fixable.

Today, YouTube reaches over 122 million people daily, and the biggest opportunity lies in speaking to those users in their own language and making nuanced, credible references to their specific culture. Done right, localisation unlocks global growth - deepening loyalty, and making your brand truly local everywhere.

In this article we’ll share why strategic localisation is the key to scalable growth  in the long term.

Here’s what we’ll unpack:

• Why YouTube localisation matters more now than ever

• What’s gone wrong for most brands (and how we fix it)

• What good localisation looks like in 2025

• How we’re helping clients get localisation right

• And where the future of dynamic, AI-powered localisation is heading

What’s gone wrong for most brands (and how to fix it)

Most global brands didn’t build their YouTube presence with a centralised plan. Regional teams launched their own channels. Creative was localised here and there and strategy took a backseat.

We’ve seen this play out time and again.

One of our clients, a global consumer brand, had 21 European channels alone. Each one was being used as video depositories or advertising outlets with no strategy or best practice for uploads. The videos were product-centric rather than content-driven and there was no content or branding consistency from channel to channel.

This is what happens when localisation isn’t considered from the start and when no one’s quite sure who owns what.

We helped them audit their entire YouTube presence, identify what was working (and what wasn’t), in order to consolidate and streamline content, with links to region-specific channels. The aim was to create a localisations strategy that allows them to publish content with purpose and brand consistency that will engage current and new consumers now and also allow them to scale in the future.

What is YouTube localisation in 2025 and why does it matters?

Localisation is all about making your content accessible and giving the viewer the best experience, no matter where in the world they’re consuming it. It’s storytelling that lands with the right language, with the right tone, for the right audience.

It’s about adapting your content - visually, verbally, and culturally - to make it feel natural in a specific region. And it’s about working harder for your audience so they don’t have to. That can mean reworking your video titles and descriptions in local languages. But you might also want to dub voiceovers, swap out thumbnails, to make it relevant.

Ultimately, what you do can take a lot of different forms, depending on your market, your goals, and your resources. Here’s where we’re seeing success right now:

1. Fully bespoke creative

This is the gold standard. New creative built for each specific regional market. This ensures you are culturally relevant, linguistically accurate, and emotionally spot on.

2. Voiceover or dubbed content

This is a smart middle ground. It keeps the core creative, but changes the voiceover to suit each market. 

YouTube’s auto dubbing feature has made this more accessible by generating translated audio tracks in different languages. Viewers can choose whether they watch your content with the original audio, or in an alternate language via the dubbing tool. 

3. Dynamic Subtitles 

Dynamic subtitles give you more accessibility and flexibility with your content. Unlike burned-in subtitles, they’re easier to manage, translate, and update and act as part of your video metadata to increase your video SEO. Use SRT files - YouTube’s native closed captioning format - you can send these to different regions to translate accurately. 

4. Auto-Subtitles

If budget and resources are tight, YouTube’s auto-subtitles are helpful, but only if someone checks them. 

At the very least, verify your original English subtitles before letting the platform auto-translate. 

Metadata, SEO, and making your content findable

You could have the best video in the world, but if the title, description, and metadata are still in English, you’ve missed a trick for your localisation strategy.

Multi-language metadata, localised closed captions, and strategic use of keywords all help YouTube understand who your content is for and serve it to the most appropriate audience.

Here’s why it’s important:

1. Better SEO

Search engines favour local relevance. When your content is translated and tailored, it ranks higher in local search and surfaces to new viewers who’d never find you otherwise. This means more organic discovery with more qualified viewers.

2. Better user experience

Local search habits, trends, and expectations vary massively. The more your content speaks your audience’s language (literally and metaphorically!) the more likely they are to give your content higher engagement, subscribe to your channel, and come back for more.

3. Stronger brand loyalty

Thoughtful localisation shows respect. It tells your audience, “We see you.” And that earns trust. People want to buy from brands that show they care. Over time, that’s what builds lasting loyalty - and the chance to boost conversions from your channel.

Measure it to find the opportunities

You can’t optimise what you don’t track. Localisation is an opportunity to learn more about your global audience, by identifying what resonates with different cultures and regions. It gives you opportunities to grow your performance by building deeper connections.

Here’s what we recommend monitoring:

• Watch time by regional markets

• Subscriber growth by region

• Engagement in local languages

• CTR on translated titles and thumbnails
  

What’s Next: Where the future of dynamic, AI-powered localisation is heading

The next evolution is already underway. AI-powered voice tools like YouTube’s auto-dubbing tool are making it possible to dub content in multiple languages. While others can match mouth movements, and even replicate the creator’s voice across regions.

We’re not just talking about better translation, we’re talking about real-time content localisation with just one asset.

Conclusion

If localisation feels like a big step, that’s okay, we get it. But it’s a step worth taking.

This is where YouTube stops being just a channel and starts being a place where your brand connects with your audience, worldwide.

When you get it right, you reach new audiences and markets, build deeper connections, and get bigger brand growth by making your brand feel relevant and real wherever your viewers are.

It’s time to think strategically. See YouTube as your global growth engine and a place to build loyalty and engagement in your audience’s language.