YouTube Will Stop Placing Unskippable 30-Second Ads in Front of Videos in 2018

amg2014 said:
It gets really annoying when I have to watch ads every time, and not be able to skip them. It happens so often on the Youtube app. That is why I removed it from my phone.
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I can deal with a commercial before the video begins. The BIGGEST annoyance is when you are watching a longer video, maybe 15-20 minutes and the video stops half way through and plays a 30 second video like a damn TV show.
 
itsmilo said:
i will never understand why mobile ads even work on people and i work in online marketing. Not once was i playing a game looking at that interruptive ad thinking "oh sure i would love to buy this random item". In fact it is actually going to put me off from the company
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Somehow those (and other ads) overall must work to enough of a degree for it all to be a worthwhile enterprise, otherwise there wouldn't be advertisers advertising really.
 
Advertising is so strange. Every single person, including the advertisers themselves loathe ads. Everyone hates them. Every single person. Yet companies insist on associating their product in a way that is universally despised. People are so weird.
 
now i see it said:
Advertising is so strange. Every single person, including the advertisers themselves loathe ads. Everyone hates them. Every single person. Yet companies insist on associating their product in a way that is universally despised. People are so weird.
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And yet it must work on a level that's worthwhile enough for them to spend the money and effort on it all for a long time now.
 
My viewing habits on YouTube has drastically changed from random videos once in awhile to a few channels that put out content 3 to 5 times every week. They're long format (15 minutes to 90 minutes) and are basically the same to me as a TV show or Netflix show. Because of this I always watch the ads (or at least go more then 30 seconds deep into the one that offer a skip and are like 2+ minutes long). I do this because I know my content creator makes money from those ads and I don't want them to stop making videos OR have to scale back how many they make because they have to reduce staff or pickup a side job, etc.

I'm fine with switching to 6 seconds ads that can't be skipped, as long as YouTube can sell enough ad time to keep the level up for the content creators. If they start seeing total rev dropping because they're getting served less ads, that'll be sad. I can understand new viewers to a channel skipping ads but as viewers subscribe and hang around for weeks and months, they should start watching ads and rolling a 30 second ad that can't be skipped in front of a 15 to 45 minute video is almost ZERO distraction. Even better if they're targeted (video game ads for gaming channels, movie trailers for film channels, etc)

Without turning it into an "ask for money moment" I almost wonder if YouTube creators need to be a little more transparent and engaging with their audience on how they make money. I think a lot of people, especially younger generations (which are heavy YouTube users) just think that YouTube pays them to make videos and where the money comes from is magic. If they actually knew by hitting the little "skip" button they kept money out of the pockets of the people they watch every day, follow on twitter, and talk about all the time, I wonder if they would watch more of the ads.

Content creators are constantly talking about "Like my video and hit the sub button!" when in reality that does nothing for their bottom line. The sub count might help new viewer buy into the popularity of the channel, and of course act to notify and serve up existing viewers the new content, but they don't really directly relate to income and if a channel is going to get noticed and trending in the YouTube system. The machine has evolved into watch minutes and repeatability. It wants viewers coming back every day, not just on the weekend or something, and watching 10, 20, 50 minutes and not just 10 seconds here, 2 minutes there, etc.

I'm sure there are NDAs that creators have to sign which keeps a lot of YouTube's pay out structure off the table for talking about, but I'm surprised more people don't remind viewers to come back tomorrow to watch my next video, or "My videos are made possible by all my great viewers not skipping and instead watching the ads before my channel, thank you!" instead of "LIKE MY VIDEOSS!"

Example: I never knew that the TrueView ads that YouTube offers require 30+ seconds (or the total length of the ad, whichever is shorter) of someone viewing before it becomes a paid ad and the advertiser is charged for it. If you watch past the 5 second required point before the skip and then skip at 22 seconds, that's free ad time for the advertiser AND zero income for the channel owner. Since finding out about that, I ALWAYS watch at least 30 second of the ad on the channels I enjoy. I value my time, but 3 to 5 ads for anywhere from 1 to 5 hours of content a night* is amazing value for my time!


*I don't actively watch 5 hours of YouTube a night, I might be working on something and just have my favorite YouTube channel on in the background running, etc.
 
citi said:
I can deal with a commercial before the video begins. The BIGGEST annoyance is when you are watching a longer video, maybe 15-20 minutes and the video stops half way through and plays a 30 second video like a damn TV show.
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The problem for me is that ads show up almost every time, at least in the app. I now simply watch YouTube through the browser.
 
C DM said:
And yet it must work on a level that's worthwhile enough for them to spend the money and effort on it all for a long time now.
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I agree, but at the same time not. I've actually been introduced to a handful of video games that I didn't know about until I saw an ad for them. (I enjoy games, but usually don't have the time for them much so average maybe two to three new games a year that I buy and don't have the time to follow game blogs all the time, etc)

The same can be said about movies. I've often forgot the release date for a movie that was announced a year ago and the ad will remind me, more then a few times to the point where I change a Friday night plan to instead catch the new movie. Or movies that don't get a lot of buzz and press when filming but instead have a fantastic trailer that catches my eye.

The hit rate is probably low, probably under 10% of the ads I see actually evoke an emotion or change in my mind, but still, I do feel them working. It needs to be more targeted for sure and there needs to be a higher turn rate I think. It's useless showing me Battlefield 1 ads 45 times in a three week period or something. I'm sure there at stats out there on how many times someone needs to see something to go from a "maybe" to "I should get that", but I'm sure they're lower then the flood of repeating ads that we see. That would optimize for the advertiser and stretch their ad dollars, and maybe annoy the end user a little less since it's something fresh that hopefully might hit the mark.
 
On iOS, I just hit the "skip" button on the native player in Safari. Seems to work even for unskippable ads.
 
Why not just install AdBlock? If I use a different browser the experience is so much worse, I've no idea why people still put up with them.
 
Ad agency, you have 6 seconds to get the consumers attention if you want your ad campaign to succeed.

I believe this will result in a huge improvement in ads quality.

The only time people don't skip commercials is during the Super Bowl. Why? ... exactly!
 
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They need to be held accountable for placing age inappropriate ads in content geared to children. Considering how detailed their analytics are, they know exactly what is happening and just don't care.

Their app targets the ads to the user based on the whole of what they ever viewed, and seems to err on the side of the most risqué. But that's like a Viacom putting liquor ads during spongebob because the same tv is also used to watch Comedy Central.
 
If I have to suffer through an ad, it makes it even more likely I'll not buy that brand. Annoy someone with something that can't be skipped, pitch your brand while the person is annoyed so that is what that person associates with your brand, and wonder why it doesn't work to increase sales.
 
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