Expecting a Surge in Commercials - Understanding YouTube’s Latest Ad Strategy

YouTube really likes advertisements at this point. If you’re not a YouTube Premium subscriber, you need to deal with multiple ads in a row, longer ads, and more frequent ad interruptions. Unfortunately, Google is now experimenting with yet another ad format in YouTube.

Google has hinted that it might roll out something called “pause ads” more widely to users on TVs after an initial test of the format was hugely successful. What’s a pause ad, exactly? Well, it’s an ad that shows up when you pause a video. When you hit pause mid-stream, the video you’re watching will shrink, and an ad will appear right next to it. The ads can be seen as a little less “invasive” than most other ads on the platform, as it can be easily dismissed and the ad itself is just a banner with no movement or sound. If you’ve seen that kind of ad before, you were part of Google’s initial test, but there’s a real chance that it’ll now roll out to everyone.

Google’s Philipp Schindler said that “in Q1, we saw strong traction from the introduction of a pause ads pilot on connected TVs, a new non-interruptive ad format that appears when users pause their organic content.” He’s not saying they will roll out more widely, but if an ad format is this successful, then it means it will appear on your TV eventually too.

While this is probably one of the less invasive types of ads in YouTube (which might be why it’s seeing a lot of success), it’s hard to not be annoyed when you see how ad-filled YouTube is right now. Sure, a banner when you pause a video might not grind your gears, but when you see it after watching two ads at the beginning of the video and probably another two mid-video, it does feel a bit like things are getting out of hand. Then again, with competing streaming services like Netflix realizing that most people will put up with ads , Google probably knows this won’t tip the balance for most viewers.

Source: Android Authority

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