Prepare yourself for even more ads on YouTube. The platform, known for ads at the start, in the middle, and at the end of videos, is now looking to display ads when you pause a video. This change is expected to roll out in the next few weeks.
Pause ads on smart TVs were already undergoing pilot testing, as announced during YouTube’s Brandcast event last year. Philipp Schindler, Google’s Vice President, shared the preliminary results of this experimental test during Alphabet’s first-quarter earnings call. He remarked, “Early findings suggest that Pause Ads are yielding significant improvements in brand recognition and engaging viewers’ attention.”
These ads will appear when you pause a video you were watching. They will occupy the screen while the paused video is minimized. The video will shrink, making room for the ad within the player. To resume watching the video, you’ll need to dismiss the pause ad. This format might sound familiar, as Hulu also displays pause ads in a similar manner.
An exact date for the widespread rollout of pause ads hasn’t been announced yet. However, given the positive outcomes from initial tests, it’s likely that we’ll start seeing them soon. YouTube has been increasingly assertive in ad placement, evident from the introduction of unskippable 30-second ads last year. Additionally, they’ve been actively addressing adblockers and third-party apps recently.
The surge in ad placement might be YouTube’s strategy to nudge users towards their ad-free YouTube Premium subscription. It seems like the classic “annoy them until they pay” approach, doesn’t it? Free users on the platform are likely to face the brunt of this new ad format rollout. What’s your take on pause ads? We’re eager to read your opinions in the comment section!
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