Letting users skip: Quantifying the relative effectiveness of skippable and non-skippable video ads on YouTube

In 2010, YouTube introduced TrueView in-stream ads which allow users to skip directly to the desired content after 5 seconds of viewing.

Letting users skip: Quantifying the relative effectiveness of skippable and non-skippable video ads on YouTube

Max Pashkevich,Sundar Dorai-Raj and Dan ZigmondGoogle, Inc

Abstract

In 2010, YouTube introduced TrueView in-stream ads, video ads that allow the user to skip directly to the desired video content after 5 seconds of viewing. We compared these skippable in-stream ads to the conventional (non-skippable) in-stream video ad formats at YouTube, using a new ad effectiveness metric based on the propensity to search for terms related to ad content after seeing the video ad. Our findings indicate that skippable video ads may...

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