Google ditches 30-second unskippable ads on YouTube

“We’re committed to providing a better ads experience for users online,” said a Google spokesperson.

“As part of that, we’ve decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers.”

The 30-second unskippable format has been around for years but attention spans of consumers across all video platforms has been on the decline.

In response, Google offered up 6-second unskippable ads to marketers last April, specifically designed for mobile and “snackable video”.

Eva Tuckman, PPC director at Roast said that the creation of more “bumper” ad formats, will help to readdress the balance between user experience and expectation and ad revenue.

“Unskippable ads have generally always had higher video view abandonment rates, as consumers can then decide that the video they're about to watch is not worth 30 seconds of advertising,” she said.

“As Facebook video consumption continues to grow at astonishing speed, Google need to keep consumers engaged on YouTube while allowing advertisers to continue to pay per view of their video content.”

It will also push those advertisers that are still inclined to simply repurpose 30-second TV ads on digital channels to really invest in creating content fit for purpose.

“While some advertisers are currently pioneering YouTube-specific video ad formats, this will need to quickly become the norm if everyone wants to continue seeing results,” Tuckman added.

Read the ad industry reaction here.