YouTube is Ditching 30-second Unskippable Ads

Google is set to remove unskippable 30-second ads from YouTube as it looks to focus on shorter advertising and improve the experience of users on the video sharing platform.

As first reported by Campaign, the ads will be removed in 2018. Despite this, YouTube will not be getting rid of all non-skippable ads and is expected to focus more heavily on the six-second unskippable bumper ads that it introduced last year, as well as the possibility of it making 15 and 20-second ad formats unskippable. Therefore, though YouTube will be removing the longest form of its ads, it may still cause – those who find ads irritating – even more irritation.

“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,” a Google spokesman told Campaign.

Google has not given any indication as to when in 2018 the ad format will be removed from the video hosting service.