YouTube’s Skippable Ads Go Live

hulu selector

YouTube took its selectable ad format out of testing Wednesday and made it generally available to advertisers, hoping that adding user choice to its ads would provide more engaged and higher-value viewers to the people who pay the bills. The new ad format, called TrueView, will allow YouTube viewers to choose from a selection of pre-roll ads, or even skip them altogether if they don’t find one of interest.

By introducing its TrueView ad format, YouTube is embracing what’s quickly becoming an industry standard: offering user choice in serving up video ads online. Hulu has had tremendous success with its Ad Selector selectable ad unit, which Publicis Groupe’s Vivaki unit announced was the most effective ad format looked at as part of its “Pool” research project. YouTube joined the “Pool” project in late August 2009, and it looks like it’s taking those findings to heart.

The TrueView format, like Hulu’s Ad Selector, allows viewers to choose the most relevant video ad from up to three different pre-roll options, or to skip ads altogether if they don’t see something of interest. For advertisers that are part of the program, that means that they’re getting more engaged viewers than if they showed a typical pre-roll ad, and they don’t have to pay for ads that get skipped.

“What we’re finding is that [advertisers] are willing to pay more for a viewer that cares about an ad rather than one that doesn’t,” a YouTube spokesperson told us by phone. For YouTube, that means it can charge more for ads that actually get watched, as opposed to ads viewers don’t pay attention to. Not just that, but it can apply data about user selection to serve up more relevant ads in the future.

Don’t expect to be confronted by a swarm of Hulu-like ads right away; while the format is now generally available, it may take some time for YouTube’s sales team to generate high demand for the unit. Also, don’t expect to be able to skip all YouTube pre-rolls anytime soon — the spokesperson said YouTube will continue to run a wide range of ad units, most of which won’t be skippable.

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