Soon, marketers will have one fewer ad options on YouTube.
The platform is retiring ‘Overlay ads' next month.
These are the OG banner ads that pop up at the bottom, or the top of videos, which can obstruct the view of whatever consumers are watching.
The company confirmed the decision today, saying they are disruptive for viewers, and that they are a “legacy ad format” that only worked on desktop. The ads are officially being killed off on April 6th and after that will no longer appear on videos, or as an available ad format when you turn on ads in YouTube Studio.
As a result, the only ads available will be ads that can play before, in the middle of, or after a video. YouTube says it expects to see limited impact for most creators as engagement shifts to other ad formats.
⭐ Favouring Creators
As Ars Technica pointed out, creators sometimes only get paid if certain ad thresholds are met, and Overlay ads weren't necessarily enough for a creator to earn money since advertisers could choose to only pay if a user clicked on the ad. Meaning there's a chance nobody was actually getting paid from these pop-up ads. Hence the decision favours the creator economy by giving them more opportunity to earn revenue from other ad formats.
While brands and advertisers who rely on Overlay ads will likely be affected by the move.
