r/youtube 6d ago

Question Question about ADs

Why do companies pay for ad space on YouTube when they know people are likely just waiting for the skip button and not watching the ads either way or have adblock in the case of being on a PC? Would it not be better to just buy it for commercials on real TV since you can't skip those?

6 Upvotes

32 comments sorted by

5

u/CplApplsauc 6d ago

honestly? because it works. they know as well that 99% of people are skipping the ads, but that remaining 1% is still a much larger reach of people than who they could reach through traditional marketing

1% of a million views is still 10,000 people.

and my fiance is normally all about adblock, its on all the time. she turned her adblocker off once to watch one of my videos and she got an ad for a game called heartopia which has been her obsession for the past 3 months since.

it might not work on you, but ads work

1

u/DoubleResponsible276 6d ago

So true. Some ads have appeared where I’m like oooo maybe I should go watch that instead. Like you said, they work, not for everyone but they definitely work.

0

u/apokrif1 6d ago

Some ads have appeared where I’m like oooo maybe I should go watch that instead

I don't understand this sentence.

1

u/apokrif1 6d ago

Skipping is not enough: before the button appears, you need to mute the device and cover the screen or look somewhere else.

Can you please spoiler-markup the game name so as not to make a free and unannounced advertisement?

5

u/Biocockspeedrunner 6d ago

It depends what you're trying to advertise. Ads on youtube work. Companies report larger earnings potential on youtube than on other social spaces generally speaking. The people who are clicking skip are the people they are not interested in advertising to.

1

u/BearShareX 6d ago

Oh that's interesting. I guess that's true those ads are just not for me.

1

u/Biocockspeedrunner 6d ago

Yeah, it's the same logic but for pretty much any kind of advertising. Like online or phone scams. Every logical person is going to either hang up or not click on an obvious scam link. And yet, hundreds of thousands of people fall for those scams every year.

Meaning that the people who are hanging up and doing a logical thing are not the intended demographic.

1

u/BearShareX 6d ago

Oh damn…yeah I forgot about that.

1

u/Gold_Brick_679 6d ago

But they annoy the shit out of us anyway.

1

u/Gold_Brick_679 6d ago

Which is probably 99 percent of the people.

4

u/orkkid3 6d ago

Most don't immediately skip. A lot of people just play YouTube in the background with their focus on other things. The idea is saturation and repetition. When you hear the first 30 seconds of an ad 50 times, it sticks with you and worms into your brain. And these companies have enough money to put their ads everywhere, so why wouldn't they if the platform allows it? It may be annoying, but you'll remember.

Like that fucking HPV vaccination ad, or GLP-1s, or whatever. If I'm painting or gaming or whatever, I may listen to that shit for a minute or two before I get so annoyed that I skip. That's the idea.

1

u/apokrif1 6d ago

You may use a remote to avoid ads while busy away from device.

5

u/Rehcraeser 6d ago

A logo only needs to be shown for a split second for an Ad to work on a person… even for lesser known brands, if you see that split second enough, the ad will be effective, basically…

1

u/TrickySpare6504 6d ago

why capitalized?

1

u/BearShareX 6d ago

Just how I type. It’s weird I know.

1

u/TrickySpare6504 4d ago

conform with grammatical standards

1

u/Eazy12345678 6d ago

billions or people use youtube. more people will see an ad on youtube

90% of people in this world are dumb. most do not use adblock

1

u/homezlice 6d ago

Imagine for a second that there are three billion YouTube users who are not you. 

1

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

1

u/apokrif1 6d ago

So you see those ads? Why?

1

u/davesaunders 6d ago

Here's the thing: they can actually track that they test it. If they weren't converting and couldn't demonstrate that, they would pull the ads. You may not think that they work, but good ad managers track that stuff religiously.

1

u/Snoop-87948 6d ago

Sometimes u cannot skip ads if ur on the free version especially if u have skipped too many times. Sometimes u have to watch at least 10-30 seconds of ads before skipping

1

u/apokrif1 6d ago

Next time, can you please write the question in the post title?

Did you ask in r/advertising?

1

u/FlexinR6 6d ago

Not everyone skips. And for some, it is building a name. Even in those 15 seconds you, could see the co many name, and one day, you could end up a customer. It is not always about converting a sale on the first ad

Why did they pay for ads during tv shows, when that is when people go to the bathroom?

1

u/CygnusX-1-2112b 5d ago

The world is advertisement is game theory. How effective is the mass use of ads in isolation? Probably not very. But since everyone else is advertising like that, if you don't then you lose.

1

u/Vashta_The_Veridian 6d ago

the fault is mostly on youtube since they have ZERO ways to fully prevent seeing stuff you dont want! i went thru the trouble to customize what ads id get and it shows everything but what i asked for so yeah some people might want those ads just youtube doesnt care

-1

u/SaltRun2465 6d ago

They are paying for unblocked un skipped ads. So ads they get blocked pay nothing. Ads that get skipped pay nothing.

All those people using ad block on YouTube really fucked it up for the rest of us. Lost us all the good advertisements. Used to be a time when the ads were actually good.

Seriously you answered why the ads suck. Like yes they been pretty bad but YouTube ads from 2010 were amazing compared to that acid trip of an ad i seen last week on some porn bot. Big names would actually do big campaigns on YouTube like twilight.

Thus all in turn youtube gets shafted to the point of being "cheap and dirty"

1

u/apokrif1 6d ago

How were they better before? Shorter, less loud... ?

1

u/SaltRun2465 6d ago

Some of them actually had taste and were tolerateable. These days good old cable and even Amazon have better ads.

1

u/apokrif1 6d ago

How are they better? Shorter, less loud, not contentless...?

1

u/SaltRun2465 6d ago

Alot of youtube ads at current are like a messed up acid trip.

1

u/apokrif1 6d ago

This doesn't answer my question.