YouTube brings back 30-second unskippable ads to the UK

YouTube has brought back 30-second unskippable ads to its platform in the UK for the first time since 2018.

When watching YouTube on connected TVs, instead of two 15-second ads, viewers will see one 30-second ad.

These 30-second ads will only be available to those watching YouTube Select inventory, which consists of curated videos of the top 5% of the most-watched content on YouTube.

The move follows advertiser demand and research from YouTube. Thirty-second unskippable ads returned in the US in May 2023.

Speaking to Campaign, Erica Probst, head of sales at YouTube, UK, said: “Advertisers are still building that 30-second asset as their primary storytelling vehicle for a campaign.”

She added that advertisers could tell “compelling stories” this way and that the 30-second asset was something that “advertisers have been asking us to do for quite a while”.

One media buyer agreed that the move “made sense” for Google commercially and that advertisers were “keen” for the 30-second asset.

YouTube’s research, which led to the reintroduction of the 30-second asset, found that 60% of UK viewers watching YouTube on their TV screens were watching content longer than 20 minutes.

Probst added: “They’re in a leanback viewing mode; they’re watching longer-form content and therefore the user preference is to have fewer interruptions and fewer ads in a single break.”

In terms of why they chose the YouTube Select inventory, Probst said that 55% of YouTube Select impressions landed on TV screens in H1 of 2023.

The move also follows the trend of an evolving audio-visual market in which the definition of television is changing.

According to YouTube’s Why We Watch report, 74% of people include YouTube in their definition of television, alongside streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.