Give your audience choice, don’t use non-skippable YouTube ads

Imagine walking in a mall, browsing through the shops and suddenly an invisible barrier appears in front of you, forcing you to now spend 30 seconds engaging with a brand and you can’t continue until the ad is done. Or you’re sitting in your usual morning traffic, an ad comes on the radio and the channel up and down or power button becomes disabled. Traffic is bad enough on its own, now you’re forced to listen to another 30 seconds of the same ad you heard 20 minutes ago (because lets be honest, during the morning and afternoon drive-time slots only a few brands can actually afford to air their ads, resulting in the same five ads being played on a loop for 3-6 hours everyday). ‘

As a consumer firstly, I would be annoyed at such an aggressive marketing strategy and secondly, in my mind it creates a negative association between me and that brand.

YouTube non-skippable ads elicit the same response. Every consumer values their choice, whether it’s which product to buy or which movie to watch. I believe the same principle applies when it comes to advertising. With traditional advertising in the form of radio, print and TV we have the choice of whether or not we want to read, listen to or watch the advert. And our decision is unlikely to have a huge impact on the ads effectiveness.

Sure, it could limit the reach but my point is, just like you have the option of deciding which products to buy in a grocery store, or changing the radio station, you also have the option of deciding which adverts warrant your attention and which don’t. With these non-skippable ad formats you don’t.

Some marketers may argue in favour of non-skippable YouTube ads. I mean, if someone is viewing the advert that must be a good thing right? What they may not really consider is the impression this kind of aggressive advertising leaves on the consumer.

There is the risk of putting the consumer off by the fact that they are forced to engage with the brand thereby having their choice taken away. And to be quite honest, I’m most likely to close my browser window and open a new one rather than view an advert I have no interest in.

From a marketers perspective, non-skippable ads should not be your first choice. If your ad isn’t going to hook the consumer in the first 5 seconds is it really that good of an ad? And if it isn’t able to hook someone in the first 5 seconds, then chances are the rest of the it doesn’t really warrant their attention either. Think about it.