Starting April 6, YouTube will discontinue “overlay” ads. The platform recognizes that these small banners that appear at the bottom of the video tarnish the user experience.
YouTube wants to ease your viewers, already very (some would say too) requested by advertising. Starting April 6, the streaming video platform will drop its “overlay” ads, mostly viewable on the browser version of YouTube. Shown as small pop-up banners at the bottom of playing videos, they are now considered annoying… enough to ” disturb the spectators“, admits YouTube in a public note shared on March 6.
as specified9to5Google, these banners had already been removed from mobile versions of YouTube, in favor of video ads (which are often skippable) added before, during or after playback. Therefore, the change announced by YouTube will not be visible when you watch videos on your smartphone or tablet.
YouTube plans to focus on other, more modern ad formats
«Starting April 6, 2023, the “Ads Overlays” ad format will no longer appear on YouTube to improve the viewer experience and shift engagement to better performing ad formats on desktop and mobile.says YouTube. “Overlay ads are an old ad format, they only serve on desktop computers and confuse viewers.“, illuminated.
Example of overlay advertising on YouTube // Source: YouTube
In detail, YouTube explains that this decision will only have a limited impact for most creators. The platform aims to “catch up” with other more modern and less intrusive advertising formats.
However, starting next month, creators looking to monetize their videos on YouTube’s desktop interface will no longer have access to the “Ads Overlay” option in YouTube Studio. Instead, Google could use a new feature in the future that allows you to “tag” products directly in videos.
Our colleagues from Numerama launch Watt Else, their newsletter dedicated to the mobility of the future. Sign up here to make sure you get the first issue!