YouTube

YouTube will turn on mid-roll ads for all eligible videos this month, lowers time limit

Ben Schoon | Jul 10 2020 - 7:08 am PT

Ads on YouTube pay the creators of videos, and for the most part, they’re found only at the beginning of a video. In longer videos, though, ads can be placed in the middle of the video too, and now, YouTube is lowering the time requirement on these mid-roll ads.

As it stands right now, YouTube videos need to be at least 10 minutes long to be eligible for mid-roll ads. The creator doesn’t have to turn them on, but if they do, they’ll get control over the placement of the ad, and of course, more revenue when they play.

Starting later this month, YouTube will make it possible to run mid-roll ads on considerably shorter videos. Specifically, videos of 8 minutes or longer will be able to run these ads in the middle of the video.

The bigger news here, though, is that Google is also turning on mid-roll ads by default on all eligible videos, whether they’re being uploaded as new or already existing. This includes videos where creators already opted not to include mid-roll ads.

Today, only videos longer than 10 minutes are eligible for mid-roll ads. Starting in late July, videos that are longer than eight minutes will be eligible for mid-roll ads. As part of this change, mid-roll ads will be turned on for all eligible existing videos and future video uploads, including those videos where you may have previously opted out of mid-roll ads. Videos that already have mid-roll ads turned on will not be impacted. If mid-roll ads are not a good fit for your videos, you can indicate this preference in YouTube Studio by 27 July 2020.

Creators will still have the option, though, to turn these ads off. A new setting in YouTube Studio, pictured below, gives YouTubers the option to add these mid-roll ads to their videos automatically or continue to do it manually for each new upload. Those preferences are available until July 27.