Ads on YouTube are a bit of a mess, with ad breaks often dominating the experience, which has driven some to using ad blocker tools. Lately, though, YouTube really seems to be cracking down on those users, with more aggressive blocking of ad blockers.
Back in May, YouTube users with active ad blockers started to notice a test where the desktop app would prompt them to turn off their ad blocker, threatening to block video playback if they didn’t. In June, the test continued, with YouTube also confirming its stance that “ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service.”
In recent weeks, it seems as those YouTube has been pushing viewers with ad blockers even harder to allow ads through.
Top comment by Sominemo
In my opinion, this may hurt everyone:
Right now, if an ad was blocked by an adblocker, it doesn't count against advertiser's budget. Ads will be forcibly served to people who would opt out of them instead. Because the ads were forced on them in such a rude way, users will not be willing to watch and engage with the ad, will develop banner blindness or even boycott the products advertised to them. Plus, adblocker users have tightened privacy settings and ads will be less relevant. This means average effectiveness of an ad campaign will decrease, an advertiser will have to pay more to achieve the same results, which will lead to advertiser's dissatisfaction with Google's offerings.
Less views for creators because of people who reject to turn adblocker off, means less exposure and revenue, dissatisfaction with the platform.
Google itself can potentially lose both advertisers and creators because of this, but this is my speculation. Does Google expect to increase its revenue because left creators and advertisers will be offset by remaining advertisers paying more for less effective ads? Plausible theory, I assume that's what they are betting for.
Side note: people often install adblockers into their relatives' browsers because ads, including Google Ads, are a cybersecurity and scam hazard. Google has to do something about their quality of ads if they want to stop that behavior.
Numerous reports on Reddit over the past couple of weeks show the same desktop prompt to “Allow YouTube ads” or subscribe to YouTube Premium while threatening to block video playback after three videos have been played. As some users show, the prompt appears in place of videos themselves in some cases, or as a pop-up when in fullscreen viewing.
Notably, there seems to be a pattern where this is happening after your account has viewed a certain amount of videos while an ad blocker is detected. Users report that playing videos when signed out, the videos still play and ad blockers continue to work.
So far, it doesn’t seem like YouTube has been pushing this blocking on mobile as much as it has on desktop.
This stronger push against ad blockers on YouTube also comes just after price hikes to YouTube Premium. Back in October, Family plans jumped to $23/month, while individual plans have now gone up to $14/month. YouTube also recently announced that it would push longer ad breaks while also taking away ad controls for creators.
More on YouTube:
- YouTube starts making the ‘Subscribe’ button glow when creators ask you to subscribe
- We asked, you answered – YouTube Premium’s price hike isn’t enough to cancel
- YouTube begins public testing of ‘Playables’ gaming effort
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