Summary
- YouTube is changing mid-roll ad placement for a better viewing experience, starting in May 2025.
- Ads will be inserted in more natural places like pauses or transitions, reducing interruptions.
- Creators need to be aware of the changes, but viewers won’t need to take any action.
If you’re the average YouTube user, there’s a pretty good chance that you enjoy the long-form videos and the Shorts you watch with ads. Now, we’ve all been in that scenario, you’re getting to an interesting part of something you’re watching, then suddenly, an ad cuts in.
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Mid-roll ads are not only annoying, but they can also really take you away from the viewing experience. Of course, creators have a choice whether they want to run these types of ads or not, but if they’ve been leaving the placement of these mid-roll ads up to YouTube, there’s a pretty good chance that things are going to get better starting in May.
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YouTube announced through its own Help page that mid-roll ads are changing. In order to improve the experience, YouTube is using its tech in order to insert these ads in more natural places within a video, like during pauses or transitions. If all goes to plan, this will be less frustrating to viewers, creating more natural breaks in the content.
This all starts on May 12, 2025, and creators that are currently using automatic mid-rolls will see changes occur to their current and future content. Creators that are inserting their mid-roll ads manually won’t need to make any changes but may want to opt out of this new feature in order to maintain their own custom ad spacing and timing.
If creators with custom mid-roll ads enable this feature, YouTube states that it will also insert its own ads where it thinks it’s right. YouTube does warn creators that if mid-roll ads are put in “interruptive parts” of videos, that revenue from these videos might see a decrease in revenue after the new mid-roll ad tweak going live in May.
Of course, if you’re a creator, then it’s probably a good idea to check out the full details of this new change at the YouTube Help page. For those that just consume and watch videos, you really don’t need to do anything. Just keep an eye out for better-timed and placed ads starting in a few months’ time. If you don’t like ads, or are sick of them, you can always try subscribing to YouTube Premium.
