That YouTube is to video what Google is to the internet is undeniable. Globally, people spend a billion hours a day, every day on the platform. And while few can question the veracity of that statement, so kindly provided to us by Google, one can’t help but wonder, how many of those hours are spent in silent cursing, averted eyes and general disconsolation as the video you wanted to watch is interrupted by the third ad in as many minutes. After all, how are you going to get your dopamine hit when being advised which insurance will best benefit your family in case you log out of life?

“From a monetised platform standpoint, YouTube will see these advertisement opportunities as a gold mine. Some may argue that the effectiveness of ads gets impacted, but the effectiveness is not dependent solely on the ad clutter,” notes Anmol Kumar Dang, AVP Media, FCB/SIX India.

He further points out, “TV advertisement, from that POV, has been cluttered for a very long time. Still, there have been numerous ads that have stayed with us even today. The key is ‘communication’. If a brand is able to communicate effectively with the right message that resonates with the TG we see, even through the clutter, such ads work. I have witnessed this myself via multiple brand track reports.”

Suraj Nambiar, National Media Head of Tonic Worldwide agrees that from an advertising perspective, the increased frequency can be seen as a double-edged sword. “On one hand, it provides advertisers with more opportunities to reach potential customers. On the other hand, it could potentially lead to ad fatigue among users, which might reduce the effectiveness of the ads.”

Barin Mukherjee Co-Founder and CEO at Digital Refresh Networks further observes, “Unfortunately, the effectiveness of ads is measured by the number of exposures and seconds of ads viewed. By this metric of measurement, I don’t believe the effectiveness of ads is a challenge. What is rather a greater challenge is the irritation value (because it interferes with the content one intends to watch). It would be interesting to see the data of ads skipped (whenever it is a skip-able option).”

And that brings us to another interesting option: YouTube Premium, Google’s promise of an ad-free YouTube experience. Could it be that YouTube is increasing ad frequency to push more people towards a Premium Membership?

According to Nambiar, the suggestion that this could be a strategy to push more people to purchase YouTube Premium is a plausible theory. “YouTube Premium offers an ad-free experience, which could be a significant selling point for users who find the increased ad frequency bothersome. It also depends on the audience. I am a regular user of YouTube and at one point I moved to the paid subscription since it does not give ads and there are other benefits like YT music and exclusive content. Increasingly we will see users behind paywalls due to content exclusivity.”

They need to ensure that the ad frequency doesn't become so high that it drives users away, while also making the YouTube Premium offering attractive enough to entice users to subscribe.

But, when something is available for free, are you really going to pay for a feature that lets you avoidads?At exchange4media, we have frequently covered the idea of value exchange, where consumers are ready to watch x number of ads because they get y content for free.

As Mukjerjee asserts, “On Youtube, we are somewhere used to seeing ads to get to the content we want to watch for free. It is the classic AVOD platform where the consumer is familiar with ad viewing being an inevitable part of the overall content watching experience. I don't think this is intentional. Being the most searched video viewing platform in the world, it is ripe ground for advertisers to reach out to audiences.”

“However, from a consumer perspective, it would take some time before we switch to premium membership. Because we are used to ads, and consumption of short format content on the platform, the switch to ad-free looks like a thing that would take time.”

As Dang points out, “Many advertisers think that the increased ad frequencies have hampered the effectiveness, but that would have been a reality only if YouTube wouldn’t have provided solutions around these. The advent of Ad Sequencing, Instant Reserve, Fixed SOV Buys, have enabled brands to cut through the clutter with the advantage of wide targeting options. It’s only a matter of right usage of these functionaities to the advertiser’s advantage.”

Another way to ratify this is by carrying out BLS (Brand Lift Studies) studies. “While some may argue its effectiveness, for the ones who cannot afford a Brand Track study on regular basis, BLS is one of the ways to understand ad effectiveness in terms of Awareness, Re-call or Consideration - which all are metrics to weigh whether the ad has worked for the brand for their core TG or not."

"In my recent experience on executing a campaign for one of the county’s leading Home Electrical Appliances brands, with the use of the features like Sequencing on YouTube, the BLS scores have been above the industry average and has done well even during the ad clutter of Diwali festivities,” says Dang.