Advertisements are one of the most common ways that content creators monetise their work. Whether for individual site owners or massive platforms like YouTube, ads get served through Google AdSense or embedded into video content. This enables websites to function while incentivising people to create more content.
Throughout 2023, YouTube has slowly restricted software that blocks its own on-site advertisements. The bulk of these restrictions will come into force in the winter of 2023 – you can find them explained below.
Source: Unsplash
The Role of Ads Online
Just like work or art, most people need compensation to do what they do best, and the host company needs to stay profitable and in business. Both get a share of the ad money that sites like YouTube generate. That’s the crux of why ads have become an inescapable part of the online economy.
On-page and in-video ads aren’t the only types of advertisement, though they are the ones that YouTube is protecting this year. Other advertising methods include affiliate schemes and promotions that bring in new customers. One example many will be familiar with is the iGaming industry, known for its promotional offers for newcomers and loyal customers. Since they host games, offers take the form of great online casino promotions that give you 50 free spins or a deposit bonus. Outside of iGaming, there’s the Amazon Prime one-month free membership. These promotions exist to let you try the content for free, where interested customers can stick around for more. This isn’t viable for YouTube and other video-sharing sites where the content is already free of charge.
This lack of viability means that YouTube runs other types of ads. On-page ads will show up on YouTube search results pages, sometimes targeted based on user data. Meanwhile, in-video ads will briefly interrupt a playing video for at least five seconds before it can be skipped. Some ads can’t be skipped, typically shorter ads that are 15-30 seconds long. From these ads, YouTube makes $100 million (£82 million) a day, earning an approximate total of $29 billion (£24 billion) in 2022.
YouTube’s Ad-Blocker Solution
Video hosting is expensive and Google wants to keep YouTube as profitable as they possibly can. Since other ad formats don’t work as effectively, YouTube serves its own ads and then gives creators portions of the earnings based on impressions and watch time. That way, the most successful creators get rewarded for their hard work. At the same time, YouTube allows creators on the platform to take sponsorship deals for their videos or even their entire online brand, allowing them to monetise their work without YouTube being involved.
While this solution works for most, in-video ads irk some people online and that’s where ad-blockers come in. These are browser extensions of pieces of software that block or restrict elements on a page. Using ad-blocker software, one can disable ads and even browse websites like Twitter or Instagram without getting a login prompt. To limit usage of these tools, YouTube experimented with an ad-blocker detector back in May.
YouTube is reportedly testing a block for Adblock plugins pic.twitter.com/u6quoquM65
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) May 10, 2023
It seems to have worked, as that’s what some YouTube audiences are seeing in recent months. After a blocker is detected, the user has two options. The first is to disable the blocker or add the site to the blocker’s ‘allow list’. Allowlisting is where a site is given special exceptions but the blocker still works for other websites. Clicking ‘Allow YouTube Ads’ brings up a convenient window describing how to turn ads off for popular services like AdBlock or uBlock Origin. The other solution is to get an ad-free YouTube Premium, which is $13.99 (£11.99) per month for individuals or $22.99 (£19.99) per month for families.
Ad-blockers have always been against YouTube’s Terms of Service, so the crackdown is hardly surprising. Many other sites have implemented a no-ad-blocker policy for years, making YouTube one of the largest services to take action. That seems to have changed in 2023 and, amidst feedback and criticism, YouTube is likely to fine-tune their ad-blocker solution to improve profitability without ruining the on-site experience.
