In a Study of 'Interruptiveness,' Pre-Roll Comes Out on Top
Pre-roll less of an interruption than other video formats
What video ad format do internet users find the least interruptive? The answer is pre-roll.
A recent report by IPG Media Lab and YuMe recruited 6,864 participants and directed them to watch video content based on their interests and then rate their ad experience, regardless of device. Whether viewing on a computer or a smartphone, users said pre-roll ad formats felt less interruptive compared with mid-roll and out-stream formats.
Less than one-fifth (17%) of viewers thought pre-roll ads were interruptive after viewing 15-second ads on both smartphones and desktop/laptop computers.
It might seem axiomatic that pre-roll ads—which by definition precede content rather than interrupt it in the middle—are less interruptive, but the survey also found that more users rated pre-roll ads as more informative and more engaging than other formats.
But the study highlighted the value of other types of video ads. For instance, it found that mid-roll ads communicate brand messages particularly well on larger, more TV-like screens—which makes sense, given that TV watchers are accustomed to ads amidst programming.
Mid-roll ads also can have higher completion rates than pre-roll, though they were deemed most interruptive by 72% of smartphone users and 53% of desktop/laptop users.
Out-stream video ads, which play outside of video content—between paragraphs of text, for example—were considered interruptive by a little less than half (46%) of smartphone respondents. These types of ads were more successful when run in contextually relevant articles (e.g., a video ad for a restaurant in an article about food).
According to a separate study by IPG Media Lab, this one in partnership with Magna Global, the completion rate for digital video ads is low. Only 35% are completed, it found, while 65% are skipped.
—Monica Melton
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