The news: Pause ads may work best when being used as a complement to traditional 15- to 30-second streaming ads, according to research from Amazon Ads and Omnicom Media shared by Adweek.

• Pause ads saw a 92% visual attention rate when used alongside 30-second (87% attention rate) and 15-second video ads (76%) within a content session.
• Pause ads also contributed to an 11 percentage point increase in brand connection among general pause ad viewers and a 20 percentage point increase in purchase intent when the ad was contextually aligned with what the viewer was watching.
• Brand favorability increased 24 percentage points among existing customers who viewed a pause ad.

Why a joint strategy works: Pause ads and standard video ads serve two separate purposes that, when combined, move viewers along the funnel.

• Video ads build awareness at the upper funnel by introducing new brands to viewers, building a narrative, and establishing broad reach, notes EVP of partner intelligence at Omnicom Media Kara Manatt.
• Pause ads meet the viewers at the mid-funnel, where they can deepen the connection a viewer already has with a brand and move them closer toward purchase intent. They also occur during natural breaks in viewing rather than interrupting the program, making them uniquely positioned to reinforce awareness from a standard ad.
• And over half of viewers pause content for 1 to 5 minutes, per 2025 Magna Global and DirecTV data, offering a sizable window to deliver a campaign’s message.

Recommendations for marketers: View pause ads and standard video ads as two parts of a complete streaming strategy, rather than using one or the other exclusively. Marketers may benefit from experimenting with combining the two formats, then evaluating whether that joint strategy meaningfully improves outcomes compared with using either format alone.

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