The preeminent video advertising format -- pre-roll -- still irritates some consumers, so much so, in fact, that nearly 16 percent of consumers click away from a pre-roll ad rather than sit through it to watch their desired video.
The trend is worse for news media; nearly 25 percent of consumers click away from pre-roll ads on newspaper and magazine websites, according to analytics firm TubeMogul.
What this means, of course, is that 16 percent of consumers would rather not watch a video simply because it contains an advertisement, which isn't great news for video publishers.
On the other hand though, it shows that pre-roll completion rates are improving; YouTube's ad completion rate was 85 percent in November, while other video publishers, such as Break Media and Tremor Media, have reported pre-roll completion rates above 80 percent, according to Ad Age.
Pre-roll has remained the dominant form of video monetization, largely because of its resemblance to TV advertising and the fact that marketers can easily repurpose 15- and 30-second TV spots. Online, 15-second ads perform better than longer pre-roll videos, with only 9.3 percent of consumers clicking away.
