YouTube is removing ads from videos starting April 6: Here’s why you should care

YouTube is making a major change to the way ads appear in videos on its platform. The company has announced that it will soon be removing overlay ads from videos on its platform. The company has also said that this change will come into effect on April 6, 2023, and that it will affect only the company’s desktop-based site. Also Read: High-Risk Alert Issued For Google Chrome Users: Update Your Browser Now

For the unversed, overlay ads are like banners that are displayed at the bottom of the video. They don’t interfere with the users’ video viewing experience owing to their nature and their placement. However, they are interactive. This means that YouTube users can click on the image or the text in these ads post which they will be redirected to the site linked with the ad. While the overlay ads are great for grabbing users’ attention, they are also annoying as they take up a lot of extra space at the bottom of a video. However, one good thing about them is that users can simply make them disappear from the video that they are watching in YouTube on their PCs by click the small cross icon that appears at the top right corner of the ad. Also Read: YouTube Gets Dedicated Mental Health And Wellbeing Section For Teenagers: Who Can Access, What's Special?

Now, YouTube has announced that it is removing these pesky ads from its desktop-based platform as they were being disruptive for the users. “Starting on April 6th, 2023, the “Overlay ads” ad format will no longer appear on YouTube to help improve the viewer experience and shift engagement to higher performing ad formats on desktop and mobile devices,” YouTube wrote in a blog on a support page. Also Read: YouTube’s Next Big AI Upgrade: Lip-Syncing For Auto-Dubbed Videos Coming Soon

“Overlay ads are a legacy ad format that only served on desktop and are disruptive for viewers. We expect to see limited impact for most Creators as engagement shifts to other ad formats,” the company added.

How will it change your YouTube viewing experience

Removing overlay ads from YouTube’s desktop-based platform means that viewers will not be greeted with a pesky ad every time they try to play a video. But they will still see ads that appear at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of a video. Furthermore, the company said that it expects to see ‘limited impact for most Creators as engagement shifts to other ad formats’.