YouTube says goodbye to overlay advertising

If you usually watch YouTube videos on your desktop, without a Premium account, you have surely noticed the myriads of advertising overlays while viewing content. By overlay ads we mean those popups that appear superimposed at the bottom of the video. They are an exclusive feature of desktop YouTube and, in recent times, they had also become decidedly invasive.

From April 6, goodbye to overlay advertising on YouTube

Apparently, however, everything is about to end. In a post on the YouTube help forum (taken from 9to5Google), the platform claims that Overlay ads will officially end on April 6, 2023. “The change – reads the post – will aim to improve the viewer experience and shift engagement towards higher performing ad formats on desktop and mobile devices. Overlay ads are a legacy ad format that used to only serve on desktop and disturbed viewers.”

It is not common for a giant like YouTube to admit that its advertising is a negative element for the user experience. However, it is likely that since the platform is about to retire the service, it will be more honest about the feature in question.

Creators will be able to continue using the overlay ads option from YouTube Studio until April 6 and monetize from it. On the other hand, no changes have been announced regarding the other advertising formats, which should therefore remain unchanged.

• 

  Writing is my passion, music is my life and Liam Gallagher my God. Otherwise I’m 30 and a musician, singer and songwriter. Here I mainly write about music and videogames, but everything that has to do with the creation of parallel worlds fascinates me. 🌋From Pompeii with love.🧡

  View all articles