YouTube updates mid-roll ads to reduce interruptions

YouTube has announced changes to its mid-roll ad system, set to take effect from May 12, 2025. The platform aims to enhance the viewing experience by placing mid-roll ads at more natural break points while providing creators with an opportunity to increase their revenue.

YouTube will optimise mid-roll ads to appear during pauses and transitions instead of interrupting sentences or action sequences. This is expected to reduce viewer drop-off.

Videos uploaded before February 24, 2025, with manually placed mid-roll ads, will receive additional, automatically placed ad slots at natural break points. Creators who prefer full control over mid-roll placement can disable automatic ad slots in YouTube Studio.

Creators using automatic mid-roll ads only will not be affected. However, those who manually place mid-rolls should review their strategies. A new feedback tool in YouTube Studio will indicate if mid-roll placements are deemed interruptive. The automatic ad slots feature will supplement manual placements by identifying better ad locations. A YouTube experiment in July 2024 showed that creators using both manual and automatic mid-rolls saw an average 5% increase in ad revenue compared to those relying only on manual placements.

YouTube emphasises that creators remain in control of their mid-roll settings and ad placements.