Study: 59% of millennials only watch YouTube ads until they can skip

Dive Brief:

Research by LaunchLeap and reported by eMarketer found that 59% of millennials only watch YouTube video ads until they are allowed to skip the ad, while 29% watch the ads to completion.
YouTube remains a popular video platform with millennials, coming in as the third most popular social media platform for daily use, according to separate research by UBS Evidence Lab cited by eMarketer.
YouTube’s net U.S. video ad revenue for 2017 will reach $2.59 billion and will account for 20% of total U.S. video ad revenue, the largest share of any one company, per eMarketer.

Dive Insight:

Strong viewability for video advertisements is a metric that's dogged brands for years and is likely to become even more pressing in 2017 as video continues to take over as the go-to content medium on social. YouTube achieving ad completion with 29% of millennials is pretty solid considering other platforms like Snapchat reportedly receive less than 3 seconds spent on average in video ads.

YouTube has recently shown itself to be a strong player when it comes to engagement, with Google, YouTube's parent company, publishing a report in December that suggested mobile YouTube videos beat primetime TV with key audience groups, and that attention paid to YouTube ads is 84% higher than on linear TV.

The LaunchLeap research also found that just 11% of U.S. millennials were ad blocking on YouTube — news that might give marketers and ad tech firms some solace, as it's relatively low, though the figure is disputed by other research. Last July, Anatomy Media found that 63% of U.S. millennials had adopted ad block software and other research by the Reuters Institute found 44% of U.S. internet users between 18 and 24 used ad block tech, as well as 29% of 25 to 34-year-olds, per eMarketer.

Whatever the actual rate of millennial use of ad blockers, the LaunchLeap survey results show marketers that YouTube should be a key part of video ad strategy for most brands looking to connect with younger audiences. Given the rate of ad skipping, marketers might also want to front-load key ad content into the first few seconds when the ads are actually being viewed.