You’re Not Going Crazy: YouTube Ads Are out of Control

After sitting through preroll ads, your video finally starts — only for the creator to launch into a minute-long monologue on NordVPN, Raid: Shadow Legends or Hello Fresh. Annoyed, you skip ahead, where you hit a midroll ad. 

You’re busy scrolling through the comments or browsing recommended videos when the video ends. Suddenly, another unskippable ad takes up the entire screen. 

It wasn’t always like this. When did advertisements become so intrusive? If you’re like most people, you’ve had enough of repetitive promotions and deceptive AI voiceovers. Why are YouTube ads out of control if viewers dislike them? The truth is complicated — and a bit messy. 

The Proof That YouTube Ads Are out of Control

While YouTube’s ads are out of control, it is one of the only major video-sharing platforms. You’ll have trouble finding another community-centered place to post or view long-form video content. This pseudo-monopoly is one of the main reasons Google — YouTube’s parent company — has not felt pressured by growing discontent. 

Adsense and The “Adpocalpyse” 

Advertisements were introduced in 2007, just one year after Google acquired YouTube. It wasn’t all bad. Creators could enable Adsense to get a portion of the profits. However, things took a turn in 2020 when the platform began running ads on nonmonetized accounts. 

Even if the creators didn’t have Adsense enabled, businesses could still advertise on their videos. They just wouldn’t earn any money.

This move came right after an advertisement boycott known as the “adpocalypse.” Advertisers’ promotions appeared alongside extremist, adult and controversial content, which caused a mass exodus in 2016 and 2017. They accused the platform of poor moderation. In response, it pushed family-friendly content. 

Creators who didn’t pivot were demonetized. For many, losing advertising revenue meant losing their main source of income. This caused a shift toward sponsored content. 

An Onslaught of Bad Ad Changes

In 2023, Google began upping the ante. They introduced unskippable advertisements and placed ads in shorts. Meanwhile, they increased the price of YouTube Premium — the monthly subscription service that removes preroll, midroll and banner ads. 

As you’ve probably realized, a five-second skippable ad isn’t the limit any longer — it’s the default. Skippable ads can be up to 30 seconds long, according to Google Ad Manager. 

You — like an estimated 912 million others — might’ve used an adblocker as a workaround. The higher-ups quickly realized they were pushing people toward ad blockers. In response, developers set out to deactivate it. They tried everything from endlessly buffering videos to blocking playback. 

In the end, Google disabled uBlock Origin. They effectively phased out a working development framework to make it harder for adblockers to counter them.

Since then, the video-sharing platform has hidden the skip button and even rolled out pause ads. The price of premium even went up again, potentially making it harder for people to justify getting rid of ads the “right” way. 

Advertisers Aren’t Getting Their Money’s Worth

Google makes a massive amount of money. In 2024, its revenue totaled $348.16 billion, a 116.6% increase over five years. Most came from advertising, which amounted to $264.59 billion that fiscal year — over 75% of its revenue. 

A considerable portion of advertising revenue comes from TrueView, which is a cost-per-view service. Google’s policy states in-stream content must be skippable and audible. Also, it can’t just play when someone scrolls past it. It must play in response to user input. They only pay when the viewer watches for at least 30 seconds or finishes the ad. 

Ad Campaigns Violate Google’s Policy

One report found that TrueView was auto-playing muted ads in small video players. They appeared on obscure third-party websites instead of in the app. Sometimes, paywalls block the video entirely. In the most egregious case, they were placed on mobile apps for toddlers. 

In some ad campaigns, between 42% to 75% of in-stream ad spend went to third-party websites and apps that didn’t meet Google’s standards. What’s worse, since the viewer often wasn’t able to skip, the view and completion rates were artificially inflated, possibly resulting in higher advertising costs despite delivering no real value. 

This isn’t to say the company’s advertising campaigns don’t work — they do. However, YouTube ads are out of control. Even though Google is worsening the user experience for many, it seems advertisers aren’t benefiting as much as they should be. 

It’s difficult for creators, too. As Adsense revenue requirements become increasingly strict, smaller accounts are earning less. More are turning to lucrative sponsorship deals to supplement their earnings, commercializing an even larger portion of watch time.

What to Do About Out-of-Control YouTube Ads

What can you do about the YouTube ads that are out of control? Technically, you could just ignore them. However, they’re not just annoying. Sometimes, they’re misleading, deceptive or even malicious. 

The rise of AI has made it easier than ever for scammers to deepfake celebrities or influencers. If you fall for one of these scams, you could put your personal or financial data at risk. The easiest solution is to stop using the app. If you need to be convinced, you should know that it hasn’t always protected user privacy.  

Although Google denies selling users’ personal data to anyone — including advertisers — it appeared in a U.S. Federal Trade Commission report that found YouTube is involved in user surveillance on a massive scale. Apparently, it profited off this data by feeding it to advertising companies that pay for information on specific target demographics. 

Still, if you don’t want to leave, there’s an easy way to get around preroll ads. On desktop, quickly click the back button and the forward button in quick succession a few times. On mobile, drag the video down to put it in “miniplayer” mode and then close it. Quickly open the video again. You may have to repeat this process several times. 

Adblock is a more permanent solution. However, you’ll have to use Firefox if you want to use uBlock Origin. Ensure your cookies are off, and consider a VPN. Using NoScript, set googleadservices.com and doubleclick.net to untrusted. This should keep the ads away. 

YouTube Ads May Get Increasingly Intrusive 

While you probably believe YouTube ads are out of control now, there’s a good chance the platform will find new ways to keep you engaging with advertisers. Since advertising is Google’s main revenue stream, things likely won’t get better. If you’re frustrated, you can use an adblocker or simply delete the app.