YouTube boast impressive results for its six-second adverts

Advertisers really want to whack advertisements at the beginning of most video content, and viewers really wanna skip past these unscripted invasions into their Seachange-a-thon.

YouTube are now claiming they have the solution for both parties, updating media at digital marketing conference Dmexco on their recent strides in “ad viewability”.

Now, “ad viewability” is basically whether or not viewers have seen an ad. YouTube are claiming their six-second preroll adverts have a 95% viewability rating, up from last year’s 93%, and dwarfing competitors elsewhere on the net. In comparison, internet viewability rates averaged 58% in the second half of 2016. In short: six seconds isn’t too long to suffer through an ad.

Business Insider recently ran a feature about the concern about effectively telling a story (read: selling a product) in such a short window of time, however YouTube’s figures at least prove that consumers are willing to sit there and wait impatiently for that length of time – and surely having a capture audience is the first and most important step in advertising.

It’s good news for the music industry, especially those selling songs with big, hooky choruses – as we all know, a lot can happen in six seconds.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.