YouTube has launched a series of new ad formats, but users are already complaining about too many advertisements on content.
Ads have become a growing concern for YouTube users feeling overwhelmed with how many they’re encountering.
To make matters worse, YouTube has raised the price of Premium in many countries and some users have reported still getting ads even when they pay for the service.
Now, the Google-owned platform has announced more ad formats letting brands run campaigns exclusively on Shorts if they wanted.
“For brands, YouTube is a place where you can reach and engage with audiences throughout the entire buying process, including on YouTube Shorts, which can now be up to 3 minutes long,” YouTube Ads director of product management Melissa Hsieh Nikolic said in a blog post.
“We’re introducing format buying controls to allow customization so you’ll be able to do things like run a campaign exclusively in the Shorts feed, or a campaign that showcases only your horizontal creative in-stream,” she added.
“We’re rolling out new ad formats designed to take advantage of the leaned-in, tappable mentality of a Shorts viewer, and drive even more value from your ads. Stickers on Shorts ads will be available to all retailers by the end of the year.”
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However, users are growing annoyed by the onslaught of ads on the platform, especially when they end up taking away from the content they’re trying to consume.
One user documented how the ads on shorts were becoming more “intrusive.”
“I’ve been using YouTube for years but the ads are just getting to be too annoying like wth even is this. Now you have to close out of a popup while scrolling shorts?” they said with a screenshot of an ad over a Pokemon card video.
“YouTube Shorts now putting AD banners on top of user content from the AD you just scrolled past – obscuring part of the short,” another revealed.
The news comes just months after users began complaining about pause screen advertisements appearing on videos.
Additionally, the platform has severely cracked down on ad-blockers, even implementing new features to break them forever.