Towards Understanding the Consumption of Video-Ads on YouTube

Abstract

Being the most popular online video platform nowadays,

YouTube is a complex ecosystem that generates billions of

dollars of revenue yearly. This revenue mostly stems from

online advertisements that are shown on the website. Like

other social media platforms, YouTube enables any user to

create and upload content, create ad-campaigns that promote

advertisement content, as well as monetize channels (i.e.,

YouTube video uploaders) by showing ads from other channels

to viewers. More importantly, any individual can watch

videos for free and, in consequence, be exposed to advertisements.

The mediation of these different parties that interact

through ads, as well as the YouTube platform itself is

done by online ad auction algorithms. In this paper, we study

the aforementioned ecosystem through the use of advertisements

in the form of video (video-ads). Online video-ads are

a novel medium that is gaining significant traction on social

media platforms like YouTube. Our study presents insights

on (1) the behavior of users when exposed to video-ads; (2)

the popularity of the video-ads over time; (3) the relation between

contextual advertising and the effectiveness of ads; (4)

the success of ads in generating revenue; and, (5) the success

of channels in attracting revenue as exposers of ads. The results

here presented have practical implications for content

providers, creators, channels, and YouTube viewers.