By Erin Rodrigue

Imagine watching the Super Bowl without any commercials — or driving through a bustling city with blank billboards.

Now imagine watching YouTube without ads.

For some people, this is a reality. With YouTube Adblock, viewers can block ads from appearing in videos and on the webpage.

This begs the question: should video marketers worry about ad blocking?

Let’s learn more about YouTube Adblock, if consumers actually use it, and tips from real video marketers on how to get around them.

Ad blockers may feel like a marketer’s worst nightmare. But there is power in understanding why people use them.

Here are some quick stats: 48% of ad blocker users felt there were too many ads online. And 47% of users found these ads annoying or irrelevant.

Think of your own experience — have you ever been bombarded with pop-up ads while reading an article? Or watched a video ad that wasn’t relevant to your interests… at all?

This study signals a clear trend: Users want a less intrusive experience with digital ads. And they’re willing to guard their time and attention with ad blockers.

Do Consumers Use YouTube AdBlock?

We know the motivations behind using YouTube Adblock, but how many people actually use it? Take a look at HubSpot’s survey about ad blocker use on YouTube:

More than half (63%) of respondents do not use any type of ad blocking software on YouTube, whereas a slim 11% of respondents do.

Does this mean marketers can breathe a big sigh of relief? Not so fast.

While the adoption of ad blockers is low, it is slowly increasing year-over-year. It may not be an immediate threat to your digital marketing strategy, but this could change in the coming years.

And, if your target audience consists of millennials, you may feel the effects of ad blocking more. People in the 18-to-24 range are the highest users of ad block software, while people younger than 12, and 65 and older, are among the lowest.

Marketers must get creative to leverage YouTube without ad blockers getting in the way. Here are four tips from video marketers on how to get started.

4 Tips for Navigating YouTube AdBlock, According to Video Marketers

1. Keep it in perspective.

Don’t let the fear of ad blockers drive you away from YouTube entirely.

For Nicole Ondracek, marketing manager, paid advertising at HubSpot, advertising on YouTube still proves effective — even with pesky ad blockers.

“You’re still able to reach so many people on YouTube that [AdBlock] doesn’t really play a factor in our strategy.”

Ondracek adds, “For example, one of our audiences is a Custom affinity audience, which is a type of audience that targets people with interests in B2B CRM software. This segment alone can still reach 500 million to 1 billion impressions a week.”

While ad blockers “mute” a portion of your audience, YouTube still provides access to billions of users (2.1 billion to be exact), along …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron