What: Google Chrome’s built-in ad blocker will now block annoying and intrusive ads that show both before and during videos. It comes after the Coalition for Better Ads released a new set of standards for ads based on 45,000 consumers worldwide, and will apply only to videos less than 8 minutes in length.
Why: According to the blog post published yesterday, Chrome started removing ads from websites that continually show intrusive ads that violate industry standards in 2018. But according to the Coalition’s research, there are three ad experiences that people find particularly disruptive on video content:
- Pre-roll ads: Ads longer than 31 seconds that appear before a video and cannot be shipped within the first 5 seconds.
- Mid-roll ads: Ads that appear in the middle of a video and interrupt the user’s experience.
- Image or text ads: Ads that appear on top of a playing video and cover more than 20% of the video content.
The result: Beginning 5th August 2020, Chrome will “expand its user protections and stop showing all ads on sites in any country that repeatedly show these disruptive ads.” Chrome has recommended advertisers review their site status in the Ad Experience Report and stated that sites such as YouTube will be reviewed for compliance and show updated product plans.
