YouTube Lowering Minimum Video Length For Mid-Roll Ads From 10 To 8 Minutes

YouTube is making a change to the way that it serves mid-roll ads, the platform shared in an email to creators today, in a bid to make more videos eligible for mid-rolls and ramp up monetization prospects.

Right now, only videos longer than 10 minutes are eligible for mid-rolls, which appear in the midst of videos as a commercial break of sorts. But beginning later this month, YouTube is changing that minimum threshold to eight-minute videos.

As part of the transition, YouTube says it is also turning on mid-roll ads by default for all eligible videos when the change goes live. This means that creators who have previously opted out of mid-roll ads will be opted back in (though there are ways to opt back out again), and any future uploads from monetizing channels will have mid-roll ads turned on by default. “Turning on auto mid-roll ads saves creators extra work while helping increase the monetization potential for new and existing content,” YouTube explained in its note to creators.

Of course, creators who don’t want midroll ads on their channels — such as meditation or ASMR creators, for instance — won’t be obligated to host them. They can opt out of the change within YouTube Studio, as outlined below, and are being encouraged to do so before the changes go into effect by July 29. After the change goes live, creators will still be able to turn off mid-rolls ads as well.

Mid-roll ads are served in two ways — via automated ad breaks as determined by YouTube’s machine learning technology, which evaluates natural visual or audio breaks in order to optimize both monetization and the user experience, YouTube says — or in places that are manually designated by creators.