If there’s one thing Twitch streamers and viewers are utterly united on, it’s that ads suck. Especially pre-roll ads, which even Twitch’s CEO Dan Clancy admitted hinder audience growth, since viewers are immediately slapped with ads the second they join stream–and some, understandably, might not be invested enough to stick around through 30 seconds of ad time to see what a new-to-them streamer is up to.
Clancy mentioned this as a pain point not long after he took over in 2023, so we’re not surprised that Twitch is now finally giving streamers more control over how many ads they run per hour, and whether pre-roll ads are turned on.
“We’ve created a new ad density slider to make it even easier to understand exactly how many ad minutes you’ll be running, what revenue share you’ll be unlocking, and if your choice disables pre-roll ads for incoming viewers,” Ngoc To, Twitch’s Principal Product Manager, Ads, wrote in a company blog post.
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The slider is part of Twitch’s Ad Manager, which it’s been experimenting with over the past year, launching features like a chat countdown timer that shows live chatters when an ad is about to run and Auto Snooze, which automatically pauses mid-roll ads if a high-octane moment is happening. (Nothing worse than watching a streamer crank S-tier Apex Legends or Dead by Daylight gameplay, only for a three-minute ad break to start right at the end of the match.)
With this slider, Partner streamers will now see revenue estimates based on how much ad time they select (something they used to only see with Twitch’s Ads Incentive Program). Those estimates are regenerated monthly, and are based on a streamer’s ad-running activity in the past.
Basically, streamers can now see exactly how many ads their viewers will be watching, and can choose when those ads run. Disabling pre-roll ads will be a huge plus for a lot of streamers, and updated revenue estimates will give them a much more precise idea of how much their revenue will increase or decrease depending on how many ads they and their audience are willing to put up with. All of this ends up giving streamers more informed control over running ads on their channels.
As part of this update, Twitch has also rearranged the entire Ads Manager layout (a bit of a theme lately) and added descriptions for each feature within the manager. To says descriptions will “clearly explain the advantages of turning on the feature,” and also gives a recommendation based on what Twitch “thinks would be the best ad setting for your channel.”
“We’re committed to ensuring that the products we build are made with you and your communities in mind first,” she added. “In the future, we want to provide even more relevant insights to help you make more informed decisions on running ads, such as the seasonality of the ads industry and ad running behavior of streamers similar to you.”
Ad slots on livestreamed content can be tricky to program and even trickier to sell, since they often don’t come with the same brand safety assurances as VOD content and performance metrics can be messier. But they’re still one of Twitch’s biggest sources of revenue, and since it desperately needs to make more money, we’re not surprised it’s doing what it can to make running ads more appealing to streamers.
