Updates to mid-roll ads for creators on YouTube

Question

Hey creators,
 
We're making some important changes to mid roll ads to improve the experience for viewers and help creators potentially earn more. Here&rsquo;s what you need to know:
 
What's happening?
Starting May 12, 2025, We're improving the quality of mid-roll ads on YouTube. That means we'll show more mid-roll ads at natural break points, like pauses and transitions, and fewer ads where they may feel interruptive or cause viewers to abandon the video, like in the middle of a sentence or action sequence.
We'll also be updating older videos (uploaded before February 24, 2025) with manual mid-rolls to include additional, automatic ad-slots at natural break points.
You can opt out of this in YouTube Studio if you prefer to manage your ads manually (see below for how to do this).
 
If you only use automatic mid-rolls for your videos, this change doesn&rsquo;t impact you. Keep doing what you&rsquo;re doing. 
 
If you manually place mid-rolls, please keep reading to learn about new features to inform your mid-roll ad strategies.
 
New features to help you (rolling out this week):
 
Feedback in YouTube Studio: This new feature will show you if your mid-roll ad slots are considered interruptive so you can make changes as needed to place them somewhere with a natural break instead.

Automatic ad slots: Let our systems automatically identify places to show ads in addition to your manual mid-rolls. You can place manual ad slots where you created natural breaks in your content, and let our system find other breaks that won&rsquo;t be interruptive to make sure viewers have a balanced ad experience.
In an experiment conducted in July 2024, we observed that channels who had auto mid-roll ads enabled in addition to manual mid-rolls saw an average of over 5% increase in YouTube ad revenue compared to channels with manual mid-rolls only.

What do you need to do?
Manually placing mid-rolls in intentional natural pauses and transitions? You're likely good to go, but check your videos with the new feedback tool in Studio to make sure you're placing your mid-roll slots where ads are likely to be served. If you don't want automatic ad slots in addition to your manual ones, turn off automatic ad slots on your videos. 
 
Placing mid-rolls at specific intervals throughout the video (eg every minute) without checking for pauses, letting YouTube decide which ones to run? Make sure to use both our new features (feedback tool and automatic ad slots) to adjust any interruptive manual ad slots and supplement your manual ad placements. Using automatic ad slots in addition to manual helps us find alternatives to your manual breaks if they don&rsquo;t meet the new quality bar. If you are only using manual mid-rolls and they are placed in interruptive parts of your videos, you may see a decrease in revenue as we improve mid-roll quality after May 12, 2025. 
 
Our goal with these features is to provide you with more information and new options. You still control whether to show mid-roll ads in your videos and where you would like those ads to be shown.
 
We hope this helps answer some of your questions ahead of these changes happening. If there&rsquo;s a question you want answered, let us know in the comments below and we'll try to respond to the ones we see the most!
 
Jensen (TeamYouTube)
 
Additional FAQs
 
How do I opt out of YouTube placing automatic mid-rolls?
If you prefer to manage your mid-roll ad slots manually and feel good about where they are placed in your existing videos, you can opt-out in the Earn tab in YouTube Studio. However, videos with interruptive mid-roll ad slots may earn less revenue once we improve mid-roll quality after May 12, 2025.

Will you turn on mid-rolls for videos that don't have any? 
Nope! We'll only add automatic ads to existing videos with manual mid-roll slots.
 
Will this improve the viewer experience? 
Yes, reducing interruptive ad breaks can help keep more viewers on your videos.
 
Will I earn less revenue because of these changes? 
We believe this change will increase the overall mid-roll revenue opportunity for creators. In an experiment conducted in July 2024, we observed that channels who had auto mid-roll ads slots enabled in addition to manual saw an average of over 5% increase in YouTube ad revenue compared to channels with manual mid-rolls only. If you are only using manual mid-rolls and they are placed in interruptive parts of your videos, you may see a decrease in revenue as we improve mid-roll quality after May 12, 2025.