Ad skipping has ushered in a whole new tangle of problems and confusion for video advertisers. For the customer, skipping ads is a great idea. After all, isn’t it better to simply zip on past the ads you don’t want to see? Sure it is. But what is all that skipping doing to the multi-billion dollar industry of video ads? There are some definite challenges and definite rewards. Let’s take a look.

The Challenges of Skipping Ads for Video Advertisers

The big challenge of skipping ads is obvious: less ad views. When a publisher pays for the ad development and placement, they are paying in hopes of attracting new customers. When those customers simply skip their ads, the publisher is not getting the exposure that they desperately want.

The Rewards of Skipping Ads for Video Advertisers

Good user experience. UX, otherwise knows to the layman as the “user experience” is the prime metric when it comes to the Net. In order for any ad publisher to be successful, the user experience must be very strong. The problem, however, is that ads are generally viewed as a negative component of user experience. The solution? Give the potential customer the option to skip the ads.

Customers like control and giving them options, they appreciate being able to have that control. This appreciation, obviously, translates into a far more positive user experience. When it comes to payoffs, a better user experience is usually much preferred than having your video ad viewed.

Publishers are compensated for skipped ads. That means services like SkipIt will actually pay the advertiser when customers click past their video ad. The way it works is simple. The customer pays a small fee for the privilege of skipping ads. Part of the cost is then transferred to the ad publisher who pockets the money simply for having a skipped ad. This concept is a mental reversal for most publishers. After all, the point of an ad is to get the product or service in front of a customer. However, if a potential customer is truly uninterested in viewing that ad, they’re probably not a good lead. That makes it good business sense for the ad publisher to receive at least some compensation for a skipped ad. In some cases, the publisher may even gain more revenue from the skipped ad than they would have gained from the traditional video ad placement.

Each ad publisher will need to weigh the positives and negatives that come from skipped ads. Yet as the advertisement-skipping technology matures, there seems to be an upside to permitting ad skipping.

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Ad skipping websites offer a variety of benefits as well as challenges to video advertisers. Shane Stanley has seen first-hand the pros and cons of giving site visitors ways to skip online ads. Visit http://www.skipit.com/where-to-skip.html for more information.

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