People watch sooooo many videos online, it’s almost impossible to keep up with the stats. Since the very first video was uploaded to YouTube on April 23, 2005, the video service has grown to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.9 billion users logging in each month. And according to YouTube, users consume a billion hours of video every day.
It was no surprise the YouTube began to monetize the eyeballs in January of 2009, when it began to allow advertising. This also made the “skip ads” button an instant hit among users.
The “Skip Ads” option pops up on a video after 5 seconds. And, in the never ending cold war between users and advertisers, the 5-second ad quickly became a format.
Advertisers began to refine and produce 5-second ads—a mere quick hit of information—in order to create an ad that is not skippable. YouTube did embrace this format in 2016, dubbing them Bumper Ads, and allowed advertisers the option to create a 6-second bumper ad that was not skippable.
While great video tools are on the marketing—including one we use: WeVideo—not all companies have the resources to create a 6-second bumper ads, or the visual panache to make one.
The Google Ads Bumper Machine
Just announced at Google Marketing Live 2019, Google Ads will soon have a new feature: the Bumper Machine.
It will take any video that is less than 90-seconds and attempt to turn it into a 6-second bumper video that you can use for YouTube video ads. How successful the bumper machine will work is yet to be determined, as advertisers won’t have access to it until later this year.
As of now, the Bumper Machine will be part of the Google Ads interface, and have a few editing tools so you can tweak your final product, then use Google Ads to launch the ads directly into YouTube.
According to Google’s data, a bumper ad has a higher recall rate than a typical 30-second video, making this a powerful format to test.
Don’t underestimate how long 6-seconds can be. With some thought and planning, a 6-second video bumper ad can be the perfect jumping off point to gaining new customers.