Every skipped ad is a paid contact that never lands. The skip button after five seconds is convenient for viewers, but expensive for advertisers, because a large part of the audience is gone before the message even begins. On the big screen in premium streaming it is different: there, advertising runs non-skippable and actually gets watched through.
The skip button costs you impact
The prime example is YouTube. Skippable in-stream ads can be clicked away after five seconds, and that is exactly what happens on a massive scale. YouTube itself reports skip rates in the order of around 70 percent, ranging between 30 and 80 percent depending on the ad and the context. In practice that means only a small part of a skippable YouTube spot is usually watched to the end. Industry benchmarks for the completion rate of skippable YouTube in-stream ads sit at only around 15 to 30 percent.
Firstly, the message fizzles out, because most people abandon the spot before the actual statement arrives. Secondly, the environment stays unused: the ad slot is paid for, the attention would be there, but the viewer exits before anything can take effect. On top of that, most YouTube use happens on mobile on the small screen, where the impact is lower anyway.
Non-skippable: streaming ads get watched through
In premium streaming the maths looks different. The advertising is non-skippable, and the completion rates are correspondingly high. According to the Innovid Global Benchmarks Report 2024, advertising on connected TV reaches completion rates of around 95 percent, with individual formats between 94 and 98 percent. So the spot is almost always watched to the end.
That is not only because you cannot click it away, but also because of the situation. Someone watching their favourite series on a service like Netflix does not abandon the whole show because of a short ad. People accept the few seconds because they want to see the programme, and stay with it. Exactly this posture makes the big screen so valuable: the advertising runs large, in the foreground and in a relaxed lean-back mode. How much higher attention is in premium streaming compared to YouTube is shown in the article on attention on the big screen, and why this lean-back posture works, the article on the lean-back effect.
Why this matters for your budget
The difference feeds straight through to efficiency. With skippable advertising you pay for many contacts that never happen, because the spot is clicked away before the message lands. With non-skippable streaming advertising, practically every impression is a complete contact. So you not only reach more people all the way to the end, you also get more out of the same budget, because barely anything fizzles out. That is exactly why the sheer number of impressions is worth less than the number of ads actually watched, an idea explored in the article Attention Over Reach.
How to use this with onescreen
With onescreen your advertising runs on around 40 streaming services and the major channels, on the big screen and non-skippable. So your message is not clicked away after five seconds but watched through. You reach the right people through targeted digital targeting by region and postal code, age, gender and interests, not through scatter. That way you combine the high completion rate of the big screen with the precision you know from online marketing. How streaming and classic television complement each other is set out in the article TV Advertising vs. Streaming Advertising.
Conclusion
Skippable advertising fizzles out, because most viewers click away before the message lands, and because the expensively paid environment stays unused in the process. Non-skippable streaming advertising on the big screen, by contrast, gets watched through almost completely. Whoever wants impact instead of clicked-away contacts chooses an environment where the advertising actually lands.
Want to run advertising that does not get clicked away? Book a demo and we will show you the options in 30 minutes. Or get started in the Ad Manager.
FAQ
What are skippable ads? Skippable advertising that the viewer can click away after a few seconds, typically the skippable in-stream ads on YouTube. Non-skippable advertising, by contrast, runs in full before the content continues.
How many people skip skippable ads? A large share. YouTube reports skip rates in the order of around 70 percent, ranging between 30 and 80 percent depending on the ad and the context. Industry benchmarks for the completion rate of skippable YouTube in-stream ads sit at only around 15 to 30 percent.
How high is the completion rate for non-skippable streaming advertising? Very high. According to the Innovid Global Benchmarks Report 2024, advertising on connected TV reaches around 95 percent, with individual formats 94 to 98 percent. So the advertising is almost always watched to the end.
Why is non-skippable advertising better for the budget? Because practically every impression is a complete contact. With skippable advertising you pay for many contacts that never happen, because the spot is clicked away first. Non-skippable streaming advertising uses your budget more efficiently.