In a bid to understand a viewer’s response to ads, Google has incorporated a ‘skip this ad’ feature on the pre-roll ads run before select video clippings on YouTube. The feature will be utilized as a learning curve in understanding a viewer’s reaction to ads run before videos on YouTube.

Past research on in-stream ads has shown that up to 70% of viewers dropped a video when they faced lengthy commercials without an option to skip. This number dropped down drastically once the commercial’s length was shortened to around 15 seconds.

The new skip feature will let YouTube recognize & differentiate between commercials that go well with the users from those which are skipped most often, thereby creating a whole new module in which advertising rates will be set according to the rankings received by the ads. “The longterm vision is more of a pay-for-performance model,” said Phil Farhi, product manager at YouTube.

Going down Google’s search ad system grading route, YouTube has decided to grade ads based on data about the target audience and an insight into their reaction ‘skip quotient’ to the commercial. “We’re looking for the signals that indicate whether someone is going to skip an ad,” said Farhi. “We’ll use that as the equivalent of a click-through rate.” This new pricing model will spark new challenges for advertisers translating into better creative/concepts in ads on display.