I think we can all agree that ads are intrusive. That’s why ad blockers have become so common. For mobile users, specifically Android, video ads are the most annoying. As mobile viewing is growing, and as media continues to migrate online, I was interested in figuring out the amount of video ads being seen by the average person. That was pretty much solved for me: each month, the average user watches 16 minutes and 48 seconds worth of video ads on the web.

Mobile ads are overwhelmingly seen as more intrusive among those surveyed. Android users install ad blockers for several reasons, but the majority feel that the platform welcomes the most excessive, interruptive ads. Preroll ads, the videos that play without warning on YouTube, are the most popular format for video advertising. Rarely on iOS or Android phones are these videos skippable. The solution is an ad blocker, but only 1.6% of ad block traffic comes from mobile devices. This disparity in use, for advertisers, makes your phone a sitting duck.

Now, 16 minutes and change is alarmingly reasonable given the landscape of ads on YouTube and other video sites. When factoring in streaming apps, which basically use commercial breaks, it’s almost unbelievable. The truth, though, is that we’re only at the precipice of video advertising. In the next five years, the amount of money spent on video marketing will almost double in the United States alone.

I’ll preface this by saying it’s a fun, speculative exercise that takes a lot of generosity in regards to math and statistics. Let’s start our generosity here by saying that monthly average equates to about 3 hours 21 minutes and 48 seconds annually (multiplying by 12). That number is more projectional than accurate, but keep it in mind.

The internet user is spending more time watching videos. According to YouTube, the amount of hours people spend watching videos on their site is up 60% year-over-over. The number of people on YouTube per day is up 40% year-over-year since March of 2014. On mobile, the number of hours spent watching videos is up 100% year-over-year, and the average viewing session is now more than 40 minutes (a 50% year-over-year increase). Knowing that YouTube isn’t the only video service on the web, let’s use these numbers with the caveat that TV streaming ads probably make our calculations much worse.

Everything is trending up. The increases in viewing time and viewing sessions means that 2016’s monthly average will be drastically different. As money continues to funnel into video advertising the next five years, it isn’t grasping to believe that number could double each year. Those 16 minutes a month could end up being 256 minutes in 2019, which could take up about two days out of a person’s year. For reference, in an 80 year span, 20 minutes of each day sums up to a little over one year. I didn’t even factor in streaming service ads. If current trends continue, we all may spend a years of our lives watching ads, humming their jingles, using their tag-lines, and buying their products.

With migration to mobile viewing almost guaranteed, it is critical to download an ad blocker for your phone. Android’s market share makes it the most lucrative and vulnerable for advertisers. To stop these videos from polluting your browsing and application use, download AdClear, available for free from our website.

For inquiries, contact:
Christian Sandlin
Marketing Researcher, SEVEN Networks
csandlin@seven.com