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Youtube Politics

YouTube Is So Flooded With Political Ads It Can't Place Them All (bloomberg.com) 84

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Less than two weeks before the U.S. election, some political campaigns are dealing with an unexpected obstacle on YouTube, the internet's largest video site: There isn't enough space to run their ads. From a report: Campaigns have flooded YouTube with commercials in search of voters they may not be reaching on television. Yet despite its nearly endless supply of video clips, YouTube has been struggling to place these ads in front of the desired audience. The site has a particular shortage of ad slots in critical swing states, causing prices to double in some instances. This makes political ads more lucrative for Google, which owns YouTube. The company saw advertising revenue dip earlier this year and is set to announce its quarterly earnings next week. The situation has sent smaller campaigns scrambling to find advertising opportunities elsewhere. "There's a crunch," said Cat Stern, media director for Lockwood Strategy Lab, a digital campaign agency focused on Democratic candidates and progressive advocacy organizations. "All political advertisers are buying in the same states, to similar audiences." She equated the commercial spree to the online spending binge during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Viewership has shot up on YouTube during the pandemic. While commercial advertising remains anemic, there has been a glut of political ads. Many political ad buyers are interested in YouTube's limited amount of commercials that viewers can't skip through. They're also vying for ads that YouTube sells based on reservations, which can be purchased in advance, like television slots, and run against YouTube's most popular videos. "The reserves tend to be gobbled up by well-funded campaigns," said Reid Vineis, vice president of digital at Majority Strategies, a Republican political ad firm. He has seen prices for some of these ads double in recent weeks. That has forced some campaigns, particularly small ones, to look at alternative digital video outlets such as Hulu and Roku.
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YouTube Is So Flooded With Political Ads It Can't Place Them All More

YouTube Is So Flooded With Political Ads It Can't Place Them All

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  • YouTube wants me to pay for PIP. I would watch much more YouTube if I was not a captive audience. Google is really unable to define its core content big I wants to be in advertising, it has to make it easy for us to consume those ads. If it wants to be in content delivery, then let us pay for an ad free experience, like so many other streaming sites. A lack of places to put ads is just a lack of viewers, viewers like me who donâ(TM)t go to YouTube because on mobile it is a bad user experience.

    • Most of my time on youtube is spent watching SpaceX SS/SH build/test and Falcon9 launches

      There are a ton of gop ads for senate and trump, they usually force you to watch the whole add to get to the stream

      I am frankly amused by the bullshot that the gop thinks will turn people towards them, I honestly hope this cuts the legs out from under negative ad campaigns for a while (by being wildly ineffective)

      • I am also pretty surprised by the Youtube ad spend; it seems so completely useless and ineffective (for either “side”). Google really is a mess; they need to get their shit together and spin off properties before the government does it for them. Clearly they cannot manage them effectively.

        • ^^^ This ^^^

          I don't even consume Youtube anymore because of all the ad content. Even without the political ads it has ceased to be something that I'm willing to sit through in order to get the occasional nugget of content.

          Best,

      • Most of my time on youtube is spent watching SpaceX SS/SH build/test and Falcon9 launches

        There are a ton of gop ads for senate and trump, they usually force you to watch the whole add to get to the stream

        I am frankly amused by the bullshot that the gop thinks will turn people towards them, I honestly hope this cuts the legs out from under negative ad campaigns for a while (by being wildly ineffective)

        Well if you're just killing time, check out Russian Car Crash videos.

        And there are some sub-reddits which someone narrates posts: Lady I Don't Work Here, Lady I Do Work Here, Malicious Compliance, Pro Revenge, Entitled Parents... that can be quite amusing to listen to while doing other things.

        • um, yeah, I will admit to watching some Trabant ice road racing videos, but for the most part I resist stuff that is just pap to waste time on

          imo, SpaceX development is on par to the Apollo telecasts that I watched as a small child. In addition the well moderated discussion in the stream I watch is everything that I used to enjoy on usenet forums and slashdot, in the past

        • Well if you're just killing time, check out Russian Car Crash videos.

          And there are some sub-reddits which someone narrates posts: Lady I Don't Work Here, [...]

          So, I take your advice briefly and go and look at Reddit where I read about a deaf blind guy getting attacked by some lady in a shop because he didn't notice her. So now I'm back on Slashdot, but a little more angry and a little more depressed. See what you did? At least it sounds like the lady's not getting away with it. Take me back to arguing about COVID-19 response please.

      • I haven't seen a Youtube ad in years. Not sure which DNS block in my blacklist keeps them out but it should be pretty easy to do. I think its in one of the advertisers blacklists I set up years ago. It blocks all youtube ads on every platform I've tested.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        I am frankly amused by the bullshot that the gop thinks will turn people towards them, I honestly hope this cuts the legs out from under negative ad campaigns for a while (by being wildly ineffective)

        You're misunderstanding the purpose of negative ads. The purpose of negative ads isn't to convince people to vote for you. The purpose of negative ads is to sow enough doubt in the minds of the people who would vote for the other person that they won't bother to vote, and to energize the people who already agree with you so that they will bother to vote.

        They shouldn't be effective, but sadly, they are.

        • While there is a sucker born every minute, I think that the effectiveness of negative campaigning is waning

          • Re:YouTube not ad based (Score:4, Informative)

            by farble1670 ( 803356 ) on Thursday October 22, 2020 @03:38PM (#60636996)

            While there is a sucker born every minute

            The real suckers are people that think they are too smart to be affected by ads.

            • The real suckers are people that think they are too smart to be affected by ads.

              I don't think I'm not affected. I just think the ads are not having the affect they're hoping for. I made a list this year to take to the polling booth with me for the first time ever. It has one column: "Not This Dickhead".

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by bob4u2c ( 73467 )

            I think that the effectiveness of negative campaigning is waning

            Based on the number of flyers in my mailbox I would say your wrong. On average about 60% of the flyers are just straight up negative campaign flyers (so and so eats babies, kicks puppies, that kind of thing). The remaining 40% that are positive are ones (so and so voted for this, will bring jobs, will clean your laundry, etc). These are just asking for my money or special exceptions from the law, so even then those use negative language or fear to try and make their point (don't vote and we loose jobs,

    • I almost don't use YouTube on mobile because of the ADs (or I send the link to play on kodi.tv [libreelec.tv on a rpi3], attached to my TV, or I play it on PC [where uBlock do wonders]...)

  • What ads? (Score:5, Informative)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Thursday October 22, 2020 @12:21PM (#60635974)
    I installed this thing called uBlock Origin in my browser. I have no idea what they mean by ads on YouTube?

    • It sounds absolutely horrifying, almost like a teevee.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      People they're trying to reach are those not tech savvy enough to do it.

      I guess this at least in some parts correlates to voters of the kind those campaigns are trying to influence.

      • I build and upgrade computers for friends and neighbors. When I set up their browser I install ad blocking software. Almost universally I get an astonished outcome from them, "No ads on the Internet! What wizardry is this?" It's amazing to me that after 25 years of using the Internet for most of these people this is somehow something new.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          I had the opposite direction reaction from my friends and family. They all have machines set up by yours truly.

          And I still get the occasional "btw, youtube on my work machine /youtube mobile is so awful in comparison to desktop, it's choke full of ads, why is that?" to this day. To those who got online with adblock already in place, the actual state of youtube is a shock.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I installed this thing called uBlock Origin in my browser. I have no idea what they mean by ads on YouTube?

      I installed this thing called YouTube Vanced in my phone. I have no idea what they mean by ads on YouTube?

      Look it up on XDA [xda-developers.com]. Also make sure you enable Sponsor Block in Settings.

    • You don't use mobile?

    • I installed this thing called uBlock Origin in my browser. I have no idea what they mean by ads on YouTube?

      You can subscribe to Youtube to go ad-free.

      This is the real irony. Folks that hate ads and just can't figure out content providers don't offer a different revenue model? Then when a provider offers a different revenue model, they keep blocking ads anyway.

      • I installed this thing called uBlock Origin in my browser. I have no idea what they mean by ads on YouTube?

        You can subscribe to Youtube to go ad-free.

        This is the real irony. Folks that hate ads and just can't figure out content providers don't offer a different revenue model? Then when a provider offers a different revenue model, they keep blocking ads anyway.

        The real irony is that you're giving them money to stop using your hardware and network to annoy you.

      • Sorry, the entire Internet ad machine screwed the pooch on this years ago. Instead of offering ad opt-out options years ago they decided to force their shit down our throats in the most obtrusive in your face ways they could. Malware .. spyware .. adware .. Screw them now. No love whatsoever for their machine.

        • Instead of offering ad opt-out options years ago

          Sorry, what's your argument for not using non-ad based revenue models? Is it that they didn't offer those options soon enough, so now... you won't use them... because you are punishing them for not offering it sooner?

          Strong, strong rationalization. Oops slipped there, I mean strong "argument." I also would have accepted "I don't approve of their support for the oppressive regime of [insert favorite repressive regime here]."

          • You go ahead and pay for them then. Have fun :-)

            • It's really strange how the moral high ground tends align with you getting free shit. Must be just coincidence though.

              If it's the case that you just don't want to pay, and prefer to leech from other people that do pay (either via ads or subscriptions), okay. Not how I choose to live my life, but at least it's honest.

    • Shhhh if too many people do it, they'll make video break purposely when you have uBlock on.

      Just be quite and gripe about the ads with the rest of them.

  • Seems they have it figured out. The incumbent running for congress in my district has ads running multiple times in every single Youtube video I watch. I'm not exaggerating. I've seen the ad, probably, eight times today, and I've only watched a few videos on Youtube. I know the ad word-for-word now.

    • Seems they have it figured out. The incumbent running for congress in my district has ads running multiple times in every single Youtube video I watch. I'm not exaggerating. I've seen the ad, probably, eight times today, and I've only watched a few videos on Youtube. I know the ad word-for-word now.

      I haven't seen single ad for the incumbent in my district but have been flooded by an avalanche of ads placed by the challenger since July. I am severely tempted to vote against the challenger just to spite them. Hell I may make that my new voting strategy whoever shows me the least ads gets my vote.

    • Quick question, would the content of the ads influence you to change your opinion in any way?

      Out local senate race has a sitting gop senator (appointed by gop governor) who has taken the low road and has accused the Dem of everything that the incumbent has actually done.

      The content of this smear campaign would have turned me away from the incumbent if I was actually undecided, but I made my decision years ago

      • Not in the slightest. It doesn't help that they are pretty poor quality, too. Just the incumbent droning on about their qualifications for office, which isn't what you should be talking about when you are the incumbent. If you've had the job, you talk about what you've done, otherwise it seems like you haven't done anything.

        At least it isn't an attack ad, though those are floating around as well.

    • I get both, sometimes back to back. It's a relief to get an ad for dog food or something equally useless to me. Can't even think of a non politics example.

  • Many political ad buyers are interested in YouTube's limited amount of commercials that viewers can't skip through.

    We may not be able to skip them, but hitting mute and going to another tab is just as effective.
  • There are many countries where they are illegal, and for good reasons. Any add is basically a form of lying in the face of people who don't want it. And the more ads the more money you need , which introduce yet another bias in the democratic process. Politicians have enough opportunities on their websites, election papers and numerous interviews on TV/radio/newspapers to get there messages across. They don't need ads.

    • Re:Political ads should be illegal (Score:4, Insightful)

      by aaarrrgggh ( 9205 ) on Thursday October 22, 2020 @12:59PM (#60636242)
      While I would love to take the money out of the political campaigns, the challenge is in “free speech.” Even the miserable Citizens United case, you do have to ask what the difference between a Michael Moore film and a Citizens United film during election season is. I feel like the US election process is broken, from the candidates to the voters. I am not sure how you fix it, or even what it should be, but we have the wrong people (on both sides) running our government. I have difficulty believing any American really believes in any politician, beyond a lesser disdain for their opponent. That is not democracy.

      • Re:Political ads should be illegal (Score:4, Interesting)

        by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Thursday October 22, 2020 @01:05PM (#60636262)

        So, we have decided that a used car salesman cannot misrepresent the facts of the vehicle without fines and potential criminal charges

        And yet, we are to accept that politicians, who will make decisions affecting our lives for longer than a car would last, can lie freely without negative consequences?

        I call bullshit, truth in advertising should apply to political leaders

        • It's simply better to assume that all politicians are full of $hit and none of them are "for the people". Term limits on ALL positions in government would help correct this. Career politicians are just another form of Mafia.

          • At this point in history, that would be a false equivalency

            • Career politicians are just another form of Mafia.

              At this point in history, that would be a false equivalency

              Yeah, the Mafia actually deliver on promises. (Mostly the negative ones, but they deliver.)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dargaud ( 518470 )
        You have to move your ass to a theatre and pay to watch a Michael Moore movie. Political adds on youtube get shoved down your throat while you try and watch kitten videos. And you cannot tell the difference ? Seriously ?!?
  • Hey Google,

    if I can ban "Viagra' from my email, why can't I ban "<insert politician name>" from ads you push on me?

    Stop pushing politicians on me I told you I do not like.

    The more you push that politician on me, the more backfire effect you create, and more disservice you are doing to your advertisers making me DISLIKE THEM MORE.

    You will get a HIGHER CLICK THROUGH RATE if you stop pushing politicians on me that I hate and perhaps allow other advertisers to get through.

    I AM ACTUALLY USING YOUTUBE LESS

  • Never noticed. Must be for people who like them. :-)

  • Ads? (Score:2)

    by Evtim ( 1022085 )

    What ads?

    Posted from mobile browser with adblock (not the damn 'YouTube app').

    • (not the damn 'YouTube app').

      What, you mean you don't like the constant intrusive nags for Youtube Red or whatever they renamed it to? You say you can truly live without the occasional unskippable 45 minutes infomercial?

  • The most effective ads appear in the comments section. Instant grassroots legitimacy. Oh, and no bothersome rules.

  • For the past week or so I've been going onto my phone's YouTube app and intentionally loading ads from the US party I have no intention of voting for. I don't actually watch the ads, but load 'em up for playing. Just doing my little part to help drain their campaign coffers. It helps alleviate my rage and doom scrolling.

    • For the past week or so I've been going onto my phone's YouTube app and intentionally loading ads from the US party I have no intention of voting for. I don't actually watch the ads, but load 'em up for playing. Just doing my little part to help drain their campaign coffers. It helps alleviate my rage and doom scrolling.

      Seems like the best possible use of your time. Well done.

    • For the past week or so I've been going onto my phone's YouTube app and intentionally loading ads from the US party I have no intention of voting for. I don't actually watch the ads, but load 'em up for playing. Just doing my little part to help drain their campaign coffers. It helps alleviate my rage and doom scrolling.

      You know what's more pathetic than that?

      Neither do I, that was a trick question.

  • Have a fair and balanced panel of Youtube employees decide what ads to run. It's foolproof and nothing could go wrong.

  • Between ad-block on my PC and the fact I already voted, the political ads are a waste of time and money

    • Between ad-block on my PC and the fact I already voted, the political ads are a waste of time and money

      Considering everyone has already made up their mind and nobody listens to the arguments of the other side anyway, I'd say the political ads are a waste of time and money anyhow.

  • I thought youtube was a bidding system like adwords so that everyone bid for the available slots and it went to the highest bidder.
    In a bidding system, there is never a shortage. You can always get an ad spot if you are willing to pay more than everyone else.

  • I just ad-block the shit out of youtube because otherwise, it is unwatchable.

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