Both are video ads on YouTube, yet "six seconds, plays in full, can't be skipped" and "plays for five seconds, then the viewer can hit skip" are two tools with entirely different jobs. The first is only there to make people remember you; the second is what drives them to a booking page. This article answers one very practical question: which format your video ad should use, what goal each one suits, and how you are charged. For a small Vancouver business, getting this straight can save a good deal of budget. Instead of hammering everyone with a single ad "no one can skip yet no one acts on", you let each format do the job it does best: the one that builds memory builds memory, the one that brings bookings brings bookings. Below we go through the main YouTube formats one by one, then use a Vancouver medical-aesthetics clinic to show how they work in sequence.
Who is this article for? ❓
If you have already decided to run video ads on YouTube but are staring blankly at the options ("skippable, non-skippable, six-second bumper") and unsure which to pick, this is worth a few minutes. It will not teach you how to edit a clip or tweak settings; it helps you think through which format fits the goal you have this time, and what it actually buys you. If you are a step further back, not yet sure whether video advertising is even right for you, start instead with the article in this series on whether video ads suit your business at all.
Get this straight first: format is "what the ad itself looks like", not "who it goes to"
Google Ads is built in nested layers. You first choose the "Video" type in a campaign, which is what places the ad on YouTube. The format this article is about then belongs to the creative layer: it decides what the ad the viewer sees looks like, whether they can skip it, and how long they have to watch. That is a separate matter from targeting (who sees it), things like "show it to people aged 25 to 40 living in Burnaby", which this article does not touch at all.
One easily muddled term to settle up front: "format" here means the shape of the ad (in-stream / in-feed / a six-second clip), not "naming the specific channels or sites the ad appears on". That second thing is called placement targeting, sits in the targeting layer, and is the subject of another article. Don't tangle the two together.
And the most practical point of all: the format you pick directly decides how you are charged (bidding). As we go through each format below, we'll note what it bills on, and what the viewer at the other end actually experiences.
The main YouTube formats, and what each one does for you
Skippable in-stream ads: it plays five seconds, then leaves the choice to the viewer
This is a common one. The ad plays before, during or after another video, and after five seconds a "Skip" button appears on the viewer's screen, so they can leave whenever they like. There is no hard limit on length (Google suggests keeping it under three minutes). On charging it runs on CPV (cost per view): you only pay when a viewer watches 30 seconds (or the whole clip if it is shorter than 30 seconds), or clicks a link or button in the ad. The people who skip cost you nothing.
Put another way, this format does a piece of filtering for you by design: the uninterested leave after five seconds, and those who stay to the end (or click through) are mostly people with genuine intent. That makes it especially good for moving people to the next step: clicking into your website, viewing a booking page. The experience isn't bad for the viewer either: anyone who doesn't want to watch can skip with a tap, never held to the end.
Six-second bumper ads: can't be skipped, but only takes six seconds
A bumper is a short ad of up to six seconds that cannot be skipped, shown before, during or after another video. It runs on Target CPM (cost per thousand impressions), charged on "how many times it is seen", not on clicks. Six seconds is too short to tell a complex story; its job is to show your face again and again and lodge a name or a single line in someone's head, rather like those fleeting yet memorable spots on television. For the viewer, it's six seconds "padding" the start of the video they wanted: unskippable, but soon over and hardly a nuisance.
Non-skippable in-stream ads: say the whole thing in one go
If you have a message that must be delivered in full, non-skippable in-stream will do it. It can run up to 60 seconds, but in ordinary auction campaigns anything over 30 seconds is not allowed, so in practice it usually stays within 30 seconds (Google itself recommends keeping it to 30 seconds or shorter). It likewise runs on Target CPM, charged on impressions. For the viewer these seconds cannot be skipped, so this kind of ad has all the more reason to grab them in the opening moment, rather than feel forced on them.
In-feed video ads: placed where people are discovering, waiting to be clicked
This one used to be called "video discovery ads" and is now in-feed video. Rather than playing ahead of someone's chosen video, it appears as a thumbnail with a few lines of text, in YouTube search results, beside related videos, or on the YouTube homepage, and plays only when the viewer chooses to click it. On charging, you pay only when someone clicks to watch, or in some placements when it autoplays for at least 10 seconds. In spirit it is rather like a Search ad: it waits for people "already looking for related content" to come to it, rather than interrupting anyone.
Putting it on a real example: a Vancouver medical-aesthetics clinic
Say you run a medical-aesthetics clinic in Vancouver (skincare and injectable treatments) and want to use video ads. Fit the formats above to different goals and the whole thing falls into place:
- Start with a six-second bumper to build memory. Make a six-second clip: one line on who you are and which neighbourhood you're in, over clean, bright shots of the clinic. Let local viewers be "padded" with it a few times before the videos they came to watch. They won't, and can't, click anything in the moment, but the impression ("ah, that skincare place in Burnaby") gets tapped in, again and again. This step bills on impressions; what it buys is being remembered.
- Then use a skippable in-stream ad to drive people to the booking page. Make a slightly longer clip that genuinely shows treatment results and client reviews, ending on a clear "Book your first consultation online now". Once it runs, the uninterested skip away within five seconds and cost you nothing; those who watch to the end, or click through, are exactly the people your six seconds had already "padded", now moved to act. When they click through, they should land on a clear booking page where they can pick a time directly. What this step buys is turning viewers into enquiries that walk in.
You can see it: both are video ads, yet the bumper's job is "make people remember", while the skippable in-stream "carries the people who remembered onward to the booking page". One after the other, each billed its own way, neither doing the other's job. Reverse it, hammering everyone with a single long, unskippable ad, and you'll likely both fail to make the point and annoy people, while the budget burns fast.
What happens if you don't tell the formats apart
A common outcome is that the money is spent, the view count isn't even low, yet nothing follows. Often the format simply doesn't match the goal: you wanted bookings but ran a bumper that can only show a face and carries no click; or you wanted cheap familiarity but used a long ad that forces people to watch and irritates them. Some also confuse "format" with "who it goes to", thinking that choosing a format is the same as choosing an audience, when that belongs to the targeting layer. Pick the wrong format and even the best clip won't reach the right people in the right frame of mind.
Leave this to 5U Website
The trap with video advertising is rarely whether the clip is well shot; it's not thinking through "what exactly do we want the viewer to do this time" at the outset, so the format gets chosen wrong as well. Across our years building websites and doing digital marketing for Vancouver businesses, the first thing we sort out for clients is precisely that: is this round about building awareness, or about real bookings? From there we decide whether to use a bumper, a skippable in-stream, or a few formats working together. In our experience, most local shops do well to start with just the pair above: a six-second bumper for memory, a skippable in-stream to bring the bookings. The heavier options, long non-skippable spots or the connected-TV (CTV) placements, cost more and carry a higher bar, so unless you already have a clear brand-building need and a budget to match, we usually advise holding off on those. Once the format is settled, we catch the people the ad brings in on a website or landing page that can actually hold them and make them want to book, fitting the ads and the site together as one system rather than each running on its own. If you are about to run video ads, or have run them and seen no bookings, take a look at our website design and digital marketing services, or send an email describing your situation. We usually reply within one to two business days.
To see the whole picture, read on in this series: the Google Ads overview: what it is and what it brings, the comprehensive guide to campaign types (to place video among all the types), and whether video ads suit your business at all.
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