Pre-Roll Video Advertising
Get in Front — Before They Press Play
Pre-roll ads are short video spots that appear before the content your audience wants to watch — and when done right, they’re one of the most effective ways to boost awareness and drive action.
At Y Associates, we craft and deliver pre-roll campaigns across YouTube, streaming platforms, and premium sites, designed to stop the scroll and spark interest in just seconds.
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Engage Your Audience with High-Impact Video Ads
What Is Pre-Roll?
Pre-roll is a type of video ad placement that runs before the main video content on platforms like:
- YouTube
- Programmatic Video Exchanges
- News, sports, and entertainment sites
- Mobile apps and streaming environments
- Pre-roll ads can be skippable or non-skippable, and typically range from 6–30 seconds.
Our Pre-Roll Services Include:
✅
Creative Consulting & Storyboarding
✅ Video Editing & Text-Overlay Optimization
✅ Platform-Specific Formatting (YouTube, CTV, In-App)
✅ Audience Targeting (demographics, interests, behaviors)
✅ Retargeting & Sequencing
✅ Performance Tracking (views, CTR, conversions, watch time)
Why Pre-Roll Works
- Captures attention in high-focus moments
- Delivers your message even if skipped after 5 seconds
- Highly measurable with detailed engagement metrics
- Great for awareness + mid-funnel conversion support
- Can be layered with other campaigns like display, social, or search
Ideal For:
- Launching a new product or service
- Local businesses wanting affordable video reach
- Franchises, healthcare, legal, or auto industries
- Events, promotions, seasonal campaigns
- Retargeting past website visitors with branded video
Pre-Roll + Strategy = Results
We don’t just run pre-roll — we make sure it fits into a larger full-funnel video strategy. Whether it’s the first impression in a brand journey or the final nudge before conversion, our team ensures your message lands with impact
How Pre-Roll Is Bought and Billed
Pre-roll is bought on a CPM basis or on a cost-per-view basis, and which one applies depends on the format.
Skippable pre-roll lets the viewer skip after five seconds. On most platforms you only pay when the viewer watches past a threshold or interacts with the ad. That makes the first five seconds effectively free: everyone who sees the ad gets your opening, whether they stay or skip.
Non-skippable pre-roll plays in full, usually at 15 seconds. You pay for every impression, and in exchange every viewer sees the whole message.
Bumper ads are six seconds and non-skippable. They are too short to tell a story, but they are efficient for frequency: reminding people who have already seen a longer ad.
Pre-roll runs on YouTube and across programmatic video exchanges covering news, sports, entertainment sites and mobile apps. The same creative can run in all of them if it is built to the right specs from the start.
The First Five Seconds Decide Everything
On skippable pre-roll, the viewer decides in five seconds whether to keep watching. That changes how the ad has to be built:
- Show the brand early. If the logo arrives at second 20, most viewers never see it
- Lead with the problem, not the introduction. No slow fades, no warmup
- Make it work with the sound off. A share of viewers will not have audio up, so on-screen text should carry the core message
- Say the offer before the skip button appears if the goal is response rather than awareness
We cut most pre-roll campaigns in more than one length from the same footage: a six second bumper, a fifteen and a thirty. Each one does a different job in the same campaign.
What You Can Target With Pre-Roll
- Location, from national down to a radius around one address
- Demographics, including age, gender and household income bands where available
- Interests and in-market behavior, based on what people watch and search
- Contextual placement, running before specific categories of content
- Retargeting, reaching people who visited your site, which is where pre-roll often works best
- Customer list matching, on platforms that support uploaded audiences
What You Can Measure
- Impressions and views, with the platform's definition of a view stated in the report
- View rate, the share of viewers who chose not to skip
- Video completion rate, how many watched to the end
- Cost per view and cost per completed view
- Clicks and site visits, from the ad and from viewers who visit later
- Frequency, so the same person is not shown the same ad until it becomes irritating
Pre-Roll Advertising FAQ
Is pre-roll wasted if people skip it?
No. A skipped ad still delivered five seconds of your brand, and on skippable formats you usually did not pay for it. The waste happens when the first five seconds contain nothing worth seeing.
Skippable or non-skippable?
Skippable when you want efficient reach and only want to pay for engaged viewers. Non-skippable when the full message has to land, such as a specific offer or a date. Many campaigns run both.
How long should our pre-roll be?
Fifteen seconds covers most needs. Six second bumpers work for reminders. Thirty seconds works when the audience already knows you and there is a real story to tell.
Can we use a TV commercial as pre-roll?
Usually, with a recut. TV spots often open slowly and put the brand at the end, which is the opposite of what skippable pre-roll needs. We recut the opening so the brand and the point come first.
Pre-roll often runs alongside connected TV (OTT/CTV) advertising as part of a broader digital video plan.
Launch a High-Impact Pre-Roll Campaign With Us
We create engaging, high-quality video ads and strategically place them across premium publisher networks for maximum reach and impact.