YouTube Launches New Feature, Advertisers Can Rule Whenever Ads Will Show

JAKARTA - Sometimes it's a little too obvious when a company launches a big advertising campaign on YouTube. If you are a regular viewer, you will probably see the same ad over and over again. But this week, YouTube announced that it would expand the power of a tool that would allow brands to control how often their ads are shown to specific users.

Google previously launched an ad frequency tool called Display & Video 360 in February to cover ad campaigns that run across a variety of smart TV apps, including the YouTube app and apps from competitors like Hulu.

This week, YouTube launched its own complementary tool, YouTube Frequency, which counts ads shown beyond just the YouTube smart TV app. But also across its mobile and desktop platforms. Combined, this program should mean less ad spam for viewers.

YouTube argues seeing the same ad over and over again is not only painful for consumers but also bad for the company. They want to know not only that their ads aren't distracting potential customers, but also that they don't want to waste money showing the same ad too often to the same people.

“Now, you can supplement your reach by actively setting weekly frequency goals, a solution only YouTube can provide. Combining our unrivaled audience reach and cutting-edge machine learning capabilities, advertisers can now optimize the number of times their viewers see their ads in a week. This not only means more efficient spending, but most importantly, a better experience for viewers," YouTube wrote in a blog post aimed at advertisers, as quoted by The Verge.

Of course, it will be up to the brand to impose those limits. But here YouTube hopes to know the best ad campaigns are not campaigns that hit you over and over again with the same message.