Overview of non-in-stream video ads

Non-in-stream ads are ads that appear outside of a video player and have no surrounding video content. Non-in-stream ads serve in display formats such as banner and anchor, and are enabled by default.

In this article

• User experience
• Recommendations
• Limitations

User experience

1. When 50% of the ad unit is visible, the video automatically plays in a muted state and is automatically paused when out of view. An impression is counted on rendering the first frame of the video.
2. Once the video is finished, the ad unit remains visible with an end card, which displays the last frame of the video and a "Learn more" button which clicks to the advertiser site.
3. The user has the ability to click for sound, or to replay the ad once it's complete.
4. Non-in-stream ads are scaled automatically to best fit within the size of the ad slot. 
5. Non-in-stream ads automatically play for up to 30 seconds while in view, or longer if there was user interaction with the video such as tap or unmute.

Recommendations

Inventory sizes and aspect ratios

To maximize demand that bids into your non-in-stream video ad placements, we recommend:

• Inventory sizes to be at least 256 pixels in both their longer and shorter dimensions, and
• Maintain one of the standard aspect ratios:
  • Horizontal videos: 4:3 or 16:9
  • Vertical videos: 3:4, 4:5, or 9:16
  • Square videos: 1:1

While impressions may still serve in smaller inventory sizes and/or non-standard aspect ratios, it might lead to decreased demand and/or user experience.

Video length

The maximum recommended video length is 15-30 seconds. Videos that are significantly longer than 30 seconds are likely to receive fewer completed views. Advertisers who desire higher completion rates should provide videos that are 30 seconds or less.¹

Limitations

The following features are not supported:

• Click-to-expand ("reflow") functionality
• Click-to-close functionality
• VPAID