Apparently, users don’t like them.
Well, users don’t like a lot of ads, but it seems that the majority of users won’t even sit through a pre-roll ad to get to the content they originally wanted to view. Now, how is that going to make you any money or disseminate your content? Cory Begman doesn’t believe pre-roll can be a long-term solution:
A study by Burst Media reveals that more than half of all internet users bail out of a clip before the pre-roll stops playing, and a significant percentage leave the site entirely. Interestingly, younger users are more tolerant: 35% of 18-24 year olds close out a clip when they see a pre-roll ad, compared to 49.6% of 25-34 year olds. Of course, pre-rolls aren’t going away anytime soon, but I’d certainly call them a transitional video ad unit.
If you’re going to use pre-roll ads, at least be smart about it. CNN lets you watch a few clips before they start mixing in pre-roll ads. But if the first clip a user wants to view they get hit with a pre-roll add, it will probably be the last clip a user views.
That’s just bad business.