Part of the Personal computing glossary:

A pre-roll ad is a promotional video message that plays before the content the user has selected. The video advertisements are often repurposed television ads, sometimes shortened to 10 or 15 seconds because the 30-second standard for ads on television is not suitable for videos, which are themselves frequently only a few minutes long.  

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A new video format known as TrueView allows users to skip the ad after five seconds. However, according to VideoNuze, a video analysis and news website, almost half of all viewers watch pre-roll ads to the end, even if they have the option to skip them. 

Pre-roll ads are the most common form of video advertisement. There are also mid-roll and post-roll ads. 

This was last updated in September 2012
Contributor(s): Ivy Wigmore
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

Related Terms

Definitions

  • TrueView ad

    - TrueView is a video ad format that gives the viewer options, typically the ability to skip the advertisement after five seconds. Sponsors only pay for ads that are viewed to completion (or for 30 s... (WhatIs.com)

  • interrupt marketing

    - Interrupt marketing is the traditional model of product promotion, in which people have to stop what they're doing to pay attention to the marketing message or deal with it in some other way. (WhatIs.com)

Glossaries

  • Personal computing

    - Terms related to personal computers, including definitions about computers sold as consumer products and words and phrases about laptops, tablets and smartphones.

  • Multimedia and graphics

    - Terms related to multimedia, including graphics, animation and video definitions and words and phrases about images and sound.

  • Internet applications

    - This WhatIs.com glossary contains terms related to Internet applications, including definitions about Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery models and words and phrases about web sites, e-commerce ...

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