YouTube Video Ad Specs & Placements Guide (2025)

Since the early 2000s, YouTube has been home to an expansive collection of video content. While this certainly hasn’t changed, YouTube video ad specs have evolved to meet the needs of viewers and advertisers alike. 

With a wide variety of video content, you can reach viewers with nearly any interest, hobby, or demographic. So, if you haven’t already, it’s time to make sure YouTube is a pillar of your video marketing strategy. 

Here, we’ll cover YouTube ad sizes and how to make the most of your YouTube video marketing campaigns. 

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Benefits of YouTube Video Marketing

With the right YouTube ad specs and video creative, the platform can prove highly valuable for the success of your video marketing campaigns. Some of the benefits of video marketing on YouTube include: 

• Effectively reach your target audience. Since most people use the platform to watch videos related to their interests, YouTube allows you to target based on demographics, industry, interests, and more. 
• Increase brand awareness. The different YouTube video ad sizes provide your business with a variety of ways to reach your audience and increase brand awareness. Plus, with over 210 million users in the United States alone, you have the opportunity to tell lots of potential customers about your brand. 
• Explain your products’ benefits and use cases. Many people take to YouTube for educational purposes, so give them the content they want. With animated explainers or how-to videos, you can teach potential customers about the benefits of your products! 

Learn more about how the YouTube algorithm works.

When it comes to YouTube ad specs, there are three distinct placements across the platform: 

Skippable Video Ads

YouTube’s Skippable video ads play before, during, or after videos on YouTube. Viewers have the option to skip the ad after 5 seconds, so you must frontload an attention-grabbing hook in your creative to keep viewers engaged and discourage skipping. These ads are shown on desktops, mobile devices, TVs, and game consoles.

Video Ad Specs

• Aspect ratio: 16:9, 1:1, or 4:3. We recommend 16:9 as more and more viewers are consuming YouTube on their CTVs. 
• Video length: Skippable in-stream ads can run any length, but YouTube recommends staying between 12 seconds and 3 minutes for best performance—short enough to hold attention, long enough to deliver your message. 
• File type: MP4 (H.264 video, AAC audio)—but YouTube also accepts MOV, AVI, and other standard formats.

Skippable in-stream ads include a headline (up to 15 characters) and optional CTA (up to 10 characters) in overlay format for desktop and mobile. 

Need more inspiration? Check out these YouTube video content ideas.

Non-Skippable In-Stream Video Ads

As the name suggests, YouTube Non-Skippable ads cannot be skipped and must be watched before a video starts or continues. Because of this, you have the opportunity to focus your creative less on that immediate hook, and more on taking the viewer through a longer narrative arc. Like with Skippable ads, these video ad examples will play before, during, or after the content you clicked on. These assets are shown on desktops, mobile devices, TVs, and game consoles.

Video Ad Specs

• Aspect ratio: 16:9, 1:1, or 4:3. We recommend 16:9 as more and more viewers are consuming YouTube on their CTVs. 
• Video length: Non-skippable ads must be 15–20 seconds, depending on market, and up to 30 seconds on CTV inventory.
• File type: Use MP4 with H.264 encoding for best playback across devices—MOV and WebM formats are also supported.

Bumper Ads

YouTube Bumper ads, also called pre-roll ads, are non-skippable short messages delivered before, during, or after a video plays. Even though bumper ads cannot be skipped, still aim to capture attention in the first few seconds to keep your viewer engaged as they wait for their video to begin. Bumper ads are shown on desktops, mobile devices, TV, and game consoles.

Video Ad Specs

• Aspect ratio: 16:9, 1:1, or 4:3. We recommend 16:9 as more and more viewers are consuming YouTube on their CTVs. Also, YouTube now fully supports vertical video (9:16) across in-stream and Shorts placements, including on CTV—so don’t shy away from portrait framing if it fits your creative.
• Max length: Bumper ads are capped at 6 seconds and are designed to deliver quick, memorable messages before your viewer’s video starts.
• File type: Stick with MP4 (H.264) to ensure clean delivery across mobile, desktop, and CTV placements. 

Related: Learn about the best time to post on YouTube.

YouTube Shorts ads

Shorts are YouTube’s answer to TikTok-style vertical video—and the platform now allows advertisers to run 9:16 video ads directly in the Shorts feed. These placements are full-screen, immersive, and built for mobile-first viewing.

Video Ad Specs

• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max length: 60 seconds
• File type: MP4 with H.264 encoding recommended
• Placement: Mobile-only, vertical-only

Shorts ads are typically served as part of Demand Gen campaigns, which optimize delivery across Shorts, YouTube Watch, Gmail, and Discover placements.

Making YouTube Videos at Scale

Video marketing is becoming increasingly essential to all marketing strategies, but consistent, high-quality video creative can be difficult to create. Plus, many marketing teams are already at capacity. The good news? You don’t have to manage social media video marketing on your own. 

At QuickFrame, we use an end-to-end video creation platform to connect your business with leading makers and video production teams. No matter your objective, or the type of video you need, we can connect you with the right creatives who are ready to deliver on-brand videos faster and more affordably than ever before.

Contact us today to learn more about YouTube video production. 

YouTube Ad Specs & Sizes: Final Thoughts

With videos covering just about any topic you can think of (and then some!), YouTube likely has a space for your business. With the right YouTube video ad specs, you can successfully implement the platform into your video marketing strategy. 

Need help with other networks? Check out our complete Social Media Video Ad Specs & Placements Guide