This week, I went down the @Youtube is putting pre-roll ads on school videos rabbit hole.

YouTube is the second most-used search engine on the internet. It is used by EVERY 13-17 year old.

When titled right, a YouTube video can make the front page of a Brand Search.
Here is an example of a video making the front page of a SERP for the University of Central Florida.

Note, the moments in this video.

So the whole idea that a school can avoid this platform is laughable. It is so critical to get videos on the front page of the SERP.
Look, I can give you another 5 reasons why YouTube should be a huge part of your enrollment strategy. From YouTube Live, to playlists, to embedded content on the .edu.

But we& #39;re in this thread for another reason. Pre-roll ads.
So what, you say? Who cares about pre-roll ads?

Well, you should.

young people these days understand the concept of YouTubers and advertising. They get the pre-roll ads (skip in 5 seconds...) and realize it is the cost of content.

I& #39;ll watch an ad, YouTuber gets paid.
So when a prospective student is watching a Zoom panel on fit at the school whilst determining whether to deposit, they need to watch an ad.

There& #39;s a chance that they won& #39;t think about it.
But there& #39;s also a chance that the student will think the school is profiting off learning about the school around decision time.

So how do you turn this off? Opt-out, if you will?

Turn on Monetization on your channel, create an ad sense account, and say no.
But here& #39;s the thing: to do this, you need 1000 subscribers, and 4000 hours watched.

I did a quick look at our partner schools, and about 1/3 have 1000 subscribers.

it makes sense. Enrollment is cyclical, so once you& #39;re in or not in, why subscribe?
That means that many schools in the US don& #39;t qualify to opt-out of pre-roll ads on their platform.

That seems fair, @YouTube

May 1st. Pre-roll ads for @Grammarly on "why attend [school]" -- and YouTube gets all the $$ on the ad buy.

The school?

Marketplace confusion.
You can follow @mhames.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: