Running Ads
From our own research, here’s an overall list of strategies we’ve seen be successful for creators running ads on their channel:
Tell your community a break is coming - When creators and/or moderators run ads manually, we recommend communicating to your viewers when an ad break is initiating. For creators that utilize tools to run their ads automatically, a best practice is to put on their page roughly how frequent and how long each ad break will be.
Do not front-load or back-load ads - Front-loading ads, or running all your ads at the beginning of your stream, typically have lower viewership numbers since your audience is still coming into your broadcast. It also creates a poor experience for viewers as many of them will be coming off of pre-rolls. Back-loading ads, or playing all your ads near the end of your stream, also generates lower revenue as viewership tends to significantly drop toward the end of a broadcast.
Start with 1-minute of ads per hour - We recommend starting with one minute of ads per hour, such as slotting in a small break between game sessions. This can help gradually build up your ads per hour and ease your community into it - eventually leading up to the targeted 3 minutes per hour for maximum revenue.
Run multiple, shorter ad breaks - Once you feel more comfortable, it is recommended to run multiple 1-2 minute ad breaks each hour instead of one long ad session.
Delegate or Automate your ad breaks - We know it’s a challenge to manually run ads consistently and concentrate on creating live content, so there are a number of tools to auto-run ads. Examples include Nightbot or Moobot. Or, if you have reliable moderators, utilize your moderation team to run ads on your behalf.
Wait at least 15 minutes between ad breaks - Running ad breaks too close to each other can create a poor experience for your viewers. As 1-3 minute ad breaks are most optimal, we recommend waiting at least 15 minutes before running an additional ad break. In doing so, you’ll easily reach your desired number of ads per hour.
Ad Placement
Running mid-roll ads is completely up to you as the channel owner, but it’s important to remember that not everyone on your channel will see ads. Ad fulfillment can vary by user location and availability. If you choose to, you can enable ad-free viewing for your subscribers as an added benefit. Because this is very common for Partner and Affiliates to enable, many Twitch users have come to expect this as a perk for subscribing, so it’s important to clarify with your community if ad-free viewing is available to subscribers on your channel.
Nervous your viewers who would be eligible to see an ad will miss out on the action while an ad is running? If you’re streaming to a gaming category, viewers will still be able to see your stream with Picture-by-Picture, even during an ad. Click here to learn more about Picture-by-Picture and other new ads features.
Earning Money Through Ads
Partners and Affiliates with any size audience will earn money by running ads. As viewership increases, revenue earned for ads will increase as well.
Ad breaks can be between 30 seconds and three minutes long and the income you earn from ad breaks depends on how many viewers see the ad - the more who see the ad, the more you earn. We suggest running multiple, shorter ad breaks throughout the course of your stream, rather than loading them up at the beginning or end - viewership tends to be highest in the middle, maximizing your earnings.
Want to try running an ad…right now? Click the button below to access your creator dashboard and run an ad!