Mythbusters Series #1: “Video Ads Are Intrusive”

Video ads have a reputation.

For many publishers, those words alone trigger memories of autoplay audio, content pushed below the fold, spinning loaders, and performance warnings in DevTools. Over the years, the industry has trained us to associate video with disruption.

This perception doesn’t come from nowhere.

Most publishers have seen, or inherited, bad video setups. Often these implementations were unmanaged, default configurations designed to “just work” across thousands of sites. They were optimized for reach and scale, not nuance or user experience.

So yes, the caution makes complete sense.

But it’s also worth separating implementation mistakes from the format itself. Video isn’t a passing trend; it’s regarded as the top investment priority for digital media experts this year. ​​Avoiding it entirely because of how it was once deployed may close the door on thoughtful, controlled opportunities.

This article isn’t about dismissing bad experiences. It’s about challenging the assumption that disruption is inevitable.

In our experience, video on its own isn’t intrusive. Poorly configured video is.

In this post we’re unpacking the three objections most publishers have about video, and sharing what good video setups look like.

The three objections that matter to most publishers

Across conversations with publishers, concerns about video tend to cluster around three core themes. Rather than addressing dozens of edge cases, it’s more useful to focus on the objections that consistently surface.

Let’s start with site performance.

MYTH 1: “Video will hurt my site performance”

Why this is a common fear

It’s true that video is heavier than standard display. It’s media-rich, dynamic, and naturally associated with higher memory usage. When teams look at waterfall charts or network panels, they see additional requests. Core Web Vitals come into sharper focus. Even harmless console warnings can raise concern.

When performance is part of your brand strategy, caution makes sense.

What actually causes performance issues

In practice, performance impact is rarely about the mere presence of video. It’s about how and when that video loads.

The usual culprits include:

• Early firing before meaningful engagement
• Aggressive user sync activity
• Unscoped or overly broad demand
• Too many parallel auction calls

We’ve seen performance issues tied to certain setups. We’ve also seen those same setups become stable, lightweight contributors after thoughtful configuration.

MYTH 2: “Video will annoy my users”

Why this concern is valid

We’ve all been bombarded with annoying video ads at least once. Whether it’s autoplaying videos with sound, video players that cover the main content, or video ads appearing before the content is even delivered, publishers know that these interruptions will drive users away and negatively impact their ad revenue.

But notice something: all of these examples are about timing and behaviour, not about the video format itself.

What actually changes the experience

The difference between intrusive and acceptable often comes down to:

• Muted by default
• Deferred load (after engagement)
• Thoughtful placement
• Screen-size and device awareness

When video appears after engagement, after scroll, after time on page, after content value is established, it behaves very differently. It becomes part of the experience rather than a barrier to it.

MYTH 3: “I will lose control”

This objection is not so much visible, but felt. Publishers worry about:

• Ad categories misaligned with their brand
• Unexpected creative behaviour
• Expanding or floating formats
• Public embarrassment from poor ad quality

There’s also an operational fear: once video is installed, does it become difficult to manage?

These are valid concerns, especially for publishers who’ve built trust carefully over time.

A well-managed video setup should provide more control, not less.

That includes:

• Category exclusions and creative filtering
• Behavioural rules (muted, no auto-expand, no forced interaction)
• Clear placement logic
• Monitoring and reporting
• The ability to pause or remove quickly

When video is treated as a configurable product, and not a plug-and-play widget, it becomes manageable.

Control doesn’t disappear with video. It disappears with unmanaged defaults.

The real reason these myths persist

Most publishers reacting strongly to video are reacting to video they did not intentionally choose or configure.

Plug-and-play players optimize for scale. Defaults are designed to function everywhere, not to align with your site context, brand tone, or audience behaviour.

And without iteration, even good setups degrade over time.

If video is introduced without:

• Clear objectives
• Ongoing optimization
• Technical oversight

…it will often lead to disruption.

What a “non intrusive” video setup actually looks like

When implemented carefully and deliberately, video tends to look very different from the stereotype.

In practice, this often means:

• Loading after meaningful scroll or time thresholds
• Muted autoplay only
• Desktop-first testing
• Clear containment within content boundaries
• Removal of unnecessary scripts and early calls

In some of our own cases, once redundant scripts and aggressive early calls were removed, overall page weight improved, even with video active.

Performance and UX are configuration problems

It’s easy to label video as “heavy” or “disruptive.” It’s harder, but more accurate, to say that poor configuration is.

Video is a format. Performance impact and user experience are outcomes of decisions: when something loads, how it loads, and how much competition sits behind it.

We consulted our video team for a technical perspective:

1. Load timing matters more than file size

A well-timed video that loads after engagement often has less perceived impact than a small script that fires aggressively at page start.

If a player waits until a user has scrolled or spent meaningful time on the page, it’s no longer competing with the critical rendering path. The browser has already done the most important work.

In other words, when you load often matters more than what you load.

2. Curated demand is better than demand volume

More partners do not automatically equal better results.

Unscoped demand, where every possible bidder is invited into every auction, increases network activity, sync traffic, and auction complexity. This can create unnecessary strain that doesn’t improve yield.

Curated, well-performing demand tends to outperform broad, unmanaged stacks. Precision usually beats volume.

3. Fewer, better calls beats aggressive waterfalls

In programmatic advertising, a waterfall is a traditional way of selling an ad impression where demand partners are called one after another in a sequence, rather than all at once. Aggressive waterfalls chase incremental revenue at the margins. But each additional call has a cost in latency, resource use, and system complexity.

Modern optimization is less about stacking more calls and more about refining which calls truly add value.

A simplified setup with strong-performing partners often delivers more stable revenue and cleaner performance than a bloated stack trying to capture every possible impression.

When video is worth testing and when it is not

All these factors being considered, video does not belong on every site. It should earn its place.

If it does not perform without harming UX, it should be removed.

Video often works for sites with:

• Longer session durations
• Desktop-heavy traffic
• Content that encourages pause and scroll
• Editorial environments with natural dwell time

Where caution is warranted

• Highly task-driven tools
• Utility-first or transactional flows
• Extremely fast bounce environments
• Mobile-only audiences with short sessions

The goal isn’t automatic video adoption. It’s assessing whether it’s a good fit for your site.

How to test video without risking UX or performance

If you’re curious but cautious, here’s a low-risk approach:

• Start small: Roll video ads out to a limited traffic percentage or specific page types.
• Use conservative defaults: Make sure your video player is muted and deferred. No aggressive stacking of demand.
• Define success clearly: Agree on how you define success, whether that’s revenue lift expectations, performance guardrails, or UX thresholds. For instance, If it degrades Core Web Vitals beyond your tolerance, that’s a signal.
• Review regularly: Look at engagement metrics, viewability, page speed, and qualitative feedback.
• Maintain an easy exit: Video is a test, not a permanent commitment.

Safe experimentation will build confidence and make sure you stay in the driver’s seat.

Video is optional, not inevitable

While video is only expected to grow and become part of more and more publishers’ ad strategy, it’s not a requirement, but a tool.

When implemented thoughtfully, it can add incremental revenue without disrupting performance or user trust.

When it doesn’t meet that bar, it shouldn’t be forced to stay on your site.

Curious to give video ads a try? Get in touch with our video experts and they’ll help you test a setup that works with, not against, your site.