A skippable video advertisement gives the viewer control after a few seconds, and that control changes the commercial arrangement underneath it. Payment attaches to a choice rather than to delivery.
The skip point defines the transaction
In most skippable formats the advertiser pays only when the viewer continues past the skip threshold or interacts with the advertisement.
Impressions ended before that point cost nothing, which means the advertiser has effectively bought a filter as well as a placement.
The publisher absorbs the risk of the skipped portion and prices the retained portion higher to compensate, so the apparent cost per view sits above non-skippable equivalents.
Free exposure is real but limited
The seconds before the skip button becomes active are delivered to everyone at no charge, which is genuine brand exposure the advertiser did not pay for.
That window is short and silent for some viewers, so the value depends entirely on whether the opening carries a recognisable identity.
Advertisements that build slowly towards a reveal forfeit this entirely, since almost no one who skips will have seen the part that identified the brand.
Non-skippable formats buy completion, not attention
A non-skippable placement guarantees the message plays to the end, and the advertiser pays for that certainty regardless of how the viewer responds.
Completion rates therefore approach the maximum by construction, which makes them useless as a measure of whether the advertisement worked.
Forced exposure also carries a cost in goodwill, particularly at longer durations and in contexts where the viewer was waiting for something specific.
Creative structure follows the format
Skippable formats reward front-loading, with the brand and the central proposition established before the viewer has the option to leave.
Non-skippable formats permit a conventional arc, since the audience is fixed and the advertisement can build towards its point.
Reusing one edit across both formats wastes the strength of each, and it is the most common reason a campaign performs unevenly across placements.
Skip behaviour is useful measurement
The rate at which viewers skip is a direct, unfiltered signal about the opening seconds, available faster than any downstream metric.
Comparing skip rates between edits isolates the effect of the opening while holding audience and placement constant.
Treating that comparison as the first optimisation step usually produces more improvement than adjusting targeting, because the opening is where most of the loss occurs.