How to manually set ad placements in 2019?

[Tom17]

I know there used to be a way to do this where you could specify how many ads you wanted and at what points in the video they'd appear, but now when you click the Monetization tab you can only select the ad formats. Was this feature removed?

Normally I just leave it on the default settings anyway but for one particular video I'm experiencing a pitiful CPM, like almost 400k views and only $25 (Canadian). And I noticed that the number of estimated monetized playbacks for this video was also very low (only 22k of 280k views), so I guess the other part of my question is, is there are way to control that or ensure ads are always shown on a video (obviously discounting stuff like AdBlock)? Or is that entirely up to YouTube?

 

[Dave Pollack]

For me I can only do that with videos that are 10 minutes or longer. Not sure if it's the same for everyone else!

 

[Tom17]

For me I can only do that with videos that are 10 minutes or longer. Not sure if it's the same for everyone else!

Ok that checks out, thanks. Still doesn't explain the abysmal CPM (my average for the year is about $3/1000 views and this video is $0.125/1000 views) or why it's getting such low monetized playbacks.

 

[Cephus]

Because views don't necessarily equate to monetizable views. If they are using an ad blocker, you get no revenue, for instance.

 

[Crown]

is there are way to control that or ensure ads are always shown on a video (obviously discounting stuff like AdBlock)?

Well obviously the answer is "no" - you can't ensure a video will get ads because there isn't an infinite supply of companies buying ad space.

Ads are seasonal - We are in the month of January. The first quarter is always the worst for ad revenue as companies understand that consumers aren't spending money after Christmas so they save their ad budgets for later in the year. It's the same on TV. See how few ads there are on TV compared to the last quarter before Christmas.