YouTube has been seen showing a button labelled "Next" in the place where the "Skip" button normally appears on video ads. Anthony Higman, founder and chief executive of the agency ADSQUIRE, shared the example in early November 2026. A note on Adriaan Dekker's site credited him on November 6, and PPC News Feed wrote up the change on November 9. Neither YouTube nor Google has announced it, and neither has said what happens when a viewer taps the new button.

In Short

The button people press to get out of a YouTube video ad has been spotted reading "Next" instead of "Skip", in an example shared by marketer Anthony Higman in early November. The wording matters because skippable ads are bought and counted around whether viewers stay or leave, and "Next" could mean the end of the ad or only the next ad in the same break. YouTube has not explained the change, so it is not yet known whether viewers lose anything or whether advertisers' figures move.

What the example shows

The image Higman shared shows a single vertical video ad on a phone-sized screen. In the lower right corner of the video, where YouTube places its skip control, a dark translucent button reads "Next", followed by a small forward-to-end icon: a triangle against a vertical bar, the symbol music players use for jumping to the next track. A red arrow added to the image points at it.

Two other details frame the button. In the top left corner, a label reads "Fewer interruptions after this break", with a yellow bar along its left edge. In the bottom left corner of the video, a "Sponsored" tag carries an information icon. Below the video sits a white panel, also marked "Sponsored", with like, share, more-options and close controls, and a card headlined "Help Getting a Car" with the domain saveonix.com and a "Learn more" button. Text burned into the ad itself reads "Donated cars" and "And don't have a steady income".

Nothing in the image shows what happens after the button is pressed. It is one frame, not a recording, and it does not reveal whether the ad ran as a pre-roll before a video, in a break inside one, or in the Shorts feed.

Element What the image shows
Button label "Next", with a forward-to-end icon
Button position Lower right of the video frame
Label above the ad "Fewer interruptions after this break"
Ad disclosure "Sponsored" on the video and on the panel below it
Panel controls Like, share, more options, close
Advertiser card "Help Getting a Car", saveonix.com, "Learn more"
Format Vertical video on a phone-sized screen; surface not identified

What has been claimed, and what has not

PPC News Feed, which credited Higman, read a great deal into one word. "YouTube has replaced the familiar 'Skip' ads button with a new 'Next' ads button," the site wrote on November 9. "This shift marks the end of skipping ads, indicating a change in user navigation during advertisement sequences." It went on: "This update suggests a modification in user interaction by encouraging viewers to proceed through ads rather than skipping them entirely."

The image does not demonstrate the end of skipping. It shows a relabelled button. The earlier note on Adriaan Dekker's site, published on November 6 under the headline "YouTube's 'Skip ads' button now says 'Next' in some ads", was more careful. According to that note, there were no details yet on which formats, countries or accounts see the change, and no word on whether viewers can still skip these ads or on how the new label affects ad performance or reporting. Neither publication cited a statement from Google or YouTube.

So where does "Next" lead? The label in the corner offers the best clue. "Fewer interruptions after this break" implies a break holding more than one ad, which is the setting in which "Next" would most naturally mean the next spot rather than the video. That remains a reading of the image, not confirmed behaviour.

Breaks with several ads are not new on YouTube. In November 2018, Google was testing ad pods on YouTube, two ads stacked back to back in a single break, and claimed the format could mean up to 40 percent fewer ad interruptions per session. In that test, viewers kept the option to skip straight to the content. The 2026 example raises the question of whether that option still exists in the same form, and the sources do not answer it.

How skipping is counted and billed

Google's documentation still describes a skip, not a "Next" button. According to the Google Ads Help page "About video ad formats", as it read on November 15, 2026, the counting and billing rules for skippable video ads work as follows:

  1. Viewers can skip a skippable in-stream ad after 5 seconds.
  2. Under cost-per-view bidding, the advertiser pays when a viewer watches 30 seconds of the ad, or the whole ad if it is shorter, or interacts with it.
  3. Since October 2025, the metric that counts those views has been called "TrueView views" instead of "Views", a carry-over of the TrueView name Google retired as a product brand.
  4. For ads in Shorts, a TrueView view is counted at 10 seconds or at the end of the ad, or when a viewer clicks the call to action, likes, comments or shares.
  5. Non-skippable in-stream ads, which offer no skip at all, run for up to 60 seconds.

None of these rules mentions the word on the button. Billing follows how long the ad plays and whether the viewer interacts. For a buyer on cost-per-view, the skip has always worked as a filter: a viewer who leaves at five seconds without interacting costs nothing, while one who stays past 30 seconds triggers a charge.

That is why the destination of a tap matters more than the label. If "Next" takes the viewer to the video, the change is cosmetic. If it loads a second ad in the same break, the first advertiser's exposure ends where a skip would have ended it, but the break as a whole runs longer before the video resumes, which would mean a heavier ad load per break than a skip straight to the content. Google has published nothing that settles which applies, and nothing on whether a press of "Next" is recorded the same way as a skip in advertiser reporting.

The definitions around views have already shifted this year. YouTube began counting a view from the first frame across Shorts, long-form and live videos on August 24, a change to public view counts that left Partner Program earnings untouched. At the time, the 30-second threshold was shown to belong to the qualification of TrueView ad views rather than organic views, and YouTube's Help Center still carried the older skippable-ad rule.

Three changes around one button

Higman has now documented three changes to the area around YouTube's skip button in 2026, according to PPC News Feed. Each one concerns what surrounds the moment a viewer leaves an ad.

Date Change observed Spotted by Reported by
August 31, 2023 Test of a smaller, more transparent skip button with rounded corners Thomas Eccel PPC News Feed
January 31, 2026 A banner partially covering the "Skip Ad" button on video ads, in a DraftKings Casino ad with a "Get" button Anthony Higman PPC News Feed
March 17, 2026 After a skip, a related banner stays on the video until the viewer dismisses it Anthony Higman PPC News Feed, Search Engine Land
April 2026 TV viewers report ads of up to 90 seconds before a skip becomes available; Google says on X it has no 90-second ad format Viewers 9to5Google, Search Engine Land
November 6, 2026 "Skip ads" button reads "Next" in some ads Anthony Higman Adriaan Dekker
November 9, 2026 Same change, described as the end of skipping Anthony Higman PPC News Feed

Higman has surfaced Google changes before. In late October, Higman posted an example of a Google Search ad carrying an Apple Messages button that opened an SMS draft on an iPhone. In September, Higman flagged that Google was showing ads from exact and phrase match keywords in AI Mode, which Google then described as a small experiment. In August, Higman published the email in which Google told advertisers it would start charging Local Services advertisers for missed calls over 20 seconds.

Why one word draws attention

The skip button sits at the meeting point of three interests: viewers who want to get back to a video, advertisers who want attention they pay for, and YouTube, whose advertising business is growing more slowly than earlier in the year.

Alphabet reported YouTube advertising revenue of $11.21bn for the third quarter of 2026, up 9.2% from $10.26bn a year earlier. That was the slowest growth rate of 2026, down from 15% in the third quarter of 2025. The audience, meanwhile, keeps moving to the television set: YouTube took a record 15.8% of US TV time in Nielsen's August Gauge, up from 14.2% in July.

Viewers who want no ads at all have a paid route in YouTube Premium, and it has become more expensive. The service raised its US individual plan from $13.99 to $15.99 a month, with the family plan rising from $22.99 to $26.99 and Premium Lite from $7.99 to $8.99, effective for existing members from their June 2026 billing cycle.

None of this establishes why the label changed. A shorter word, a test of navigation inside multi-ad breaks or a broader change to how viewers leave ads would all produce the same frame. Any effect would surface in view rates and paid view counts, which Google has not addressed.

What is not known

YouTube has not said whether the "Next" label is a test or a rollout, on which devices, surfaces or countries it appears, or whether a tap leads to the video or to another ad. There is no information on whether a press of "Next" counts as a skip in reporting, or whether it changes when an advertiser is charged. Google's help page on video ad formats had not been updated to mention the label as of November 15, 2026.

Key facts

  • Change: the skip control on some YouTube video ads labelled "Next", with a forward-to-end icon
  • Spotted by: Anthony Higman, founder and chief executive of ADSQUIRE
  • Earliest dated report: Adriaan Dekker, "YouTube's 'Skip ads' button now says 'Next' in some ads", November 6, 2026
  • Write-up: PPC News Feed, "YouTube's 'Skip' Ads Button Becomes 'Next' Ads", November 9, 2026, https://ppcnewsfeed.com/ppc-news/2026-11/youtube-s-skip-ads-button-becomes-next-ads/
  • Label shown with the button: "Fewer interruptions after this break"
  • Ad in the example: "Help Getting a Car", saveonix.com, vertical format
  • Google documentation: Google Ads Help, "About video ad formats": skip after 5 seconds; cost-per-view charge at 30 seconds, the full ad if shorter, or an interaction; Shorts ad views at 10 seconds; "Views" renamed "TrueView views" in October 2025
  • Statement from Google or YouTube: none

Timeline

Summary

Who: YouTube and Google, whose video ads carry the button; Anthony Higman, founder and chief executive of ADSQUIRE, who shared the example; advertisers buying skippable video ads on a cost-per-view basis.

What: The skip control on some YouTube video ads was seen labelled "Next" instead of "Skip", under a "Fewer interruptions after this break" label. PPC News Feed described it as the end of skipping ads, but the example shows only a relabelled button, and no source has shown what a tap does.

When: Higman's example was credited on Adriaan Dekker's site on November 6, 2026, and written up by PPC News Feed on November 9, 2026. As of November 15, 2026, Google's help documentation still described a skip after 5 seconds.

Where: YouTube video ads, in a vertical ad on a phone-sized screen. The formats, devices and countries involved have not been disclosed.

Why: Skippable ads are priced around viewer behaviour, with cost-per-view charges triggered at 30 seconds or on interaction. Whether "Next" ends an ad or moves to another one in the same break affects how long ad breaks run and how views are counted, at a time when YouTube's advertising growth slowed to 9% in the third quarter of 2026.