The news: Pause ads are gaining momentum as a promising format that boosts the potential of connected TV (CTV) ads to capture user attention, per findings from a Magna and DirecTV study.

Among the key findings:

• 81% of viewers pause content to avoid missing what they’re watching—signaling interest and engagement and positioning advertisers to meet audiences at key moments.
• Pauses offer ample time to get an ad’s message across: Most viewers (54%) pause for 1-5 minutes, while 24% pause for 30 seconds to 1 minute and 11% pause for as much as 15 minutes.
• Across generations, viewers prefer pause ads to frozen screens. Notably, 67% of Gen Z, 67% of millennials, 63% of Gen X, and 60% of Baby Boomers hold this preference.

Can pause ads curb CTV concerns? Pause ads are an emerging focus for CTV advertisers thanks to their high engagement—51% of viewers take action after viewing a pause ad, per the Video Advertising Bureau.

Advertisers are turning to the format to address some notable issues with CTV advertising:

• Traditional formats like out-of-home and TV are still more effective at boosting ad awareness and purchase intent. Pause ads address this issue, offering more contextual relevance than other CTV ad formats and extensive exposure—meaning viewers are more likely to be receptive to the message while increasing retention.
• Pause ads can reach viewers who are likely to skip or ignore traditional CTV ads, offering more touchpoints within a household and potentially mitigating CTV’s low household reach.
• And despite CTV’s fragmentation, pause ads enable advertisers to standardize formats more consistently across platforms, giving access to ads that are context-based and offering unified opportunities in a fragmented ecosystem.

Our take: While pause ads promise potential, advertisers must implement strategies that increase their appeal to drive measurable outcomes.

Viewers across age groups prefer pause ads that offer the ability to save offers/reminders and are relevant to what they’re viewing. And younger generations favor pause ads that have clickable buttons linking to the brand’s site or app (53% for Gen Z and 50% for millennials) or that offer scannable QR codes (51% for Gen Z and 45% for millennials).