Bumper and non-skippable ads bill per impression: cut 6, 15, 30 s

Because bumper and non-skippable in-stream ads are bought on impressions, their length does not change how a view is billed. Google's video specs page says both use Target CPM bidding, so you pay based on impressions; it lists bumpers at 6 seconds with a 5-second minimum and non-skippable in-stream at 15-60 seconds depending on campaign subtype (read 2026-10-07).

That makes the cut a creative decision. Three Sume video-trim jobs, $0.06 together, give you a 6, a 15, and a longer cut from one master.

What Google's page lists

From Google Ads video ad specs. I did not read file-size or aspect-ratio rules on that page, so this post does not cover them.

Cut once per length

Two things decide the longer cut: what your campaign subtype allows, and what the story needs. If your campaign says 15 or 20 seconds, cut that; I use 15 as the middle. The loop below prints three request bodies from one master, each with its own idempotency key so that a retry replays rather than re-buys.

import json

master = "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/master.mp4"
for key, seconds in (("bumper-6", 6), ("nonskip-15", 15), ("nonskip-30", 30)):
    body = {"video_url": master, "start": 0, "duration": seconds}
    print(key, json.dumps(body))

Where a 6-second cut breaks

A 6-second bumper cut from the front of a 60-second film often ends mid-word. If the master has speech, probe with video inspect and transcribe: true; the sentence segments[] show where a thought ends. A bumper may need a purpose-made 5-6 second clip instead of a cut, which is a generation job, not a trim.

The video-trim precision: exact default re-encodes, so the cut starts on the frame you asked for. keyframe is a stream copy that can start up to a GOP early.

Verify before upload

Probe each output: the bumper must be at least 5 seconds and the page's 6 seconds is the target. Do not round a 5.8-second result up in your head; check duration_seconds in the probe and, if it is short, set duration explicitly to 6 and re-cut.

Choosing among the three

Pick by job. The 6-second bumper is a reminder for people who already know you; the 15-second cut carries one offer; the 30-second cut can tell a small story. Which subtype your campaign uses decides what is allowed, so check the campaign before you cut.

Because the billing event is the impression, you do not save money by cutting shorter, and you do not waste money by cutting longer. The only cost you control is the production side: $0.02 per trim, and a bumper-specific clip if the cut will not do.