While Americans have nothing against online video advertising per se, as long as it's not too obnoxious and helps them save a couple of bucks, everything has a time and a place and video ads belong in video content. That's according to findings from Statista Consumer Insights, which show that video ads on websites are the most hated form of online advertising in the United States. Statista asked more than 5,000 Americans which types of online ads they find particularly annoying and auto-play videos with sound came out the clear "winner". 49 percent of respondents said they find these types of video ads annoying with the slightly-less obnoxious muted auto-play videos in second place.

The findings show that Americans also have a disdain for targeted ads, whether it's based on online searches (38 percent) or based on interests extracted from their social media activities (34 percent). Static banner ads, which are most easy to ignore, are widely seen as okay, with just 31 percent of respondents finding them annoying.