The video sharing site announced that advertising will be shown before a number of clips hosted on the portal begin to play.
However, viewers will not have to sit through the entire clip before watching their chosen video and YouTube said it is making the content skippable during the trial in order to generate feedback on what types of marketing viewers prefer.
The adverts will promote products and services from partners that have opted to take part and a button will give viewers the option to skip past to the content they want to watch.
YouTube said in a statement that online viewers "tend to be much more active in making choices about what they watch" when compared to those who view shows on television. "Abandonment rates are affected by several factors, notably length and creative," it observed, adding that completion rates are as high as 85 per cent when an advert is 15 seconds in length.
Jack Wallington of the Internet Advertising Bureau recently predicted that online video marketing will grow sharply in popularity next year.
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