Meet Romana Pawar, the ads disrupter making ads less disruptive

Annoying, unskippable, and irrelevant — that’s the old guard of TV advertising. For Romana Pawar, YouTube’s Senior Director of Product Management for Connected TV Ads, these aren't just pain points; they're an urgent call to action. Romana is responsible for architecting and executing YouTube's global Connected TV monetization strategy, aiming to redefine the advertiser experience and ensure that as more viewers flock to YouTube on their biggest screens, the ads they see are less of a disruption and more of a relevant connection.

Having witnessed television's radical transformation from the inside – from building the first DVRs at DirecTV to working on early IPTV solutions at Microsoft – Romana's journey led her to a pivotal role at YouTube. Why the shift to advertising? A desire to make it fundamentally better. In this insightful discussion, Romana shares her unique perspective, charting her career through television's biggest technological leaps and revealing how those experiences fuel her mission to create more relevant, helpful, and even assistive advertising for YouTube’s living room experience.

Your career has spanned a pivotal time in television, from the dawn of DVRs to the rise of streaming. Can you share a bit about that journey and what brought you to focus on advertising?

Absolutely. My journey started in the mid-2000s at DirecTV, where we were building the first DVRs. It’s funny to think back because people would ask, "Why would you need to record a show? Why not just watch it when it’s aired?" That was the linear TV mindset. Then, at Microsoft, I worked on Media Room, which was an early digital content delivery solution. We were streaming live and on-demand content, but the internet infrastructure wasn't quite ready. I remember going into homes to watch the process of how they would rewire them for high-bandwidth internet just so they could use the service! This was a time when Netflix was still mailing DVDs. It felt like we were building for a future that was still a way off.

When I was interviewing with Google 11 years ago, I was fascinated by their ads business – it’s truly one of the biggest innovations in making information accessible. I started in display ads and then moved to YouTube ads. I always wanted to be part of YouTube because of my background in streaming. What really drove me towards the advertising aspect was a desire to make it better.

You’ve mentioned finding traditional TV ads "annoying." What were the key issues you saw, and how has that fueled your work at YouTube?

Linear TV ads hadn’t changed for decades. They were often completely unpersonalized – I’d see ads for pet care when I didn’t have a pet! The frequency was overwhelming, and the ad breaks were incredibly long, sometimes eight minutes in a 30-minute program. It made me think there had to be a better way.

My North Star goal now is to make ads more relevant and helpful. I truly envision a world where ads become assistive, helping you discover products you weren't aware of or learn about something from a creator you trust. This means focusing on things like ad relevance that drives both improved viewer experience and better ad performance. Also, ad frequency is key – it should be different if you’re watching an 80-minute movie in your living room versus short clips on your phone. We’re also innovating with formats. For example, we're working on side-by-side ads for live streams, where you can still see the creator’s content while an ad plays, which is non-disruptive. We're also enabling interactions like scanning a QR code or “send to phone” button on TV to send an ad to your phone to check out later, respecting that TV is often a co-viewing experience.

That bring us to Connected TV. What defines a "good" ad experience on the big screen for you?

Beyond relevance and an appropriate ad load, trust and beauty are incredibly important. This is where YouTube’s creators play a massive role. When a creator you follow and trust talks about a brand’s product, it’s not just an ad; it's a credible recommendation. It feels more integrated and natural. We're investing heavily in creator ads, helping brands partner with creators, and even enabling products like "Takeovers," where a brand can have 100% share of voice on all the videos on a specific creator’s channel. We recently announced the pilot of “creator lead-ins” for Takeovers, which is a short video from the creator introducing the brand before your ad plays, leading to a more seamless viewing experience and deeper association between the creator and brands.

Your team oversees CTV ads across YouTube. What are your primary goals, and how do you approach achieving them?

Our core focus is delivering the right message with the right ad at the right time. Foundational to this is improving the viewer experience. Our research consistently shows that a better viewer experience leads to a more positive association with the brand, which ultimately means better outcomes for advertisers. It’s a win-win-win: for the viewer, the advertiser, and the creator.

We have done extensive research to understand viewer interest and engagement. And we leverage AI-powered models to make decisions about which ad to show, in what format, on which surface, and to which user. It’s not just about showing one ad; it can be a whole storytelling arc. For an advertiser, our goal is to simplify this complex landscape – they can upload their creative, and we help optimize its delivery for the best possible ROI.

Brandcast always brings exciting news. Can you share some of the key announcements your team is making for CTV advertising this year?

We’re incredibly excited! First, we're bringing Shoppable TV to the living room. Viewers will be able to discover and engage with products directly from their TV screen in a very interactive way. Second is a brand-new format built with Gemini called Peak Points. This integrates an ad into the viewer experience at contextually relevant peak points within top content across YouTube’s vast video library.

Imagine watching a video where the player scores a winning touchdown; right after that emotional high point, an ad that resonates with that feeling of victory can be shown. Third, we're reimagining our most prominent ad placement with the immersive design on Masthead for CTV– an edge-to-edge, more cinematic display that utilizes the entire screen beautifully and has shown higher view-through and completion rates. And finally, we’re leaning into Cultural Moment Sponsorships. YouTube is central to the entire lifecycle of cultural events – the build-up, the event itself, and the commentary after. And now, brands can fully surround these moments in all the ways viewers are watching, from an ad at the top of the search results page for related terms, ads surrounding the content itself, or even brand integrations directly into the content.

How does research and AI play a role in developing these new ad products for CTV?

Research is fundamental. We conduct extensive qualitative research, talking directly to viewers before and after launches. Quantitatively, we run many experiments, A/B testing different variations of an ad format – even small things like button placement – to measure viewer experience, advertiser value, and the impact on creator watch time. We look out for the entire ecosystem!

AI, especially with tools like Gemini, is a game-changer. For advertisers, AI simplifies the complexities of where and when to show an ad across multiple surfaces with our AI powered format mixes that optimize for their unique needs (maximizing reach, driving engagement, etc) . For viewers, as with Peak Points, AI helps us identify those peak moments in content to show an ad that feels contextually relevant and less like an interruption, making the experience better for everyone. We’re continuously learning and refining how AI can make ads more helpful and integrated.

Looking ahead, what do you see as the next big opportunity or challenge in the CTV advertising space?

CTV is now mainstream, used by every demographic globally. The next big frontier is making direct response (DR) or performance ads truly effective on the TV screen. TV is traditionally a lean-back experience, but performance ads rely on immediate engagement. How do we bridge that?

This is where innovations like Shoppable TV come in, but also where YouTube’s unique dual-screen advantage plays a huge role. Someone might see an ad on their TV but prefer to engage with it on their phone. We’re investing heavily in connecting these experiences seamlessly. I couldn’t be more excited for what’s next!