Google announced today that the web publishers enrolled in
its AdSense program will have the opportunity to increase enrich their content
and altogether their income by embedding ad-supported videos from YouTube
content creators.
The new service, called Video Units, will enable publishers
to display relevant, targeted video content within a customized, embedded
player that’s ad-supported. The videos are delivered via YouTube and for the
moment Google is working only with selected content partners such as TV Guide
Broadband, Expert
Village, Mondo Media,
lonelygirl15, Extreme Elements, and Ford Models.
The videos are user-initiated which means that the video
will play only if the user has clicked the Play button.
The ads delivered are related to the content of the website
and of the clip and they will be displayed as banners on top of the video
window, as well as in text format on the bottom of the clip.
According to Google, the advertisers are charged on a
cost-per-click or cost-per-impression basis.
The system will be benefic for every party involved. Google
announced that AdSense publishers and YouTube content creators will receive a
share of the ad revenue. The system which will go live during Tuesday is
available in the US
for English-language Web sites.
"Nowadays, Web site publishers realize that getting
people to visit your Web site is only half of the equation. Growing your
audience is important, but keeping your audience engaged and staying on your
site longer is just as important, if not more so," Google Product
Marketing Manager Christine Lee wrote in the corporate blog. The blog
contains also a video example of how the Video units work.
The Video Units are just the latest Google effort to
monetize the content from YouTube and to offer new channels to advertisers.
In August Google has unveiled its first ad format for YouTube.
The format enables a semitransparent ad
to appear on a strip at the bottom of the video and it appears after a video
plays for 15 seconds.
If the user who watches the video doesn’t click the ad it
disappears up to 10 seconds later. The ad format is non-intrusive because the
viewer can click to close the ad right away. In case he chooses to watch the
ad, the main video pauses until the commercial stops.
Also last month Google launched Google Gadget Ads ,
non-traditional ad units with interactive, rich media capabilities which not
only enable advertisers to target audiences in a flexible and timely manner via
regular updates within the ad unit, but also allow users to engage with ad
content in a way static ads haven't facilitated in the past. Gadget ads can
incorporate real-time data feeds, images, video and much more in a single
creative unit and can be developed using Flash, HTML or a combination of both.
