Google Unveils New Ad Format On YouTube
Google has unveiled a new model of advertising on its video-sharing website YouTube, which aims to be much more effective than any other ad formats currently on the site.
The “TV-style”, animated overlay, which will cover the bottom 20% of a video, will appear after 15 seconds of a clip has played. YouTube says that the overlay is “80% transparent” and will run for around 10 seconds.
Users will be able to click on the adverts to make them disappear if they find them too intrusive. If users choose to watch the full video ad, YouTube will provide advertisers with info in percentage quartiles on how much of the video is viewed. Based on tests, YouTube estimates that some 75% of the users who elect to watch the player-in-player ad will view the new video in its entirety.
The overlays also have interactive functionality, allowing users to click through to an advertiser’s linked URL, or to launch a new player within the original window that will run a video ad and bring the user back to the content at any time.
Advertisers include 20th Century Fox, Warner Music, The Simpsons Movie, BMW and Hairspray. Advertisers have the option to target users by age, sex, geography, day-part, and video genre.
Google, which bought the video sharing site for $1.65 billion last October (see Google Buys YouTube), has been under pressure to make a return on the investment amid fear its 100 million users would reject attempts to commercialise the site.
The company has opted for the new system as it rejects the more widely used advertising method of running an advert before a video is viewed.
Initially, YouTube said that the new in-video format will only run on video content provided by a select range of partners and not on videos uploaded by individuals.
The company is aiming to make the in-video advertising available to around 1,000 partners, such as the videos run by Warner Music and Ford Models, and selected members of the public who are part of YouTube’s partner programme.
Google: 020 7031 3000 www.google.co.uk/