Inside AdWords, Google’s official source for information about AdWords, has been trumpeting the arrival of Click-to-play video ads for AdWords. Yippy Skippy I woke up this morning to find the new video ad serving features in our AdWords client manager account interface!
Video (and image) ads now appear on a high number of Google content match affiliate sites and for goods in the Google Network. Google video ads do not appear in organic SERPS (at least for now). Content provider affiliate websites must opt-in to the image ads program and only then are site’s eligible for video ads. Affiliate content providers are provided with tools to choose preset display formats for ad sizes and shapes to display. It’s only a question of time before these ads are served to cable networks, hotel rooms, satellite TV, and other broadcast streams.
What are Video Ads?
Video ads are first displayed as a static display picture. When a customer clicks the play button (or the placeholder image), the video starts to play by one of two methods:
Square and rectangular video covers the whole ad space area, replacing the covering up the placeholder image
Leaderboard, Skyscraper, or Wide Skyscraper format show in only a part of the ad, leaving the static visible while the video plays.
Google ad platform’s slick software automatically sizes the video you upload to fit the selected display format. Of course, clicking on the URL under the ad redirects customer’s to your website. The billing model is based on click-through not impressions or video-plays and there are several video ad pricing options.
