Google Video: Advertisers Bid for Space on Select Videos
Well, I couldn't have seen this coming if I had a Deep Throat at Google… In a test, Google Video will serve ads for about 2,000 videos from 8 providers. Advertisers will select the videos on which to advertise their products through a combination of banner ads and 15-second video ads (at the end of a video). Google will split advertising revenue with the content owners, but no percentage has been identified yet. For full details see this PCWorld story.
So why do we care, and why don't we care?
- We care because this is an interesting model. The way ads are served is interesting and non-intrusive. More importantly, the bidder's market (which is how Google sells keyword inventory) is very clever.
- We don't care because amateur content is not included in the pilot. According to Adotas, the test will include videos including The Charlie Rose Show and Mr. Magoo. For the online video viewers that were born after 1960, these shows are both about a senile old man who can't see.
Here's the thing that has me scratching my head like Magoo. Is the bidder's market sustainable (beyond a pilot) for the HUGE amount of content with rapidly changing viral video content? Imagine the media person working for the advertising agency that has to surf each day's content and decide whether to bid. Aside from the fact that I want that guy's job, that doesn't seem very practical. I would imagine Google Video would offer other solutions to advertise on sporadic, amateur content.
Bidding prevents an advertiser from being associated with objectional content, but it's also a lot of work.
Mr Magoo was senile?
I actually think bidding is the smart way to go. I’ve been working on the possibility to change my own site to a bidding formula. While it does mean more work for companies to sift through material, it also enables material for advertisers to choose based on content.
I.e. a popular video will get higher bids. Smaller companies can actually advertise even though it will be with a less popular video. Whereas just having a set price means you pay for junk as well as gold at the same price point.
I’m sure Google will institute some type of filtering for advertisers so they can search by content, page views and rating of video’s allowing them to reduce the amount of sifting they have to do.