Tuesday, December 19, 2006
A bit more about our video ad offering. Sorry if this seems like a sales pitch, but the more we use it, the more we love it. All the video ads on the Google Network are in the click-to-play format -- which means viewers choose to watch your ad. If you were thinking, "Just play the video when the page loads!" research has proven that this is a total turn-off -- er, "bad user experience." It's far cooler to have people who choose to watch, engage, share and repeat your video ad. It's true that this may mean fewer overall viewings -- but the quality of the viewer goes through the roof as you have someone actively deciding to watch your message (maybe even again and again). Since they have control over viewing the ad, these viewers are more likely to have a positive experience and feel good about your brand.
Google's video ads have no serving or hosting fees, and we accept up to two minutes of footage. Here's a recent Saturn ad created by Goodby Silverstein especially for Google Video.
And there's more about video ads in two recent case studies:
- Paramount Vantage launched Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth with video ads on the Google Network, targeting specific audience segments with huge reach at effective cost. The campaign was a huge success: exit surveys showed that 33% of opening weekend attendees heard about the movie online, and it grossed 30-50% higher per screen than the average film. Check out our case study and the ad
- Fox Home Entertainment found that Google Video Ads performed best among 15 competitive web properties. Some highlights from our summary.
- generated the most traffic at the least cost
- provided the best conversion rate to sales
- were exceptionally sticky for potential buyers
