Businesses can’t turn their back to video advertising online anymore.
More than 1 billion video views have been delivered to advertisers via the YouTube Promoted Videos program. In addition to sharing news that the video-sharing site recently hit the billion-views milestone, YouTube today announced some changes to Promoted Video Ads. Let’s review the Promoted Videos program, look at the latest changes, and hear what a couple of advertisers think about it.
Promoted Videos
YouTube announced “Sponsored Videos” back on Nov. 12, 2008. The first campaign was “Penny Pranks” by Office Max. At SES New York 2009, I interviewed YouTube Product Manager Matthew Liu about Sponsored Videos, which was later renamed Promoted Videos. He called the program “AdWords for YouTube.”
Promoted Videos allows you to promote your video against search results on YouTube, against related videos on YouTube, or against content across the Google Display Network. You can set up Promoted Videos campaigns using your Google AdWords account. Similar to what you do with pay-per-click (PPC) search engine marketing, you can determine how much you would pay for a video view and set a maximum budget.
Thousands of advertisers have taken advantage of this ad format to entice likely customers with videos about everything from the Mighty Wallet to a cure for bad breath. Large and small companies this ad format to reach wide audiences with movie trailers, recipes, and ideas for Halloween. And politicians and political activists used Promoted Videos to argue for a proposition or against an issue. YouTube served its 500 millionth Promoted Video view on Oct. 28, 2010.
Latest Changes
Today, YouTube rolled out three changes to Promoted Videos:
- Placement on Google Video search results: YouTube Promoted Video ads will appear in Google’s Video search results pages in the U.S. Advertisers can add this to their campaign by opting into “Search partners.”
- Introduction on YouTube Mobile: YouTube promoted videos will appear on m.youtube.com on any mobile or tablet device starting in the next few weeks. “All devices” is the default option for all new AdWords campaigns, but you can opt your ads out of showing on mobile devices by visiting the Campaigns tab, under “Settings”. Existing campaigns can verify device settings to include or exclude mobile.
- Inclusion in TrueView video ads: Promoted Videos are now part of the “TrueView family of ad formats,” meaning advertisers are only charged when a viewer chooses to watch a video ad, on a cost-per-view basis. Originally, Promoted Videos were available at cost-per-click pricing.