YouTube Confirms Search Ads
Tags: Advertising | Search | Video | YouTube
In August, we noticed YouTube creators buying search ads on YouTube that click through to their own videos or channels. YouTube just confirmed the practice.
Type “Tina Fey” into YouTube’s search box and, along with the search results, you may find a somewhat relevant ad for the movie “W” as well as a significantly less relevant ad for the University of Phoenix. (This is a test, after all.) The “W” ad links to a trailer on YouTube for the Oliver Stone movie and the University of Phoenix ad links to that school’s YouTube channel.
For now, only a small number of advertisers is testing the new format, the latest of many that YouTube has experimented with in the past several months.
This is merely a natural progression from Google AdWords, and it’s been visible to the public for over a month now, so I’m surprised it took YouTube this long to talk about it. Time for YouTube creators to start consulting with keyword advertising gurus.
October 15th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Will this move by YouTube drive users off the site? I’m sure we all don’t mind a little advertising for free videos.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:38 am
They’re only on the SERPS, and only for other YouTube videos. In fact, they’re so unobtrusive, they went unnoticed by major news outlets for over a month.