Google Click To Play and In Stream Video Ads - Chiseling the UGC Ice Cap
When I took my Google AdWords Qualified Individual 
exam in 2006, there was one type of video ad you had to keep in mind, and that was the ‘click to play‘ , basically starting off with a static image (the opening image should be separately provided by the advertiser), and only playing when a user clicked the play button.
Advertisers were either paying for each click through to the site (not for the click on the play button) in a CPC model, or for every thousand video played (no matter if it is only partial, or there is a click through or not) in a CPM fashion.
Now the change is that we also have the in-stream video ads on Google content network, which will look something like this: Dandelion Weird Out mixed with a Halloween ad. The new ad type was launched about 6 weeks ago, said Tim Armstrong, (Google’s president of advertising and commerce in North America) in Toronto when visiting his Canadian team.
Note the yellow bar on the streaming line indicating the starting point of the overlay ad. The ad is just a few seconds and is not expanded for the whole clip, which is great. The contents have been well matched but I find the width of the overlay ad - just like the one on Rocketboom - obtrusive. Unlike Andy Plesser on Beet.TV.
If you click on the banner ad, it will expand and start to play the Halloween trailer inside the original box of the Dandelion clip - the trailer cannot be paused or stopped, but you can control the volume and you can close the whole window. There is a tiny URL string at the bottom of the embedded video ad, by clicking on it you will be taken to the Halloween movie site 
for a flash journey. Here’s a pic of the movie trailer framed by the original music clip by Dandelion. Besides the in-stream video you can also see the static image ad of the very same Halloween movie trailer on the left side to strengthen the visual message. Now this tandem ad could be a general in-stream video commercial solution for Google advertisers in the future (plus getting the left side if you have the extra bucks).
The question is when, and also how. How can in-stream video reach more video clips and users, commenters? What about the ‘earn money on YouTube model“? Will you need to click in a box of “I accept video ads and get commission for them’ (see AdSense) when uploading your totally legal. real genuine blah blah blah UGC videos, or is it going to be part of the general terms and conditions that anything non-private will be inserted with overlay ads -ideally based on contextual targeting. Personally, I would prefer a case by case upload & accept ads/ refuse ads procedure.
If overlay ads are to become more widespread, YouTube is to train its users to become better publishers and should have video demos on how to make better short films (narrative, timing, music, technical tips, folksonomy, etc.). After all the more clever users you have the better ad spaces you can work with. And that’s the very same philosophy Google is using for search ads and in the way the algorithm is setting their Quality Scores. If you want to pay less, appear more, you need to improve the landing pages too, not just the geo-targeting, the keyword matching, the ad texts, etc. On the other hand, if you want to earn more as an AdSense publisher, basically you need to do the same for the overall site and the placement of the ad boxes. And with the advent of blended search, or universal search or 3D search, you need to get into the video SEO as well. So how is it going to be with user generated videos, channels? My assumption is that Google will adapt the existing price-driven training model of AdWords and AdSense to its Video content network.
What I really don’t understand is why are officially ad videos non-embeddable and non-commentable most of the time?? Especially this particular one from Dandelion, which was already uploaded 7 months ago, and commented here….