VideoVoo: Online Video Marketing

Very much in the air, long awaited, Google has finally started to live experiment with Google Video ads embedded in search results in the not so new blended or universal search lists. Mind you, nobody has seen them, not even the author of the New York Times article, or the really search savvy guys on Search Engine Land, but based on Marissa Mayer’s description it is very easy to imagine them (see video ad format at the bottom)

. For some, Valentine’s Day means love, pink hearts, chocolates and green Tulane bears, for Google it means venting news about Google Video Ads Tests, for Blinkx it means realizing that having a vastly popular universal search engine with its own video searches and video ads, and video video, is unbeatable.

Short history of Google Video Ads:

• 2006 May 22: Google officially announces accepting Video Ads in the Google Content Network
• 2007 May 16: Google Universal Search launches (texts are blended with images, videos, maps, business listings, etc.)
• 2007 Oct 02: Google adds in-stream ads to Google videos
• 2008 Feb 14: Google video ads appear in search results pages (text ads bearing a smallish plus sign)
• 2008- 2009: Google starts to apply its speech recognition techniques for video algorithm
• 2008-2009: Video ad spending gets a major boost through Google Video Ads in search results pages questioning eMarketer’s prediction “eMarketer expects to see a steady growth ($775 million in 2007, $1,35 billion in 2008, $2,1 billion in 2009″. Video how-to guys and video marketers give high fives, cheap camcorders become even more needed, etc.

Now, some of the questions that suddenly came to my mind,

1, Most conspicuously: if we have videos, why don’t we have images? Where are the keyword-based still image banner ads from search results pages?

Here comes the reply: as NYT writes: “On Thursday, Google started testing video ads on some pages of search results. And it is developing ad formats with images, interactive maps and other more elaborate features.”

2, How are thumbnail or plus signed Google Video Ads going to affect the general text ads? Not only the listings, but the bids, CTR, etc. too. (obviously, your eyes are more attracted to an image, and a good video is always a reward). As Marissa Mayer put it “text ads are not as effective on pages with search results that include images and video. The eyes of users automatically gravitate to the images more than the text, she said. Now that Google’s main search results pages include more images, video links and other elements, it is more appropriate, she argued, to have corresponding advertising formats.”

3, What are the bases of payment for a Google Video ad? CPC, CPM, full play partial play?

Marissa says, for now, video in the ads is free. But you pay whenever a user clicks that little plus sign or the thumbnail to see the video, even if there is no click through to your website.

4, Are the search placed Google video ads going to mimic the rules and regulations of the content network video ads? (length, click to play, etc.)

It seems so, as the search results pages are only going to get richer with a plus sign (just like the Google Checkout or the local ads are different from the text ads, video ads will only bear a discreet plus sign - so it will take some time till users discover the special edition ads) or max. a thumbnail.

Marissa Mayer was describing the new Video ad formats as

At first, users will barely notice the change because the videos will not be immediately obvious. Ads with accompanying videos will have a small button with a plus sign. Google has increasingly used the plus icon to indicate that certain information — like a map — can pop up on a search results page. Users that click the plus button on an ad will see a small video player that shows a commercial, movie trailer or other clip. … the company would explore adding small thumbnail photos to the video ads as well.

PS. currently there are 18 comments on NYT, about 50% for and 50% against the changes: the first half is the ‘I will switch Google’ ad-haters, while the second part is the more realistic and trusting commenters. Personally, I also trust Google that they would not disturb us with big thumbnails or badly presented images and videos - so far I like universal search.