Google has launched AdWords for Video, which will make advertising on YouTube a lot easier for any business. It’s integrated right into AdWords itself, so video campaigns can be managed right along with search and display.
Frankly, the concept seems long overdue, particularly in light of all the criticism Google has faced regarding its YouTube purchase, and its monetization of the property, but it’s here now, and it just may have a huge impact on Google’s bottom line.
“Similar to search advertising—where you pay for clicks and set budgets with bids—we created a new model for video advertising,” explains YouTube Group Product Manager Baljeet Singh. “With Google AdWords for video, you only pay when someone chooses to watch your ad, and you can create and manage video campaigns from the same platform as your search and display ads.”
The account is not only connected to a business’ AdWords account, it’s also tied to the user’s YouTube account. Google says this is so that advertisers can easily start video campaigns using their existing videos. It certainly reflects that “one Google mentality the company has been taking (see recent privacy policy consolidation).
Google has a 7 1/2-minute walkthrough of how to get set up on AdWords for Video:
“On average, we’ve found that YouTube video ads drive a 20 percent increase in traffic to your website and a 5 percent increase in searches for your business (Google Campaign Insights, 2011),” says Singh. “With AdWords for video you can find out how viewers are engaging with your brand during and after they watch your ad. You can see how many viewers watched your entire video, visited your website, stayed on your channel to watch another video, or subscribed to your channel, after viewing your ad.”
Google says advertisers will only pay when viewers choose to watch their ads, so if the user skips it, it won’t cost you anything.
AdWords for Video is now available to all advertisers. Google is currently offering a $75 credit to new AdWords customers. The company says this alone can reach over 1,50 customers on YouTube for a month. The company is giving away $50 milliom worth of AdWords credits to 500,000 businesses. Businesses can request their credits here.
YouTube has over 800 million users.
There’s a lot more to say about today’s announcement. We’ll be following up with more.