The Deal
Sunday, November 8, 
9:22 am

How many words is a video worth?

  Share     E-Mail    Discussion    Print Story

Google announced yesterday that it will begin auctioning off video advertising through AdSense, its wildly popular Internet advertising system. The video ads will need to be clicked on to play, which means they will be less obtrusive than what some sites are using now. From a consumer perspective, this change doesn't mean much, video is just as easy to ignore as text ads, especially when it doesn't automatically play.

There is a considerable amount of disagreement in the blogosphere about the business applications. IP Democracy, who saw this coming, and puts the added revenue from video between $58M and $472M depending on the CPM, or cost per thousand impressions, rate. Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch, however, thinks this plan is a dud. He points to cost of production, and the type of advertisers who now use AdSense as the main factors which will limit the success of video ads. As commenters at TechCrunch point out, perhaps the plan here isn't to get current AdSense advertisers to buy video ad space, but to get the big players who have shunned the service to consider it. Large corporations who are more concerned with spreading their brand name on the Internet than achieving direct sales could enter into this space.

There is one other thing to consider, and that's the Lone Ranger blogger -- anyone out there trying to monetize his or her blog without the help of a Web development team or an advertising department. Video ads from Google could help these bloggers capture the appearance of professionalism on their blogs. An established blogger like Arrington can sell ad space directly to a number of advertisers, the lesser known blogger could use this type of service to make it seem like he has that kind of clout as well. — Brian Ward

googlevidad523.gif

Go to story from The New York Times

Technorati tags: , , .

Continue reading below

Also on Dealscape





Post a comment




The Deal Pipeline

Deal Video


Inside The Deal: Linklaters' Schmidt says how regulators handled Pfizer Inc.'s acquisition of Wyeth is an outlier of how others merger reviews will be conducted.


More video...

Crisis On Wall Street
Technology
Deals of The Decade

Community

Industry Insight

Dealing with frozen bank lending

If your bank is not willing to lend, what can you do as your company continues to seek growth?


Judgment Call

The coming age of the renminbi

The Chinese currency will play an increasingly important role in international commerce and finance.


Industry Insight

Banking on PE investments

Howls of protest greeted the FDIC policy statement, but the financial services industry should get over it.



©Copyright 2008, The Deal, LLC. All rights reserved. Please send all technical questions, comments or concerns to the Webmaster.