Commercials...on Google???

A while back, I read that Google would soon be offering advertisers an additional option: including a video (read: commercial) with their paid listing. Google's video ad program is now in effect, although from what I can tell on a very small scale. When I first heard about this advertising opportunity, I immediately thought, " commercials...on GOOGLE?" But let's face it, Google has "gone public" and now has to answer to its shareholders by offering additional services that result in income.

Some analysts claim that Google's income from paid advertisements has plateaued and has not reached the numbers that investors originally anticipated. In my opinion, the addition of video will help Google more than it will help the advertisers, if only for the sheer novelty of it. Technogeeks everywhere are now flocking to Google, searching for "smart phone" and watching the video, more to see how the program works, rather than to learn about what's new in Blackberryland.

Kudos, however, to Google for controlling the visual intrusiveness of the ads. To view a video ad, one must click on a plus-sign button that reads "watch video" or "view demonstration."

On the flipside, many of our clients who may already be paying for AdWords already have sales videos that may easily be manipulated for use in this advertising opportunity. If not, it's another reason to give Splat a call and get yourself a sexy marketing reel.

In semi-related news...it was once the trendy thing to create a MySpace page for your product/property. Then, as that became passé, businesses and developers began creating YouTube accounts, posting their videos and broadcast news clips. If you are considering this, but are unsure of the perks, YouTube, purchased by Google in 2006, is offering analytics similar to Google's html analytics. YouTube Insight, an add-on feature, allows account holders to view general statistics that you may not be able to gather if you post your videos elsewhere, depending on your host: how often videos are viewed in various geographic locations; which videos appear to be more popular; how visitors came to find your video.