YouTube offers new video ads

Emily Riley | August 22, 2007, 05:18 PM

Google and YouTube launched a new ticker-expanding-to-a-video ad format this week, which everyone is talking about. The format is not new, but it is one of my favorites. VideoEgg, Adap.tv, Maven, and others offer versions of ticker or expandable ads. The New York Times had a quote that it would cost $20 CPM to run the ads on YouTube. That pricing might be high depending on an important detail; if that would be for just expanded fully-played versions of the ad, or if that was for all impressions of the ticker.

Not surprisingly, the ticker will only run against approved video coming from partnerships, i.e. a minority of all videos played currently. Still no word on how much advertiser interest is present, which is typically mixed after you sink below the major network sites. Despite the issues, it is a step in the right direction for YouTube. It represents a relatively scalable way to earn revenue directly from video. It’s much less intrusive than video, but still pretty attractive to brand advertisers. Hopefully consumers don’t abandon the site as a result.