The AdSense team must have had a lot of questions sent to them about the new video ads that are appearing this week because their blog has a post titled Video ads: Your questions answered which – as the title suggestions tackles some of the many questions I’ve heard about them.
Here’s a summary of the answers –
- Video ads don’t slow your site as Google hosts the ads
- Video ads never start playing by themselves and need a click to get going
- Publishers are paid for video ads in two ways depending upon the option the advertiser chooses. If they target your specific site you get paid per impression (every time the ad shows up) or if the ads are purely contextual you get paid per click (when your reader clicks through onto the landing page of the advertiser – ie NOT when they click to view the ad).
- They don’t guarantee that video ads pay more than text/image ads. They compete with other ads in an auction style bidding and the ad with the highest projected earnings will be played.
- Ads will be contextually relevant to your site only if the advertiser chooses ‘contextual’ mode. If they specifically target your site it may not be as relevant (although the advertiser would be stupid to target your site with an irrelevant ad)
- Video ads can be up to two minutes in length.
- You can watch ads on your own site by clicking the ‘play’ button. This is because clicking this button doesn’t pay you. However don’t click the ad itself or the advertisers URL as this is counted as a ‘click’.
- Ads are screened by AdSense before they are approved to ensure they fit within AdSense guidelines for what is appropriate.
- To have Video ads on your site you need to activate ‘image ads’ and use one of the rectangle or square formats
A few comments of mine:
- I’m still disappointed that publishers have no way of opting out of video ads without also disabling image ads
- I’m surprised that a ‘click’ (and therefore payment to publisher) is not counted when an advertisement is ‘played’. As a result we as publisher are providing space on our sites for advertisers to convey messages to our readers that we never get paid for. It would be like a TV station selling ads that they only get paid for when viewers actually go into a retail outlet. I can see the bind that AdSense are in but I can just imagine advertisers producing video ads that give all the information needed by readers without having to click and in effect getting free publicity.
What do you think about the Video ads from AdSense?
Thanks to iZachy for the tip off
