Google has begun recouping its $1.6 billion purchase of YouTube two cents at a time. Google is now selling overlay advertising on a limited number of YouTube videos to a select group of partners at a cost of $20 per 1000 viewers. Some of the initial advertisers include BMW, Ford Models, and Warner Music Group.
The overlay ads appear 15 seconds into certain YouTube videos in a strip on the bottom fifth of the image frame, unless ad blocking software is active. They last for 15 to 20 seconds.
Clicking on the overlay pauses video playback and opens a new Flash window atop the video window to play an expanded interactive video ad. The initial overlays and click-thru windows can be removed by clicking a close button in the upper right-hand corner of the graphic.
The Warner Music Group ad, for example, opens a Flash-based album browser that lets the viewer scroll through albums by Warner artists. Clicking on a given album will open a new browser window with additional information about the album and artist, provided pop-up blocking is disabled.
Google decided to use overlay ads because users didn't respond well to pre-roll ads, which play for a set period of time before the requested video begins. The abandonment rate was higher than Google was willing to accept, a company spokesperson said. In contrast, the number of overlays closed by users was less than 10%.
Source
The overlay ads appear 15 seconds into certain YouTube videos in a strip on the bottom fifth of the image frame, unless ad blocking software is active. They last for 15 to 20 seconds.
Clicking on the overlay pauses video playback and opens a new Flash window atop the video window to play an expanded interactive video ad. The initial overlays and click-thru windows can be removed by clicking a close button in the upper right-hand corner of the graphic.
The Warner Music Group ad, for example, opens a Flash-based album browser that lets the viewer scroll through albums by Warner artists. Clicking on a given album will open a new browser window with additional information about the album and artist, provided pop-up blocking is disabled.
Google decided to use overlay ads because users didn't respond well to pre-roll ads, which play for a set period of time before the requested video begins. The abandonment rate was higher than Google was willing to accept, a company spokesperson said. In contrast, the number of overlays closed by users was less than 10%.
Source
