YouTube Rolls Out Post-Roll Video Ads
YouTube, which has never had trouble growing an audience but hasn’t yet figured out the trick for monetizing them thar eyeballs, is adding a trick from the old playbook: post-roll advertisements. As we understand it (and this has been confirmed with the company), if you don’t click on an overlay ad when it shows up in a clip you’re watching, the video ad it would have played rolls automatically at the end of your video. Previously a post-roll video wouldn’t play without being initiated by the user. This type of ad started rolling out over the last few weeks.
The post-rolls, like all ads on YouTube, only play on a portion of the 4 percent or so of the site’s videos uploaded by official partners with revenue-sharing agreements. The included screenshots show two instances of ads for Sanctuary, the web series picked up by Sci-Fi.
The Wall Street Journal reported in July that YouTube was considering including pre- and post-roll ads as one potential way to boost ad revenue. The fact that this type of ad plays automatically makes it much more likely that viewers will watch it.
Pre-rolls, however, are the far more intrusive of the two, because by definition a user has to finish watching such an ad before proceeding to the video he or she has already chosen to watch. But even post-roll ads are a significant reversal for Google-owned YouTube. When the site initially announced its in-video overlay ads last year, it justified the somewhat unconventional ad formats by saying 75 percent of its users who saw tests of pre- and post-roll ads were unhappy with them.
Just this summer Google CEO Eric Schmidt touted the effectiveness of embedded ads versus pre- and post-rolls. And earlier in the year he promised forthcoming ad products that would be “much more participative, much more creative, much more — much more interesting in and of themselves” than in-line ads. Since then, new products have included ad formats like a full-screen HD movie trailer and publisher tools like “Hot Spots,” which shows which parts of a video viewers are most interested in. That is to say, very few socks were blown off.
So for now, at least, the next big thing is hardly new.
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What are they thinking? (or not thinking). The problem with post rolls is not that they don’t automatically play, it’s that the user is done watching the video! They don’t sit through the “commercials” at the end.
I would have expected Google to do something more innovative, similar to what Videoegg.com did. what happened?
-Robb
http://www.retrevo.com
Robb Lewis on October 2nd, 2008 at 12:10 am - Permalink
[...] latest attempt to get us to click on video ads comes by way new post-roll ads. As NewTeeVee [...]
YouTube Cries: “For the Love of Pete, Please Click on an Ad!” on October 2nd, 2008 at 8:05 am - Permalink
[...] at the top right of the page, only extended out to the left.) Now it appears that the website is posting video advertisements at the end of clips published by select official content [...]
YouTube Dips its Toe into Post-Roll Video Advertising - Mashable on October 2nd, 2008 at 9:10 am - Permalink
[...] eyeballs than ways to monetize them, is adding post-roll advertisements to its clips. As NewTeeVee suggests, if you don’t click on an overlay ad when it shows up in a clip you’re watching, the video ad [...]
The Toybox mobile edition on October 2nd, 2008 at 9:13 am - Permalink
Ya I wouldn’t think post roll ads could keep a viewers attention. YouTube visitors aren’t exactly a captive audience…mind you if you make the ads really engaging, which you’d have to, that might work.
I think the embedded approach like at http://overlay.tv would be more effective.
Andre Charland on October 2nd, 2008 at 10:26 am - Permalink
[...] at the top right of the page, only extended out to the left.) Now it appears that the website is posting video advertisements at the end of clips published by select official content [...]
YouTube Dips its Toe into Post-Roll Video Advertising | kNow Media on October 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 am - Permalink
Youtube lacks flash technology on their player. Flash allows for so many better features. We pre-roll ads on our LIVE and produced videos and can also imbed sponsorship logos and clickable links in the actual live videos. We have some awesome content and opt-in thriving demographic if anyone is interested in advertising on a video based website: http://www.baroptic.com
If so, contact me: Josh@BarOptic.com
Josh Adams on October 2nd, 2008 at 11:09 am - Permalink
[...] sites. Now, Google is trying out post-roll ads on the popular online video service. Currently, as NewTeeVee notes, these post-roll ads only appear if you do not click on the overlay ads while a video is playing. [...]
Google’s Latest Attempt to Monetize YouTube: Post-Roll Ads - BuzzYA! on October 2nd, 2008 at 11:14 am - Permalink
[...] NewTeeVee reports, this move is not very innovative by Google, but at least it is not as bad as how MSN videos monetize. [...]
YouTube And Their Post Video Ads. Will It Work? on October 2nd, 2008 at 12:01 pm - Permalink
[...] as scheduled. Except it seems that YouTube may soon get a little more forceful; according to Liz Gannes, the site will show post-roll video ads to users who don’t click on the overlays. [...]
DemoMarks » Blog Archive » YouTube Sticking Ads After Clips’ Conclusions on October 2nd, 2008 at 12:28 pm - Permalink
Sounds like a good idea and could be a big hit if it becomes possible to target videos accurately. E.g., if you’re a watching a video clip from a Palin/Couric interview, it’d be great to have an Obama ad at the end - most will hang on to see the ad.
Sekhar Ravinutala on October 2nd, 2008 at 12:59 pm - Permalink
[...] for supporting online video, the video site has been slowly employing post-roll the past few weeks, NewTeeVee has confirmed. YouTube began considering using post-rolls to augment its pre-roll and overlay ads this summer. [...]
Paid Content : YouTube Video Ads Goes Post-Roll; Ad Overlays Are Not Enough on October 2nd, 2008 at 1:03 pm - Permalink
People are getting used to pre-rolls now. The problem for Youtube is that - despite these ads only going on the partner content - it has the stigma of UGC, which people are less willing to have advertising around
Simon on October 2nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm - Permalink
[...] And today, part of that plan was unearthed – autoplay post-roll ads,NewTeeVee reports. [...]
The iMagazine » Eric Schmidt’s Secret YouTube Plan Unveiled? YouTube Launches Post-Roll Video Ads on October 2nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm - Permalink
[...] mentions in their article, NewTeeVee notes, these post-roll ads only appear if you do not click on the overlay ads while a video is playing. [...]
Google still trying to monetize YouTube on October 2nd, 2008 at 4:20 pm - Permalink
[...] NewTeeVee reports that the first post-roll ad proper has been spotted in the wild. They are for the TV series Sanctuary, and appear on a tiny percentage of the site’s videos. [...]
YouTube Post-Roll Video Ads Arrive | The Latest Effort To Monetize YouTube Is Here on October 2nd, 2008 at 6:16 pm - Permalink
[...] YouTube is reaching for the Post Roll Ad (for the 4% of YouTube videos that take it), as Liz Gannes of NewTeeVee reports: YouTube, which has never had trouble growing an audience but hasn’t yet figured out the trick [...]
The desperate search for the role of video Ads | Strategist.org.uk on October 2nd, 2008 at 7:38 pm - Permalink
[...] o blog Newteevee, o YouTube começou a testar um novo formato de anúncios que surge após a exibição do vídeo do [...]
YouTube começa a exibir anúncios em formato Post-Roll - Google Discovery on October 2nd, 2008 at 8:39 pm - Permalink
[...] video ads to overlays. Now, however YouTube is going the post-roll way to boost revenue. As NewTeeVee notes: If you don’t click on an overlay ad when it shows up in a clip you’re watching, the video ad [...]
YouTube Tries Out Post-Roll Video Ads | WildBlueSkies - Trends and strategies in Digital Media on October 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 pm - Permalink
[...] NewTeeVee // [...]
The Inquirer ES : YouTube inserta publicidad “post-roll” on October 3rd, 2008 at 3:25 am - Permalink
[...] videos uploaded by official partners with revenue-sharing agreements. (Iwantmedia 10/3, http://newteevee.com/2008/10/01/youtube-rolls-out-post-roll-video-ads [...]
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA « Daily Marauder on October 3rd, 2008 at 3:43 pm - Permalink
[...] latest attempt to get us to click on video ads comes by way of new post-roll ads. As NewTeeVee reports: As we understand it (and this has been confirmed with the company), if you don’t click [...]
YouTube Cries: “For the Love of Pete, Please Click on an Ad!” | The Digital Media Revolution on October 5th, 2008 at 1:20 pm - Permalink
[...] option to monetize copies of their shows and movies caught in YouTube’s copyright filter, and automatically playing post-roll video ads after partner videos [...]
Where’s the Money in Online Video? - GigaOM on October 6th, 2008 at 7:36 am - Permalink
[...] YouTube is now showing post-roll video ads, according to a recent article on NewTeeVee. If an overlay ad appears on a video and the user chooses not to click the ad, the ad will now automatically run after the video is viewed. [...]
Week in Search News: YouTube updates, New Yahoo! news, & Google at 10! | Spinfield: Web marketing trends today, tomorrow, and beyond... on October 6th, 2008 at 9:56 am - Permalink
[...] YouTube will now run a post&… that pops-up on partner videos. It’s the kind of exciting, innovative thinking from re-hire Ben Ling, who was brought back into the Google mothership to figure out how to turn YouTube’s revenue deficit frown upside down. It’s also the kind of thinking that YouTube once attempted to scientifically prove users didn’t like, but not the kind of thinking that Eric Schmidt has been telling anyone who will listen. The news also comes on the heels of YouTube’s release of “hot spot” tracking — so you can better craft your narrative to make sure people stick around long enough for the commercial to play. (Image via NewTeeVee) [...]
Commercials your new punishment for not clicking on ads [YouTube]| All Technology Oriented News, Articles, Reviews, Geek Friendly Site| Suffire.com | Geek Stuffs, Technology Related on November 7th, 2008 at 2:33 pm - Permalink
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YouTube adds ad format Google derided [Online Video]| All Technology Oriented News, Articles, Reviews, Geek Friendly Site| Suffire.com | Geek Stuffs, Technology Related on November 9th, 2008 at 4:08 pm - Permalink
every video embedded in my Pro-Boards bulletin board has now appeared with post-roll adverts. Who is making the money - Google or Pro-Boards. Sucks if one is thinking of having the pro-boards ad removed, and the ubiquitous Google Ad-words can’t be!
paul whitman on December 8th, 2008 at 11:40 pm - Permalink
[...] delivered straight to your TV sans any cable provider. And it makes you realize why the company reversed its position on pre-rolls as they will look just like commercials on a big screen and probably be more tolerated [...]
YouTube HD on a Big TV (via Netgear) « NewTeeVee on December 10th, 2008 at 10:46 am - Permalink
YouTube has a lot of competition now and other sites are doing much better, specially quality wise.
This is a great place to post videos and you can actually get something in return!
http://www.mavric.tv .
It has over a dozen channels and currently about 300 videos, and growing!
If you upload just 5 videos you get an entry to win a lottery for a brand new Seagate Free Agent GO drive, beats buying it for $199 US. Other things you can win are a Lottery for any product on Logitech.com ($200 US value), a $50 Itunes gift card or even 1 year of mavric media digital content database premium account for free (normailly costs $1100 US). More entries, more chances.
You guys should try it out.
MavricTv on December 19th, 2008 at 1:55 am - Permalink
The big picture: its not about how to get more money from the viewer (forced to view ad) its about getting and keeping more viewers, then ads that are selected by the viewer will produce.
john on January 1st, 2009 at 11:10 am - Permalink