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
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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
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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
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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
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