Google Moves to Sell Space for Video Spots on Network of Web Sites
GOOGLE is taking its first steps to go after the huge market for television advertising this week with a new service that will place video commercials on the many Web sites where it sells advertising.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google’s move into video inventory extends its earlier turn toward television advertising into the web sites already served by its ad network. Rather than selling only text and display placements, Google is adding a video format that can compete for brand-advertising budgets associated with television.
First-order effects
- Advertisers gain a way to place video commercials across Google’s web-site network, while participating publishers gain a new inventory format to sell.
- Google’s advertising network becomes a direct channel for video campaigns, broadening the formats it can offer beyond its established placements.
Second-order effects
- Web publishers in Google’s network face stronger incentives to carry video-capable ad placements, since access to brand-oriented video spending depends on supporting the format.
- Television advertising sellers face a new web-based route for video budgets, with Google positioned between advertisers and a dispersed set of sites.
Third-order effects
- If advertisers adopt network-sold video placements, online advertising shifts further from selling isolated web-page inventory toward buying audience reach through a single intermediary.
- The move points to convergence between television-style creative and web-style ad distribution, with ad networks competing on their ability to aggregate publishers and demand.
The trend: Google is extending its advertising network from search-linked formats into video placements that seek a share of television-oriented ad spending.