Google Is Testing Ads for Video Service
Google, the search engine company, said yesterday that it had started testing advertisements on its video site, matching a capability long offered by other major Internet sites. — Until now, Google Video had offered programmers …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google had already begun selling video-ad space across a network of Web sites in May 2006. Testing ads on Google Video brings that commercial effort onto a Google-operated video destination, rather than limiting it to outside sites.
First-order effects
- Advertisers gain a trial placement on Google Video, while Google begins testing whether its own video inventory can support advertising.
- Google Video shifts from a service offering programming without ads toward a service with an advertising layer.
Second-order effects
- Google can assess video-site ad performance alongside its broader network video-sales effort, shaping how it packages owned and third-party inventory to advertisers.
Third-order effects
- If Google extends the test, video distribution becomes another surface for its advertising business, with the value of a video service tied more closely to monetizable audience and inventory.
The trend: Google is broadening its advertising system from search and Web-site placements into video inventory it can sell directly and across partner sites.