YouTube on Wednesday said it's rolling out a new ad platform called Sponsored Videos. Videos of Ann Arbor homes for sale and neighborhood tours have become very popular and Google will no doubt attract a lot of real estate agent ad spending.
According to YouTube, which held a press conference at its headquarters, Sponsored Videos lets users promote their videos by bidding on keywords.
Here's how it works: First, YouTube users, whether individuals or corporations, decide which of the videos they've uploaded they want to promote through site search.
Google, YouTube's parent company, has created automated tools that help users place bids for the keywords in an automated online auction, as well as set spending budgets.
Wouldn't creating an Adsense-like offering on YouTube have been one of the first things Google did after purchasing YouTube for $1.65 billion two years ago? As one reporter asked YouTube executives: "Wasn't this a no-brainer?"
It's not as easy as it looks, according to Matthew Liu, a YouTube product manager. There are a lot of intricacies involved. We've been integrating with Google AdWords for some time, and now we're at a place where it can be win and win." Sponsored Videos, labeled as such when they appear following a keyword search, are priced on a cost-per-click basis.
So how much could this be worth to Google? It's hard to say, at this point, whether Sponsored Videos will be the answer to YouTube's revenue problems, but consider that the site recently surpassed Yahoo to become the No. 2 Web search provider, behind Google.
So how much could this be worth to Google? It's hard to say, at this point, whether Sponsored Videos will be the answer to YouTube's revenue problems, but consider that the site recently surpassed Yahoo to become the No. 2 Web search provider, behind Google.
For the whole story - source: Cnet.com
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