YouTube Tests Ad-Skip Plan
Brian Morrissey reports in Adweek that Google’s YouTube is testing ad skipping for pre-roll ads: YouTube Tests Ad-Skip Plan.
The whole article is well worth reading. Here are a few choice cuts.
Google could employ elements of its successful search-ad formula as it adjusts its approach to making money on YouTube.
The Web giant is inching toward an engagement model for in-stream video spots that uses viewer feedback to determine pricing and whether the ads are shown.
YouTube today said it would conduct an experiment that would give viewers of a select number of videos the opportunity to forward through pre-roll spots.
…
On its face, this seems like a harebrained notion. After all, it would stand to reason that most users would immediately hit the forward button. Google sees an opportunity, however, to collect valuable user data that could contribute to the development of a quality-score system similar to the one it uses to determine the placement and pricing of search ads. The company is already testing user-choice pre-rolls to gain information on ad popularity.
“The long-term vision is more of a pay-for-performance model,” said Phil Farhi, product manager at YouTube.
The idea, according to Farhi, is that advertisers could come to Google with a video, a target-audience number and a maximum price it would pay for each view.
…
Such an approach would mirror Google’s search ad system, which determines placement on results pages based on the amount an advertiser pays for clicks combined with a quality score that’s heavily influenced by those click rates.
“We’re looking for the signals that indicate whether someone is going to skip an ad,” said Farhi. “We’ll use that as the equivalent of a click-through rate.”
Now think about how the quality score feedback loop provides huge incentives for advertisers to make great ads, relevant to the right people and targeted to the right context.
And then realize how many ads that means have to get created for a great ad to be relevant to the right people and targeted to the right context. For advertisers to maintain their quality score.
In the search advertising world I can tell you that it’s meant ads (though they’re simple text ads) get created at a very granular level. Then they get revised on an ongoing basis to test new versions and optimize performance. A large volume of copywriting is required for success.
If Google gets good traction on applying quality scores to video ads, expect the same.
And expect it to accelerate the 80 / 20 Rule Flip.
Tags:
80 / 20 Rule Flip, ad skip, ad skipping, Adweek, Brian Morrissey, google, media, plans, quality score, youtube
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