Resembling Google AdSense which scans website content and displays relevant advertisements, YouTube will be doing the same for its videos, and will aim to be non-intrusive and most importantly for YouTube visitors, non-irritating.
The ads start running 15 seconds into the video and display for up to ten seconds, after which they disappear if the user doesn’t click on them.
They are semi-transparent and appear at the bottom of the screen, taking the user to another screen if clicked upon, and returning to the YouTube video when clicked out of.
From the official YouTube blog the YouTube team said on Wednesday: “Today we’re offering select partners the ability to incorporate YouTube InVideo ads into their content.
“These are animated overlays that appear on the bottom 20pc of a video. If you’re interested by what you see there, clicking on the overlay launches a deeper interactive video ad that we think is relevant and entertaining.”
The YouTube team went on to explain that the video currently being watched is temporarily paused so that you can go back to watching it undisturbed “so that you’re in full control of your YouTube experience”.
InVideo Ads, which have been testing for the past few weeks, are currently visible from the US but have not shown up for users accessing YouTube from Asia and Europe.
Google may have hit upon an advertising goldmine with this method of non-intrusive advertising.
Ads developed to target the user’s tastes but do not interfere with the viewing experience would seem to be agreeing with YouTubers, with a 75pc click back rate from ad to video according to YouTube’s group project manager Shashi Seth.
By Marie Boran
