Video Ads Now in Google Search Results

Google has announced
that advertising on the Google results page may now contain video.
Google claims the addition of video advertisements reflect the
evolution of the once sparse Google results page.

Google already
integrate video into regular search results as part of ‘universal
search’, but have not done so in advertising on the site. Marissa
Mayer, Google adds vice president of search products and user
experience, said that text only ads weren’t as effective on pages
with video and images as our eyes automatically navigate towards the
image.

Google claims the ads should not be intrusive at first
and will simply use a ‘plus box’ to signify a video is available.
Google already use the ‘plus sign’ in regular search results to
indicate a map or image is attached to a specific listing.

Advertisers
will not pay any extra to put video in the ads for now, with the
bidding to work like a regular text ad. However advertisers must pay
each time the video is watched, regardless of whether the user clicks
through to their site.

The use of Video in ads gives business
owners some branding power they never had before. Traditionally it’s
been hard to run a pure branding campaign using AdWords, as it’s very
focused on click-through and sales. Now, with the release of video ads,
advertisers can pay to have their brand exposed to millions of users
through video, without any necessary focus on the conversion rate to
sales.