Do videos and advertising mix? In other words, will online videos help you in terms of increasing your sales, driving traffic to your different web sites or affiliate offers, or by increasing your advertising revenues?

Recent developments in the internet marketing arena are showing mixed results. Check these out...

Ads inserted in videos? Yugatech's post about Revver in Debt; For Sale shows that Revver is down $1 million.

The dream or plan is for someone (Revver) to prepare all the techie stuff, so that video producers can simply create and upload videos, and attract lots of viewers. Advertisers then come in (because Revver attracts a lot of eyeballs), and the revenue is shared in some way between Revver and the owner of the video.

The ads are can be shown at different parts of the video (i.e., during, at the end). If the viewers interact with the ads (by clicking), then ad revenues are earned.

Somehow, this whole concept of ads within the video does not work. At least, not for Revver.

What about ads around the videos? If you recall a previous post, Videos and Online Advertising, you will learn that in certain cases, people will notice ads placed around video content more than ads sprinkled around text content.

In fact, this is working quite well that Google and YouTube are going to come down hard on people who attempt to earn ad revenues solely off video content grabbed from online video libraries. So if you're thinking of trying this business model, please take the time to display original content in your web pages.

What about ads within and part of the videos? I'm referring to those videos where the people in the video talk about or endorse a particular product or web site URL. It's still early days, and marketers are experimenting with this plan to take the traditional TV commercial concept and adapt it to the online world.

What do I mean by experimenting? Well, Google will test video ads in search. Instead of you seeing only text ads when you do your usual searches in Google, you'll soon see video ads.

And since these videos will most likely be owned by the advertiser, then don't be surprised if the ad itself is incorporated within the video.

How Exactly Can Video and Advertising Mix?

1. Target audiences who are more relaxed. If a person is watching an instructional video or a how-to video, they are not relaxed. They are focused on the video. In other words, they will ignore the ad.

But if they are at ease, perhaps they're watching something mildly entertaining, they'll notice the ad. At this point it will be up to the advertising creator to make sure that the captured attention translates to something profitable.

2. Target audiences who are detached. Even if a video is not a tutorial, if it is highly entertaining, the viewers will ignore the ads. What makes a video riveting? This is something you will need to test with your particular audience, because it is better to get feedback from people than to second-guess your market.

3. Target audiences who are fleeting. Does advertising work better with videos that run under 2 minutes? Or 3 - 5 minutes? Or longer than 5 minutes. Again, this is subject to testing.

There are people who like to just leave the television on while they putter around the house. Online, there are people who live to leave videos playing in the background so that the room doesn't feel too quiet. In this case longer videos will work well with advertising, because this segment of the market likes to load long-playing videos.

On the other hand, there are people who hop from video to video. They just can't get enough of YouTube or other online video communities apparently. If that's your target market, then advertise in short videos (less than 2 minutes running time). Just make sure, though, that the video doesn't have a compelling cliffhanger that makes the viewer click on to more videos. Otherwise, the ad gets ignored, and unseen ads translates to zero revenues.

In the end, the success of advertising and video marketing depends on your ability to match the appropriate business model with the kind of audience that you have. At some point, you will surely find a win-win spot for both your audience and the advertisers. And remember, when in doubt: test, test, test.

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"Do Videos and Advertising Mix?"
First Posted: February 17, 2008 | Filed in: Marketing

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