If you???ve gotten used to an ad-free YouTube player, things are set to change. Today marks the official launch of YouTube???s overlay ads, which have been in testing for a number of months.Around 15 seconds into a video, an 80% transparent overlay appears in the bottom 20% of the video. If ignored, it […]

If you???ve gotten used to an ad-free YouTube player, things are set to change. Today marks the official launch of YouTube???s overlay ads, which have been in testing for a number of months.

Around 15 seconds into a video, an 80% transparent overlay appears in the bottom 20% of the video. If ignored, it disappears after 10 seconds; if clicked, it plays the video ad over the top of the existing clip, then resumes your original clip when complete. It???s a smart idea from Google, which realized that pre-roll ads are a major disincentive to view clips, and that ads are most valuable when viewers opt-in to watch them. View the video a second time, and there???s no ad. Ads will be sold at a $20 CPM (cost per thousand impressions), making this a good money spinner.

It seems to me that they???ve perfectly balanced their commercial needs with the requirement to keep the viewer happy and engaged. They could even sell the spare inventory back to rich YouTube users: pay to get promotion for your existing YouTube clips (would that threaten the egalitarian nature of YouTube?).

[image via SearchEngineLand]

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