Google AdSense video, one of the Google services offering youtube videos in the AdSense account, has been discontinued from the end of April. The sunsetting of Video AdSense is the end of a short tenure for the service. It was introduced in beta form in February 2008 as a way for publishers to increase the amount of video content on their sites and earn a little money doing it. This program allowed AdSense publishers to embed YouTube videos along with Google Text ads.
Under the AdSense program, publishers could sign up through a dashboard provided by Google where they got to choose what videos to be included in their AdSense player through a user-friendly menu. Some beneficial features were ; as Google hosted the ad, the publisher site dint get any slower. The video ads were upto two minutes in length. The users could determine how much interaction is desired with the ad. This approach took the same non-intrusive InVideo ad format used on YouTube and extended it across video partner sites on the Google Content Network. This enabled advertisers to run a single campaign across the largest network of online video content.
The program didn’t perform up to expectations or generate enough revenue. Presumably, the click-through rates were low (which dint come as a huge surprise) while consumers had become accustomed to clicking on links embedded in web pages, that’s less the case with a video. Google could not figure out a sustainable ad model for video. This latest discontinuation is a part of the growing trend of Google axing programs on AdSense. The decision reflects Google’s view that it can’t work miracles anymore as it struggles with the deteriorating economy. The resources thus freed and emptied will focus on other opportunities to help publishers earn from their sites. Considering the current scenario, this could also be looked as a move to save costs.
No doubt, the video AdSense by Google was late to market but just like Youtube’s copyright protection scheme, in the meantime has played its part of making the market smaller. As per available statistics the company increases its share of the video market every month at least in the U.S. Google assures that there will be no credit liabilities. The remainder of the Leaderboard or skyscraper video units on the publisher pages will direct users to youtube.com while other video unit sizes will automatically be changed to standard embedded youtube players. Thus publishers can still display video content on their pages by pulling embed codes directly from YouTube but will not generate any profit.
Filed under: Adsense | Tagged: adsense videos, Google Adsense, youtube videos
