What are Google Instream Video Ads ?

InVideo advertising is a distribution method for any ad format where the ad is shown within the physical screen space of a video stream: in the video. A video stream is a media content object embedded into a webpage that plays a content provider’s video.

InVideo ads may appear in multiple formats, but all of them appear before, during, or after a live streaming video within the same screen space as the video stream itself. These ads are not the major content object on the page where they appear, but they are tied to a major content object: the streaming video with which they appear. InVideo ads are therefore relevant to the page where they appear and relevant to the content of the actual video stream.

The Doubts

When Instream video ads were out, many, including me looked at them with skeptic eyes for a simple reason. Video ads were mainly distractions. When you watch a video, all your attention is on the content, and anything that comes in between you and the video is primarily distraction. Remember those text ads that appear in videos ? The CTR ratio for them are extremely low. But there is a clause.

The contextual nature of the content. According to Google, the in-stream video ads campaign focusing on Nevada winter sports resulted in over 8 million views from its target demographic. Furthermore, the in-stream ads resulted in a 33 percent increase in consideration of Nevada as a vacation destination among its target audience in its 7 selected markets.

Now, that’s an great achievement. Keep in mind that this campaign ran for an year through Google Instream Video Ads.

How to create Instream Video Ads ?

Google Instream Video Ads have proven their effectiveness with this campaign. What we got to figure out are the specific metrics that resulted in this success. The travel industry is a gold mine when it comes to opportunities in Advertising. But clearly, one success story does not declare that everyone else can repeat the same.