Google Selling Ads in Online Videos

Google has extended its AdSense program to online video, with start-up YuMe and My Damn Channel on board as participants in the beta.

Google’s AdSense program is known for serving up text-based advertisements on Web pages, but now the company is extending into online video, announcing a beta version of Google Adsense for Video. The program extends the InVideo ad format currently used on Google’s video sharing site YouTube and extends it across additional sites in the Google Content Network. Google is working with a number of partners and video distribution companies on the system; first out the door are My Damn Channel, along with video distributor YuMe.

“AdSense for Video allows us to rapidly create targeted ad campaigns that pair perfectly with our professionally-produced video content,” said My Damn Channel CEO Warren Chao. “Google has created innovative, context-sensitive, InVideo and text overlay ads within our player. The program is efficient matchmaking on an enormous scale for our advertisers and content producers.”

Google says it plans to test various ad formats; in the meantime, U.S.-based, English-language advertisers who serve a minimum of one million video streams a month can get into the beta. Google plans to lower the bar and increase Adsense for Video’s availability over time.