Video Adsense ! Cripes

Jensense and the Adwords blog have posted about the forthcoming release of video ads for Google Adwords. They are to be rolled out into the content network (Great let us be the testing ground guys – shove it on the google homepage to test that should be a larrrf)

The quote goes…

“In the coming days, we will be adding click-to-play video ads to the line-up of text, Flash and image ad formats currently supported by the Google content network. At launch, video ads will be available to AdWords advertisers in the US, Canada and Japan – but we plan to roll them out to other regions shortly.

Now, let’s talk about the details.

First, as with all AdWords ad formats, video ads will compete for placement on sites in the Google content network with other text, Flash and image ads — and, as with our other image ad placements, you can choose to bid on a CPC or CPM basis.

Second, these ads will be supported by both site- and keyword-targeted campaigns. You can choose to serve your video ad on a specific site or on pages in our content network that relate to your product or service. As always, you have the ability to geo-target your video ads internationally, nationally, or locally.

Finally, unlike some intrusive advertising, users will have complete control. When a page loads, only a static image will be visible; the video will not start playing until the user initiates it. He or she will be able to advance the video, pause it, adjust the volume or click through to the advertiser’s site, as you can see in the example below:“

Then they have an example of a little flash video advert.

Whilst part of me thinks “Great new flashy adverts to entice those cursors over” most of me thinks that this type of ad will distract and annoy the visitiors leading to them ignoring the ad and reading my content instead (God forbid!)

As soon as they launch, if I can I will add an advert here on the site to show everyone and if the CTR is good it will stay. If it isnt it will go (Although Jensense indicates that they will probably be site targetted rather than contextual – if thats the case 90% of my sites dont have to worry – lol)