Google seems to be finally gearing up to cash in on its $1.65 billion investment in YouTube. Google AdSense is going to be rolling out Video Units. Publishers will be able to make money from YouTube videos with embedded AdSense ads. The full details are yet to be released, but here is a preview of what we can expect.
From what is available on the promo page it looks like you the ads will not be in the same area as the movie, but they appear as part of the YouTube player and outside of the video content to ensure a smooth user experience.
Here is a sample screenshot of how the new YouTube video Ad Units will look like. You will also be able to customize the color scheme of the flash player to fit your blog or portals look and feel.
The content of the ads will be relevant to the video itself, something that AdSense has already perfected down to a science. Let’s hope that publishers will have the option to choose specific videos to be shown, or at least choose from a narrow range of topics.
This is a win-win deal for all the parties and great for you publishers, since it will allow you to not only improve your content by adding the YouTube content to your site, but also give you a new source of income. Checking my Google AdSense account, I am not seeing any information on these video ads yet. There is a mention of a “button” on the YouTube promo page, but the button is not there! Hopefully we will hear more from Google soon.