Late in August it was announced that AdSense were doing a limited beta test with some publishers of their Premium Video Content (a partnership with Viacom where video ads were embedded into video clips, trailers etc). The test was a 4 week pilot that ends on 20 September.
I’ve just heard from one of the publishers involved in the test they’ve been sent a document by AdSense adding new options to the pilot for publishers for the last week of testing.
Publishers can now target different ‘channel options’ including:
- Music Content: (Features interviews from artists such as Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguillera and Headbangers Ball.)
- Hiphop Music Content: (A showcase of MTV artists and their lifestyles as shown in ‘Sucker Free Sundays’ and ‘Sway’ HipHop Owners Manual.)
- Entertainment and Pop Culture Content: with two options (Option A: Spotlights Andrew Milakonic, Nick Cannon’s ‘Wild and Out’, ‘Jackass’ series and previews from the feature film release. Option B: A collection of MTV celebrity clips. )
- Reality TV Content: (Contains highlights and behind the scenes from the new ‘Laguna Beach’ series.)
- LGBT Content: with two options (Option A: Incorporates ‘Logo’ programming and ‘New Now Next’ artist interviews including Rufus Wainwright. Option B: Highlights the ‘Logo’ lesbian network ands shows like ‘Can’t get a Date’.)
Publishers were given different codes to paste into their sites for each option.
The introduction of their email to publishers sheds a little more light onto it:
“Thank you for your participation in our MTV video media pilot. As you know, our testing will conclude on September 20th, 2006. During the course of this final week we are excited to give you a choice of multiple channels of content to display on your site(s). Feel free to try any or all of the 5 content channels that would be of most interest to your visitors. There are no inherent monetization differences between these content channels. This document will help you implement the JavaScript code required to request and display Google’s Flash video player.”
I’ve also spoken to a couple of publishers who are part of the test about how it’s performed for them. Both told me that it started slow but in the last week the earnings from it have picked up considerably. One told me that the videos are earning more for them than other AdSense ads were previously earning in the same positions.
Keep in mind though that from what I can see AdSense have chosen publishers who have sites that have a youth culture readership to them – as a result the ads are pretty well targeted to the sites.
