Mar 25, 2011 14:32 GMT  ·  By

Google is finally rolling out something it's been testing for quite some time now, video ads in search. For certain type of searches, just movies for now, Google will display a video link and thumbnail along with a regular AdWords ad on top of the results. Clicking on the ad will pop up a lightbox video player with the trailer for the movie.

Google is already testing another video ad format, but Media Ads, the newly launched one, is a different product altogether, from the target audience to the way it's displayed and billed.

"Media Ads is a new ad model that introduces new ways to target, pay for, and experience video ads on Google.com. Unlike Video Extensions, which simply attaches a video player to your existing AdWords ads, Media Ads is an entirely standalone format designed to put your videos front and center," Google's Dan Friedman writes.

While technically, Media Ads is still part of AdWords, it's quite different from all other products. Buyers don't even need to specify keywords, all they need to do is say they want to promote a movie.

Google picks all the right keywords for the movie, mostly, anything including the title. What's more, there's no bidding on Media Ads.

Normally, several advertisers bid for placement on search results pages, with the highest bid winning the spot. With Media Ads, advertisers pay a flat rate for each impression making it easier to predict budget requirements.

Finally, Media Ads introduces a new lightbox video player. Unlike its other video ads which display the video inside the search results page, Media Ads pops up a player which covers all of the page. The background is also dimmed to enable users to focus on the video alone.

"Media Ads is still in limited release to major motion picture studios promoting new release features. Over time, we plan to offer Media Ads to more advertisers in more industries to help them promote their videos on Google.com," Friedman explained.

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The new lightbox video ad player on Google Search
The new Media Ads format on Google Search
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