Google: Video ads just as good as TV

Google tested the impact of :30 second commercials on TV, on YouTube and embedded in online content. And the results were the same across the board, although the embedded ads performed slightly better in purchase intent. “It disabuses people of the notion that online is only good for direct response or transactional stuff,” said Google’s Kevin Kells. The :30 second spots were originally designed for TV — Google said if they were tailored to an online environment, the online ads likely would have performed better. Meanwhile, Google has yet to turn a profit on YouTube. “Advertising on YouTube has not generated very much in the way of revenue, and I don’t think they’ve quite cracked the code on how to do that,” said Josh Bernoff, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “YouTube has the potential to open up that brand awareness advertising bucket to Google.”