While many “Search Engine savvy” marketers are aware of the basics of PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketing, few have begun to market video clips within their PPC campaigns. Video clips can engage consumers with images and sound in a way that text ads cannot. Like PPC ads, keywords are defined for the ad, and testing on landing pages, headlines, and descriptions can be performed. There are 3 video ad formats within Google AdWords that can be created.

The first is a YouTube Promoted Video. This format can be used to promote a video that is currently uploaded to the YouTube engine, and will list the static image of the video clip in the YouTube format as a result within the search engine results. These ads may appear within Google for relevant queries to the video. Similar to text PPC ads, the advertiser only pays when their video is clicked and the video is launched.

The second video format is called a Click-To-Play Ad. This format is a static starting image which will launch into a 30 to 120 second video and will end with the same static starting image. A headline and short description/call-to-action are formatted below the video. CTP ads are shown on the content network, and are charged per click.

The final format is an InStream Video, which is a 15 to 60 second video clip that plays before or after online videos on many content publisher web sites which play video. Viewers may not skip past the ad to watch the content video. InStream videos are played on the content network, and are charged when the final video image is clicked and the user is directed to the destination URL.