Why isn't YouTube diversifying beyond AdSense? Adbrite maybe?

This is purely an uneducated guess and am assuming that the Google ads on YouTube are pay-per-click ones.

I for one go to YouTube to watch the videos and comment etc, and not to click on ads. So if I was YouTube with my high Alexa ranking shouldn't I diversify beyond Adsense, and try maybe Adbrite also? AdBrite ads pay for a fixed listing for a fixed period of time, and you can make money without needing visitors to click.

With their high ranking they should be able to fetch a good price for 1-week or monthly listings. So why aren't they? They definitely can't live on their venture capital at their burn rate and I doubt that Google ads alone are enough.

Would be interested to see what the rest of you think about it. If anything, it's a good case study on how to effectively monetize a highly trafficked site.

 

No need to deversify when you're a premium publisher. You pretty much set your terms for how much you get paid. Obviously Adbrite won't be paying more .

 

That is a good question...I'm going to write an article on them pretty soon. I think they should compete with google and do the contextual ad thing...if you put videos on your site and someone clicks, you get some moola. They could also take advantage of the black space at the end of each video...put an ad there.

They definitely aren't maximizing...but I suppose they want to build up a good base first?

 

@Travis: I don't know if they are a premium publisher - even if they are, those ads don't look like impression ads to me, and are more like the regular click-through ones that us plebs get. But my point is they can and should diversify a little.

@sixfigureblogger: ads within the videos at the front and at the back are definitely a way to go. And maybe a link to the advertiser at the bottom of the flash player. I'd put up with it as a user and am pretty sure advertisers would pay for the eyeballs seeing the traffic that they get.

Agree on building up a good base but I think they are beyond that now - the cost of bandwidth is surely killing them.

 

They're rotating between Adsense ads and CPM ads. Personally I think they should stop with the Adsense and go full-out CPM. As you said, no one clicks on their ads, but they get a ton of impressions.

 

Wioth that many impression they must still surely get a huge number of click. Even 1% CTR is great for a iste like that. I guess they coulc make more on displaying CPM banners though.

 

@jack: agreed. I would have asked the same question about MySpace too but they've since got some juice with their big fat deal with Google recently.

@qwestcommunications: but you gotta figure into it the nature and type of visitors that go to a video site. They watch but they don't click. And most times, I've seen the ads that pop up and they aren't exactly relevant because it's hard to be contextual with video I'd imagine.

 

How do you know, no one clicks on their ads?

 

@infonote: as I've said it's an uneducated guess. but even if ppl do click, I think YouTube can earn more by diversifying. At the very least, they are not putting all their eggs into the one Google basket. Somehow I don't think clicks alone would cover their bandwidth costs.

 

Reports show they are diversified w/ contextual advertisings.

Here is an article I thought was pretty interesting and very VERY relavant to diversity in youtubes money making techniques.

I also want to mention (which I am sure lots of people know but for the people who dont) adbrite would probably be the last option youtube would consider and then if they where the last option they would invent their own. lol.. Adbrite not only pay's less but it hijacks your site to certian visitors throughout each day and completly redirect's your site to an ad of their own. This type of advertising is for amatures.

Heres teh article I found.

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2006/04/youtube_raises.html

 

@SEOTeam: erm that article only says they are doing contextual advertising and nothing about diversification. At the last check, I can only see Google ads.

I know AdBrite's PPC may be lower than Adsense but I brought it up because they sell ads that don't require clicks. Obviously there are also other ways for YouTube to get advertisers who'd pay good CPM, one of which is for them to seek them out themselves.

 

I work for a major . com and I recently contacted myspace to do contextual advertising on their home page... 250,000 a month. LOL.. I am sure you tube could make money and fast.

A few things they said in that article which I liked was A) they consistently raise money and have raised over 11 million NOT in google ads. B) doing ppc and contextual advertising is diversification but i guess not in the way you ment it.

When I put a site up and when I consider diversification I will nromally choose one ad network like google OR YPN and then I will choose one or 2 good affiliates and I will also do contextual advertising.

IMO that is good diversifaction

 

It is well known that YouTube is getting killed with the CPC programs. They aren't making any money. They are always in the red every month and are desperately trying to find ways to make money, because what they've tried right now hasn't worked. Luckily for them, they have a lot of raised venture capital to keep them going for a while (a few years, perhaps) even if they don't make a dime of profit. I predict that they will switch to CPM completely very soon.

 

a huge organisation such as youtube should be able to get private advertiser, that way they would be making more money.

 

Where did you get that from? I don't trust someone's words who doesn't even know how to use an apostrophe.

 

The above is true. I WAS using adbrite until one day I went to my site and it completely redirected the whole site to an advertiser. Man that pissed me off! I immediately took down all of my adbrite code.

I've been to other sites with adbrite and can confirm the same. It seems to occasionally pick out a visitor to redirect the entire site to.

 

Jack - I run CPC but am opted into the CPM scheme. Two questions

1. Is it possible to stop the CPC and just run CPM and if so how do I do it.

2. Is it possible to do this on a site by site basis or only by account. I ask because I have one site that gets over 70,000 uniques and 250,000 page views but very poor cpc returns - seems like a total switch to CPM would be worth trying but i would only want it on that one site.

 

Even if they signed up for every cpm network there is no way they could get 100% fill rate. They are like myspace in that they have way more pageviews than the available ads.

 

Six Figure Blogger,

In your account there is the ability to allow "active interstitials" or not. You must have enabled them on your account. This is a product that is incredibly popular for both advertisers and publishers.

http://www.adbrite.com/mb/intermission_splash.php

It is a co-branded piece, that has a starting bid for advertisers of $10CPM, hence why it is popular for publishers because of the large payout. With the product the user can always continue on with your site, and it is thought of like a commercial or full page magazine ad.

Sorry to hear you did not like the product, but we have many publishers who do, and it is always in your control to turn these products on or off in our interface.

Don't hesitate to contact me with any quesitons.

Thanks,

Chris

 

I knew it!