San Bruno, Calif.—YouTube has launched a paid search service for video, previously in beta, that works similarly to text-based paid search ads on parent Google Inc.'s search engine.
According to the official YouTube blog, the new Google AdWords for Video allows a company's video ad to appear during related keyword searches on YouTube, or within certain interest or industry categories. Like the pay-per-click model of text-based search ads, companies pay only when a video ad is viewed. Metrics on video ad performance—such as who views a video, for how long and where—appear in advertisers' regular AdWords dashboard.
YouTube is giving away $50 million worth of ad credits, in increments of $75 per company, to help launch the new service.
