Getting Started with Video Units

Video units are a little more complicated than click-to-play ads. Video units
are actually ads shown along with YouTube videos that are displayed in a
specialized player you’ve added to your Web site.
You do have some control over what videos you choose to show in your
player. You can select the video content you want by picking content categories,
by selecting individual content providers, or by having video automatically
targeted to your site content.
Before you can do any of that, however, you have to have a YouTube account
that’s connected to your Web site.
Signing up with YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing service that’s owned by Google. With YouTube,
anyone can upload and share videos with others. Or, if you’re not the videoshooting-
and-sharing kind of person, you can browse YouTube videos to find
things that interest you. Since I’ve been using YouTube, I’ve watched movie
spoofs, instructional videos, and even sermons from church services. What
you watch is directed by your taste in videos.
You can also find videos and add them to your Web site or blog. You don’t
actually download the video and then store it on your Web server; instead,
you paste the code for a special URL into the code of your blog or Web site,
and the video is streamed from YouTube to your site whenever someone
comes to your site and starts the video.
In order to take advantage of all the fun, you do need to sign up for a
YouTube account, which is a simple process. Start by going to the YouTube
Web site at www.youtube.com. After you’re there, click the Sign Up link in
the upper-right corner of the page. You see a simple form, like the one shown
in Figure 9-8. Fill it out, click the Sign Up button, and then wait for YouTube
to send you a confirmation e-mail. After you get your e-mail, respond to it to
create a YouTube account that you can use with AdSense.
note about the YouTube Partner program
YouTube has a Partner program that you can also use to monetize your
YouTube videos. With the YouTube partner program, you can allow ads
that are controlled by YouTube. Keep in mind, though, that you don’t have
as much control over them as you would with a standard AdSense ad. The
ads are chosen for you, based on the videos that you choose to place on
YouTube. That means that you won’t necessarily be displaying the ads —
other people will, when they display videos that you have uploaded to the
YouTube service. This program can be a little confusing, and although it’s
not required for you to use video units with AdSense — in fact, the YouTube
Partner program is a completely different entity than AdSense for Video — I
want to take a minute to discuss its quirkier aspects.
To start with, signing up for the Partner program isn’t difficult, per se. To
sign up, fill out another form (see Figure 9-9) on the YouTube Web site (www.
youtube.com/partners).
The problem with this process isn’t in the Filling Out Yet Another Form part
or the Time You Spend Waiting to Find Out If You’ve Been Accepted into the
Program part. The problem lies in the requirements to be accepted. To be
accepted into the YouTube Partner program, you must meet the following
criteria:
You must create and upload original videos suitable for online streaming.
You must own (or have express permission to use and monetize) all
audio and video content that you upload — no exceptions.
You must regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of
YouTube users.
You must live in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom.
In all, the only real issue is with the third point: You must regularly upload
videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users. If you’re new
to YouTube, you’re not likely to meet this criterion, so you may not be
approved for the YouTube Partner program, which is frustrating when you
want to start using AdSense video units immediately.
If you do meet the criteria and you’re accepted into the YouTube Partner program,
you have yet another method for monetizing your YouTube videos — in
addition to using AdSense for Video. There is one little confusing part, though.
If you have more than one YouTube account, you could find yourself in AdSenseconnection
hell! In an effort to get out of that fiery Neverland, you may find that
you’re clicking from your AdSense account into your YouTube account, only to
be sent back to your AdSense account again as you try to connect the two.
Make very sure you’re logged in to your AdSense account and your YouTube
account with the exact same e-mail address before you begin the connection
process. If you’re not, you’ll be running in circles for hours trying to figure out
what you’ve done wrong. Take my advice on this, folks. I spent nearly a whole
day trying to figure out what I was doing wrong!
Creating your first video player
If you’ve made it this far, you deserve a medal. I don’t give you one, though;
instead, I show you how to create your first video player.
I make the assumption here that you’ve already connected your YouTube
account to your AdSense account, as I describe in the previous section.
That means you’ve received a nice confirmation message praising you for
your successful linking of your YouTube and AdSense accounts. If you scroll
down a bit in that message, you also see a line informing you that You Have
Not Created Any AdSense Players Yet. Next to that little bit of info you see a
Create AdSense Player button. Guess what I ask you to do?
1. Click the Create AdSense Player button.
The New AdSense Player page appears, Use this
page to build a customized AdSense player for your Web site.
2. In the New AdSense Player page, enter a name for your AdSense
player and, if you like, a short description in the text boxes provided.
Although the name and description are shown only to you, still enter something
that helps you remember the purpose of the player, rather than some
smart-alecky name whose meaning you might forget in a month or two.
3. In the Theme section of the New AdSense Player page, select a color
scheme for your player.
Make it something that matches well with your Web site.
4. In the Layout section of the page, choose a size that best suits your site.
Your choices here are Mini, Standard, and Full Size.
5. After you finish making your selections, scroll farther down the page
to make selections for what content you want to display in your
AdSense video player,
You can choose to either let YouTube automatically populate your
player with content, which is done by keywords — you enter the most
relevant keywords for your site — or if you’re like me and want more
control, you can choose from a list of categories or individual providers
that will be used to populate the player.
6. After you make your selections, scroll to the bottom of the page and
click the Generate Code button to get the code for your Web site.
When the page reloads, you’ll have to scroll to the bottom of it to copy
the code that’s provided.
All that’s left is to install the code on your Web site and then videos are fed
directly into the AdSense player.
You’re not limited to a single AdSense player on your Web site. You are,
however, limited to one per page. If you want to create new players for other
pages on your site, click the Create Player button on the left side of the
screen when you log in to AdSense Video Units. Each player that you’ve
created is then displayed on the Video Units page so that you can access it
for deleting or editing at any time.
Installing the code
Installing the code for the AdSense player is exactly like installing any other
AdSense code on your Web site. First highlight and copy the code and then
paste it into the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) for your Web site,
between the body> and /body> tags.
After you upload your Web site code to the server, your video units should
begin showing immediately, although in some rare cases, you could experience
a short delay. If your ads aren’t showing within about an hour of having
uploaded the new site with the AdSense code included, contact AdSense to
see if you’ve done something wrong.
Earning with video units
Your earnings with video units aren’t much different from the earnings that
you generate with other types of AdSense ad units. The difference is all in the
display.
With video units, you have two opportunities to earn from your placement.
The first involves the banner-type ads that appear at the top of the video
player, and the second comes from the text overlay ads that appear on the
bottom 20 percent of the video player. When your site visitors click either of
these ads, you get paid.
Some video units also have the cost-per-impression model — also called
a cost-per-thousand-impression model because payment is based on the
number of times an ad or video is viewed, divided by 1,000 — which means
all that’s necessary for you to get some earnings out of this is for someone
to view the video. Like all cost-per-impression ads, those are doled out by
AdSense to sites that generate very high levels of traffic and stringently meet
the requirements that advertisers have set forth.
You never know for sure when cost-per-impression ads are displayed, so all
you can do is steadily build your Web site traffic and hope that they’re displayed
when you’re having a nice spike in traffic. If you do happen to notice
when a cost-per-impression ad is displayed, you can always try to drive traffic
to your site. You never know how long the ad remains on your site though,
so whatever efforts you take should be ones that have quick results.
Reports for video units
After you connect your AdSense and YouTube accounts, a new report appears
on your Reports page. This report is for the video units, and it shows the same
information for video units that you see for other types of AdSense ads:
Page impressions
Clicks
Page click-through-rate (CTR)
Page cost-per-thousand impressions
Earnings
You have the same capabilities with this report that you have with any of the
other earnings reports that AdSense makes available, including the ability
to generate the report regularly and have it e-mailed to you. (For more on
AdSense reports, see Chapter 15.)
If you’re already using video on your Web site or blog, AdSense video units
are a good way to monetize on that video. After you work your way through
the confusing parts, you can add video with the click of a few buttons. The
earnings potential is there, so get started with it.