Google expands video ads pilot

Google is expanding the pool of companies that will showcase video ads on its AdSense publisher network to include The Wall Street Journal, two Conde Nast websites and Life/Style Television, according to a Google spokesman.

The search giant sent emails to some of its website publisher customers this week offering them the opportunity to participate in a pilot programme involving video ads from the WSJ online, Life/Style Television and Conde Nast's Epicurious.com and Style.com. The ads will be contextually targeted to the content on the websites.

Google is broadening a test announced on Monday in which it said it would run ads from Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music on its publisher customer sites, said a Google spokesman. Revenue will be divided three ways, between the content owner, the website publisher and Google, and ads will be billed on a cost-per-thousand impressions model, as with traditional display ads.

Last summer, Google distributed MTV video clips over its AdSense network as part of an earlier test.

Last year, Conde Nast added how-to cooking videos to Epicurious.com, the website for Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines, and expanded its fashion and designer videos on Style.com, the website for Vogue and W magazines.

One AdSense publisher who was asked to participate said he was thrilled at the opportunity, predicting video ads would outperform standard Google text ads as long as the video ads are user-initiated and only start playing when someone has clicked on them.

Allen Stern, editor of Center Networks.com, a tech news site, said: "When it's new and it's hot and cool people will click and the clicks will make money. Video is definitely a more compelling medium."

Stern created a mock-up of what he suspects the video ads could look like on his website.

Elinor Mills writes for CNET News.com