In the early days of online video, so many aspects of production and monetization mimicked traditional broadcast programming. Online videos were simply repurposed TV programs with interstitial advertising. While some of that is still in play and is working very successfully, like on Hulu, interstitial TV-like ads are not the only way advertisements can be placed in an online video.

As a video producer, before you contemplate an advertising insertion technique, ask yourself, “What are the advertisers’ goals?”

• Brand awareness?
• Do they want people to actually conduct an action, such as pick up the phone and make a call or go check out a site?
• Should the advertisement simply entice people to go and buy their product?

You need to know these answers in order to provide the best benefit for the advertiser. In some cases you’ll have complete control of the advertising insertion decision, and in other cases you’ll have no control. Depending on the brand you want for your program, control of ad insertion may or many not be necessary.

Here are some of the common methods for ad placement within online video programming.

Overlays and picture in a picture – The advantage of this technique is that it doesn’t stop the video programming. The disadvantage is it distracts from the video programming by covering up the content, adding non-relevant information, or actually shrinking the viewing window. YouTube started doing overlays with its top tier programming. Online video ad network VideoEgg has a whole series of different overlay and picture-in-a-picture ad placement formats.

Pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll – This is the most popular, most used, most successful, and most complained about advertising insertion technique. I believe the reason online interstitial advertisements get so much guff is because they’re a direct descendant of traditional broadcasting. There’s a feeling that the online experience should not be a repeat of traditional media. But as much as people complain, specifically about pre-roll advertisements, they are still immensely successful. Hulu has proven that this model can definitely work if you’ve got high demand content.

In program advertisements – This is where the talent of your show reads the ad or makes a mention of the product in a way that it naturally fits within the editorial and programming of the show. Online video network Revision3 does this with many of its advertisers.

Product placement – Similar to in-program advertisements, a product is placed and instead of an actual advertisement, the product becomes intrinsic to the show’s story and programming.

Should the program’s producer or the ad network determine the ad’s placement?

Producers don’t necessarily have to suffer arbitrary ad placements. They can place the ads where they want to place them. Companies such as Visible Measures track viewership of videos within the video and can determine at precise moments when viewership is at its highest. With that information, producers can determine where to insert an ad or a product placement or an overlay. In an interview I conducted at The CMO Club last year in New York, here’s a short piece of advice from Matt Cutler, Visible Measures’ VP of Marketing on where you should and should not place an online advertisement.

Read my article about Cutler’s presentation on digital video effectiveness.

As Cutler advises, insert ads as early in the program as possible and also where the attention is at its highest. But that’s just general advice for all videos.

If your advertisers are in line with your editorial, you can actually place ads alongside your editorial. For example, if you’re talking about video editing, then an ad for a Flip Mino camera alongside would be completely appropriate.  A few years ago I was attending Jeff Pulver’s VoIP conference (no longer owned by Pulver) in San Jose and I was impressed by a demo from a small company then called Vidavee (last year they were bought by Vignette). Vidavee made it possible for producers to determine the exact moments within their shows that they wanted overlay ads to appear. Using the Vidavee service, the more clicks an ad got, the more money the producer would receive. Therefore, it made sense for the producer to find those best moments. But finding those moments was purely a creative decision and not an audience measurement decision like what Visible Measures provides.

If online video producers want to make more money, they need to get more involved with the advertising insertion process.

What other suggestions can you offer for placement of online video ads?