Google announced the launch of a new ad format for AdWords today – the Media Ad format. These ads allow advertisers to place emphasis on video from the search results page. The new format works a little differently than the traditional AdWords concept, however.

“To start, Media Ads isn’t targeted like typical AdWords ads on Google.com,” explains Google’s Dan Friedman. “With Media Ads, you don’t pick any keywords — the targeting is completely automated. When someone enters a search on Google.com that our algorithms determine is directly related to your movie title (most commonly the title and variations on it), we automatically display your Media Ad at the top of the search results page. Our research shows that when someone searches for a movie title on Google.com, they’re most commonly looking for a trailer. With Media Ads, we’re able to help you ensure that those users find exactly what they’re looking for.”

That’s funny. I’m usually looking for a showtime or an IMDB listing (yes, I could go directly to IMDB, but you gotta love that Chrome omnibox, particularly with Google Instant enabled).

“The second thing that’s unique about Media Ads is the way you pay,” says Friedman. “Unlike typical AdWords ads on Google.com, you don’t enter any bids for Media Ads.
Instead, clicks on Media Ads are charged at a flat rate. This simplified pricing model makes it easier to budget for your Media Ads campaign and to know exactly how much an interaction is going to cost.”

The ads also launch a Lightbox media player, which expands to the center of the screen and dims the rest of the page (as pictured above).

The media ad format should be quite attractive to a great deal of content producers, given the rise of online video and connected TV devices. There are so many options for video viewing now, these should help those willing to put up the money to stand out and get some more visibility.

The format is currently only available for major motion picture studios promoting new release, but Google says it will expand the format to more advertisers in time.