Youtube’s New Promoted Video Placement is Deceptive?

YouTube has changed some areas of their Promoted videos service. Is it good, bad or otherwsie? Plus is it still Promoted videos or has it simply become an expansion of the Related Videos area of the site? Let’s take a closer look at it and find out just what’s going on. YouTube recently began showing Promoted videos on the watch pages of select partner videos. However, the videos are being placed in the Related videos area. Before this change they appeared next to the search results and from time-to-time showed up on YouTubes main page.

Is this really a Promoted video or in fact just a related video? It seems like a cheap trick (no slight to the rock band) on their part. It’s almost as if they didn’t know where or how to use the Promoted videos properly and so just stuck them into the Related area. Additionally, the video might not even be related which then not only dilutes the relativity of the related videos, also brings into question those results making them less useful. Finally, it seems as if this is just YouTube dropping the ball. Having no where to put the Promoted video or in fact any way to promote them…they just decided to slap them into some random location. Poor form YouTube, poor form indeed. It seems deceptive to say the least since they are basically ad placements in what should be simply related videos. It does state that the video is a promoted video and it is highlighted, but is that enough?

YouTube has justified this change by saying it’s similar to how AdWords works at Google. However, the way promoted videos worked in the past was that the videos were shown on search results, which is how AdWords works. Now they state that the Promoted videos are showing up based on context (as opposed to keywords) and so they should be of greater interest to the viewers of the pages (the example image does show a video game Promoted video on a video game page). Any revenue generated from the placement of the videos is then shared with the YouTube Partner. They’re stating that this is “another way we can help partners make money on YouTube, in addition to the display ads we serve in and alongside videos themselves.”

But is it a good use of the system? Does the general YouTube user know the difference between a Promoted Video and a Related video? My guess is no and this then looks like deceptive placement and questionable practices on YouTube’s part. If they are going to continue to use the Related videos area to put paid placement videos then they need to do some serious user education. They certainly need to explain to them that the videos in question are related on a contextual basis (even if not specifically related to the content they are interested in) and that those placements are paid. Additionally, I think they also need to disclose to their users the fact that when they watch the Promoted videos money is changing hands.

Now, you have to be a YouTube partner to not only promote your videos, but also to show them. That means there are serious limitations to the amount of places the Promoted videos are being displayed. The majority of YouTube users are probably not Partners therefore the variety of contexts and places for the Promoted videos to show up is most likely not nearly as wide as the entire site and that means there are not nearly as many views.

Essentially, you have to spend money to make money at YouTube by the looks of things. The guidelines for a partner account, which is free to signup for, are that you have “created all of the content in your videos or have the explicit permission of the person who did create the content to include it in your video and monetize it. In addition, you will need a YouTube user account and an AdSense account.” Elsewhere in the site’s help it states that “If your video content complies with our terms of use and content guidelines, and has thousands of views…” So you have to have thousands of views on your completely original content to be a Partner and then you can begin showing Promoted videos.

In fact, I did a fair amount of running around on YouTube for this article and never saw a promoted video placement. Quite strange since this is supposed to be their main advertising platform. I went to the most popular channels for the week. I went to channels for large corporations and I went to channels of companies I know and work with. None had a promoted video and I’m certain some of them are partners. So the question is, where are these videos showing up?

With no way to find out who is a Partner at YouTube it seems there’s no way to know where your video is showing up or even where it might show up. It seems like there are far better places to spend your money for online video advertising at present. Sure YouTube has a massive audience, but with Related Videos, Featured Videos and Promoted Videos it just seems like they aren’t exactly sure of where to put the last. But I stand by my statement, putting them in the Related Videos area is deceptive unless they label them all with ‘advertisement’ or ‘paid placement’ and inform the users exactly what they are.

If you’re a YouTube Partner and are using Promoted videos or showing them on your channel ReelSEO would like to hear your thoughts on the service. Do you find it a valuable service? Are you seeing any type of ROI and if so, what type? Are users engaging, is there an impact on sales or brand awareness? These are all things we would like to find out. If you wish to remain anonymous contact me directly via my email address here at ReelSEO and I will keep your identity confidential.

About the Author - Christophor Rick
Christophor Rick is a freelance writer specializing in technology, new media and consumer electronics. His work appears on numerous sites across the web including ReelSEO. He went to uni for Biotechnology, did an internship with NASA and has written 2 as-yet-unpublished books (a 3rd is in progress). He is also the CEO at Gamers Daily News and his past work has included press releases, copywriting, travel writing and journalism. His newest project R2 Relations is leveraging the power of social networks to increase brand awareness and traffic for companies and their products and creating online communities for increased interaction with the products and brands.

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