Google goes after big media ad dollars with new video search ads

Google is launching a new ‘Media Ads’ format for video ads on Google.com. The ads will appear as small thumbnails with a play button, and when a user clicks on the thumbnail, the video ad will expand and take over the Google search page, playing the video ad in a larger player. Clearly, Google is going after big ad dollars spent by media companies when promoting new movies, TV shows, and more on the web. This is another way to grab a piece of that pie. So for example, if you search for Lincoln Lawyer, a recently released movie, on Google, you’ll see a search ad below the search box. When you click the ad, instead of being taken to a new site, a trailer video will pop up and play within the search screen. Essentially the format attaches a video player to existing AdWords ads.