Google retains a massive vice-grip on the online advertising industry, continuing to grow despite the “threat” of Facebook’s enormous user base. While much of Google’s success can be routed back to their two-thirds majority for search share, there’s little doubt that other Google properties — Blogger, YouTube, Picasa, etc. — are making a valuable contribution. Now Google is encouraging webmasters to get on board with YouTube, one of their most successful advertising arenas, through an online course.
According to the Google Adwords Blog, users will be able to learn the basics of using YouTube to help create “a stronger online brand presence,” boasting that your YouTube ads may receive “millions of ad impressions.” While the exact curriculum hasn’t been specified, it seems Google is taking a broad brush approach, telling users about “a number of ways in which you can raise your profile as an advertiser using YouTube.”
This may mean anything from the basics of integrating your AdWords PPC with the YouTube platform to using YouTube video advertisement with embedded advertisement links back to your site and much, much more. This video will run on February 2nd, 2011, 10am to Noon Eastern Time, and interested users can sign up here. Those who miss the video can still pick it up in the Google Curriculum page; this page can also be used to check out any of the previous AdWords tutorials.
When it comes to methods of advertising, Google’s approach certainly makes sense: users can overcome the initial “learning curve” hurdle for free while learning from the very experts who first created the system. Meanwhile, Google has increased loyalty through both a customer relationship and increased user familiarity with the Google systems. It’s a win-win, so long as we’re not keeping track of outcomes for any of Google’s competitors.
