An article in today's AllThingsD provided some interesting details about the performance of YouTube home page ads, as measured reported by TubeMogul.
Source: TubeMogul
That's nearly a 10x difference between the highest and lowest performing ad. According to Ad Age, the cost of a YouTube home page ad is approximately $400,000/day. That means Bertolli paid $8.40 for each user initiated view of its video. In comparison, e*Trade got quite the bargain at only $.88 per view.
Granted, this doesn't take into account the value of the millions of impressions that a site such as YouTube delivers. But if the goal is getting consumers to interact with the ad and to play the video, then cost per view seems to be a reasonable KPI.
What's the takeaway? While home page takeovers will get you a lot of impressions, placement alone is no guarantee of success. You are paying a premium for high visibility and broad reach. In turn your brand and creative execution needs to have mass appeal (think talking babies). And if that's not your goal, reconsider your media placement -- because $8.40 per interaction is no bargain.
