Erictric

Today, YouTube is releasing a new free addition that some of us are going to either love or hate; a new advertising product named Call-To-Action Overlay. It is basically a semi-transparent pop-up bar at the bottom of videos, linking viewers to any site you choose. I know what you’re thinking, you’ve seen that before, right? Yes, but that was part of YouTube’s Ads by Google to make profit. This new feature actually allows any user to link to a site they choose. For example, if we were to upload a video, we could add an overlay linking back here, to the site or any specific article for that matter. Before, you had to include links in the summary of the video on the right side of the page. You will be able to place these overlay ads on a video by entering it to YouTube’s CPC Promoted Videos program.

The feature has been tested with charities and non-profit organizations. One of them being Charity:Water, who in March managed to raise $10,000 in one single day just by including an overlay ad [see photo]. This will definitely be hated by some who hate ads interrupting their videos and loved by anyone from bands to brands, who will want to advertise and link back to their websites.

[ source: TechCrunch ]