Have you seen? Google is now placing video ads in sponsored listings. Back in February, Google talked with the New York Times about testing video ads, but they didn’t start showing up on search results pages until around the end of March.

I’ve only seen them for a few very broad searches (cellphone, phone), and I’ve found it hard to replicate the result. For example, at this moment in time, I can’t seem to find a video ad in the results for those same terms. So, for now, I have to point you to SE Roundtable for some screen captures of the video ads.

Note: apparently the charge to the advertiser occurs only once – so whether a searcher clicks the headline of the ad to visit the site, or they click to watch the ad and then click through to the site doesn’t matter. So, video advertisers get charged for the ad being played OR the click through to the site. Whichever happens first.

It seems as though only large advertisers are taking advantage of video ads for now, and I suspect Google will limit the number of video ads in search results pages (SERPS) to avoid too much clutter.

As one might expect, there’s a lot of backlash to this move, and I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about it on different forums, blogs, etc. I believe this is the vocal minority. In the long run, advertisers are going to love being able to place video ads out there (where else are they going to show their commercials? I’ve got a DVR… you probably do too…), and this move will require even more convergence between search marketers and traditional advertising agencies. In the meantime, I’m sure we’ll see a lot of poor or misguided implementation and have a good time laughing at watching the ‘big guys’ screw it up.