Google's YouTube Gambit

Google can easily monetize entertainment-oriented content that usually fetches lower price ads.

Since more people search for products and services on Google than any other place on this planet, Google owns the largest repository of so-called purchase-intent profiles in the world. Google could place an anonymous cookies on its visitors when they search and later deliver them relevant video ads on YouTube. For example, a person that searched for "car insurance" on Google could be shown a Geico TV ad the next time he visits YouTube, regardless of what he actually watches on YouTube.


This form of advertising is called behavioral targeting. Google will leverage its valuable database of searches to convert YouTube's low-value ad space into targeted high-value video ad inventory.