Big news from Google, starting yesterday Google started a very limited test of video ad units on their search engine results pages (SERPs). In doing so, Google is taking a step forward (for better or worse) in giving advertisers more options of how to advertise through Google search.

Here’s a quick list of details on the video ad test:

• The test will be very limited to begin, and so far no one has reported seeing any of the video ad units
• To start, the videos will not be visible on the search page, but there will be a plus sign symbol attached to the ad that you can click on to open the video
• In the future Google may consider adding a thumbnail photo of the ad instead of the plus box
• Advertisers will be charged when someone views the video, or if the video is not viewed, when someone clicks on the text of the ad.
• Advertisers will only billed once if clicks occur on the video and the text ad
• Google feels now is the right time to try out the video ads in the SERPs since the currently are showing video results through Universal Search
• Google’s thinks that the video ad units could be used for branding as well as click throughs to websites
• Google will continue to focus on ad relevance – so you can rest easy if you think major advertisers will run “branding” ads on unrelated keywords

I for one am very interested to see where this all leads. From an affiliate marketing standpoint, I think it is time to start figuring out how you could leverage video ads for your promotions now. That way, when this program opens up to everyone, you can be one of the first in your vertical with a video ad.

On thing that worries me is to think that a year or two down the line your Google click-through rate might be dramatically affected by the quality of the videos you are able to produce. Kind of makes we wonder if the “little guys” are going to be able to compete with major players who have ad agencies and are already producing video advertisements.

Check out Danny Sullivan’s take along with some mock-up shots at Search Engine Land.