Google is seeking to take the pay-per-click model it leveraged for text ads and apply the approach to video. Google will begin distributing online video ads for the first time later this week.

Separately, comScore Networks today released an analysis based on its newly launched Video Metrix service, the monthly reporting of consumer video consumption of both content and ads across the Web.  “Video consumption on the Web is rapidly approaching the tipping point for advertisers,” said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. 

Among notable trends was the marked increase in the number of consumers viewing video online, which grew 18 percent from October 2005 to March 2006.  In total, consumers viewed 3.7 billion video streams in March and slightly less than 100 minutes of video content per viewer per month, compared to an average of 85 minutes in October.

During March, approximately 42 percent of all U.S. Internet users streamed video through an entertainment site, and more than 33 percent did so from a portal.

The Internet ad market grew 30 percent in 2005 to $12.5 billion. But that represents only 5 percent of the budget that U.S. marketers spend on all media, including newspapers, radio and TV, according to Internet Advertising Bureau data. U.S. ad spending on cable TV alone totaled $18.9 billion last year.