• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 20, 2013

Google is making its TrueView advertising format available globally to video game developers, as well as allow advertisers to buy ads running in desktop games through the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

The TrueView ads will run where video advertisements already run in games, such as pre-, mid and post-roll. When a consumer first launches a game, they may see an advertisement. Advertisers pay on a cost-per view basis for TrueView in-stream ads that allow the viewer to skip after five seconds, costing the brand nothing.

A Google study conducted earlier this year suggests that skippable ads deliver 50% more attention by reducing viewer drop-off rates compared with standard in-stream ads. Overall, viewers choose not to skip an ad between 15% and 45% of the time. An earlier Google and Ipsos study found that people who choose to watch a skippable TrueView in-stream pre-roll ad are 75% more engaged than users who are forced to watch a standard pre-roll.

Google found that in-stream video ad impressions tripled from January through March 2013, compared with the year-ago quarter, on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange. The company attributes this to strong advertiser demand and publisher interest. Google based the analysis on billions of aggregate ads served, excluding advertising running on YouTube or other Google-owned Web properties.

Susan Wojcicki, senior vice president of advertising at Google, said in an earlier blog post that Activision, Gameloft, Kongregate, and Miniclip would participate in the beta.

Publishers with desktop Flash and HTML5 games can access the ad formats offered by the Ad Exchange. Advertisers can now specifically target online game audiences with range of ad formats that include image and text overlays and interstitials, as well as standard video ads and the skippable TrueView video ad format.