Online video advertising has become a hot topic in recent years among internet marketers and pretty much anyone who’s looking to improve both the quantity of their traffic and the rate at which they convert their traffic. It’s easy to hear all the recent talk about this form of online advertising and assume it’s nothing but hype, a fad that will burn out quickly. But when you look at the numbers it becomes clear advertising with or through videos online isn’t a fad, it’s possibly the most important trend occurring online right now.Rising NumbersBy simply looking at the numbers it’s clear online advertising is on the rise. In February of this year alone nearly 4 million videos ads were running in circulation, with each individual viewer watching just over 30 of them a month. These ads were watched by nearly half of the population of the United States.YouTube states that within the last year the number of advertisers using YouTube increased by a factor of 10, and 98 of the top 100 advertisers (as ranked by AdAge) had chosen to advertise on their website. Every single week these advertisements monetize over 3 billion videos around the world. Right now total ad spending sits just below 2 billion dollars a year. According to a report by Advanced Internet Video this number will increase to nearly 6 billion dollars a year spent to fund online video advertisements.Overall a full 12.4% of all videos watched online these days are advertisements.Rising ImpactNot only are these advertisements on the rise from a purely volume-oriented perspective but they’re also creating a bigger and bigger impact on their viewers and posting conversion number few other forms of advertising can boast.One of the best sources of data on the effectiveness of online video advertisements was recently released by the Online Publishers Association. In this report the Association notes that nearly half of all people watching these advertisements took some sort of concrete action in response to the video. 22% of these viewers went directly to the website pitched by the advertisement, 15% of the viewers went and learned more about the company behind it. 26% looked for more general information related to the video. Perhaps most impressively an incredible 12% of visitors went ahead and actually purchased the product in question.Not only does video dramatically and measurably increase viewer interest in the information it presents by video advertisements have demonstrated a sale conversion rate of 12%. Many forms of advertising are content with a conversion rate between 1% and 5%.Clear and UnambiguousLooking at the numbers two points become very clear:??? Online advertisements are increasingly popular among all marketers, but especially among the most successful marketers in the world.??? Online video advertisements are more effective than nearly any other form of online advertisement.These numbers and statistics don’t even point to the incredible effect online marketing videos have for your product and website’s conversion rate when placed directly on your homepage or any of the other impressive metrics surrounding this essential marketing field.