A few people have asked about this website and its services, and until recently I didn't really know what it was. So I did some lookin', did some research and tried it out. Here's my experience:
For those who are unaware Virool is a legitimate website that allows you to promote your YouTube video to many different websites as an advert (such as Facebook, gaming websites, search engines, that kind of thing - anywhere that has video adverts depending on various options you choose). I decided I was going to give it a try.
As standard the minimum amount is $100 per campaign. However, on your first try you can drop as little as $10. I decided for my first campaign I would try $20.
The video I put on was Rage | Part 4 | FATBOYS, which at the time of setting up the campaign, at 10am, had 88 views, 6 likes, 0 dislikes and 2 comments. It isn't exactly advert material, but being a tester I decided to just choose my most recent video.
By the time the $20 ran out just over an hour later (so already you get the feeling that such campaigns are for people who can fork out $100 a day easily), the video had just hit the temporarily frozen 301 views, 6 likes, 0 dislikes and 2 comments. My subscriber count didn't change.
So is Virool worth it? Well, yes and no. If views and only views are your main concern then you'll likely be very happy with the attention it brings you, even for an hour. But for those of us striving to actually have a little community, a subscriber base, it may not be all it's cracked up to be.
I certainly didn't feel any sense of accomplishment that I'd gained approx. 213 views in an hour or so for $20 of my hard-earned cash (and despite being partnered, I'd never earn that much back on such a view count), especially when the channel/video interaction didn't shift. Not even a like or dislike to show someone real had actually stopped by.
It's important to mention here that you can like/dislike a video direct from your embedded video, and I use InVideo Programming so people can subscribe direct from it as well.
Even though Virool's views really are powered by 'real people', it felt like I'd simply purchased the views, cheated. It didn't feel right at all.
All it did was make my video look botted at face value.
If I ever have a spare $100 I might try it with a short, 30 second OneChannel trailer/advert encouraging people to visit my channel. The results of that would certainly be interesting to see.
I think you're right, the best way to use this might be the one channel trailer commercial style thing. I'm going to stay away from that type of thing though, but it's good to know how it works.
