Adap.tv is seeking to harness the power of online video ads for direct response marketers, reports ClickZ.

The firm has partnerships with Amazon.com and Shopping.com that enable it to grab product images from those sites. Those images are then displayed alongside video from Metacafe, with whom it also has a partnership agreement for video content. Text ads are also served to the Adap.tv platform from an unnamed search ad network.

The product images appear as overlays on the video being watched that, when clicked, bring visitors to the advertiser's landing page. The direct connection between click behavior and purchase is what is seen to be attractive to direct response marketers.

Ads are targeted contextually based on video metadata. Under-performing ads are automatically dropped from display. Advertising revenue is shared between Adap.tv and Shopping.com, but details of the Metacafe arrangement were not released.