A promoter wishing to promote video content on a video hosting website selects the video and associates it with an advertising creative. The promoter selects associated keywords and indicates financial terms for the promotion, for example by agreeing to a cost-per-click or cost-per-impression payment arrangement with the video hosting site. When a user of the video hosting site performs a search on the keywords (or similar words) associated with the promoted video, the video hosting website includes the creative for the promoted video with the other search results returned. The user can then select to view any of the search results or the promoted video identified by the creative. When the user clicks on the indicia for the promoted video, the video hosting site serves to the user a watch page on which the user views the promoted video. The promoter is charged according to the payment mechanism selected.