YouTube triples mobile ad sales in six months

YouTube has tripled its mobile ad sales in the past six months, pulling in an estimated US$350-million for the Google-owned video-sharing platform.

In an interview with Bloomberg, YouTube vice president of sales Lucas Watson revealed that a quarter of the platform’s one-billion global users now access the service via handheld devices, pushing advertisers to pay more attention to the medium.

“The commercial business has exploded,” Watson said in the interview. “It’s a huge part of our business, and we know that’s where it’s headed.”

As has always been the case however, Google would not provide an exact break down of exactly how much this explosion has been worth. But Bloomberg cites an estimate by Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst at Wedge Partners Corp which suggests that — based on Google’s US$14-billion in sales in the latest quarter, and Pyykkonen’s estimate that mobile contributed 20% to 25% to YouTube — mobile ads probably accounted for US$350-million in sales.

Another factor helping push the growth of YouTube’s mobile ads is the fact that it automates the buying of advertising, splitting airtime between computer browsers and mobile devices, as well as allowing people to opt out of appearing on multiscreen advertising.

Christine De Martini, social marketing and media manager at gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) says her company is among those trying to push mobile advertising on YouTube.

“YouTube as a video platform is a definitely a key one for our products,” De Martini said. “I would anticipate as mobile consumption continues to grow, we’ll have to find ways to make sure that we reach our audiences on whatever platforms they’re on.”