Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) owned YouTube, is growing steadily Y-O-Y in terms of revenue and monthly unique visitors. YouTube hosts more than 3 billion monthly search queries and has over 1 million unique monthly visitors. Information seekers across the globe are increasingly browsing for video content due to better depiction of required information through video footage. According to a study by eMarketer, YouTube’s yearly revenue is increasing steadily due to its growing awareness, when it comes to importance of video ads, as 75% of YouTube ad viewers tend to publicize their favorite brands to others. Initiatives like revamped comment section has definitely improved opportunities for brands to promote more civilized social engagement below the video ads.
YouTube’s Share Of Global Digital Ads Is Higher Than Twitter, Amazon, LinkedIn and AOL!
According to a study by eMarketer which analyzed hundreds of data points and studies about YouTube revenues, ad impression, rates, usage and other factors collected from research firms, investment banks, company reports and interviews with industry executives, revealed detailed information about its revenue growth on Y-O-Y basis. YouTube amassed a gross revenue figure of $5.6 billion in 2013, which marks a growth of 51.3% compared to 2012 and 180% over 2011 as gross revenue.
If we observe the graph above, we can see that YouTube’s share in Google’s gross ad revenue tally is increasing continuously which indicates a robust revenue flow for the world’s largest video content site. In 2011, YouTube accounted for 5.5% of overall gross revenue for the search giant. In the following year, it rose up to 8.5% and in 2013, the figure attained double-digit figures of 11.1%. An average increment of 42% was recorded in the increment rate of YouTube’s revenue share for Google in the last 3 years.
YouTube’s net ad revenue was yet again impressive with the overall figure of $1.96 billion, which is 66% more than the 2012 net revenue of $1.18 billion and 226% of 2011 net revenue figure. In 2013, YouTube accounted for 1.7% share of all the global digital ad revenues, this is higher than the market share of Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR), LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE:LNKD), Amazon.com, Pandora, AOL and Millennial media.
YouTube Amasses 20.5% Share Of The U.S Video Ad Market!
In the U.S, YouTube’s net ad revenue will be around $1.08 billion which is 6.3% of Google’s net U.S ad revenues for the year, marking an increase of 51.7% on Y-O-Y basis.  YouTube video ads brought in about $850 million in 2013, which is 20.5% share of overall $4.5 billion U.S video ad market.
Video ad revenue is expected to rise in future as the number of online video users are likely to rise up to to 1.5 billion in 2016. YouTube’s revenue is expected to rise to $1.22 billion in 2014, which is approximately 21.1% of all U.S video ad revenues. In 2015, video ads revenues are predicted to amass $1.62 billion in revenue for YouTube.
More than 4 billion hours of video is viewed on the YouTube website, and this figure is likely to boom in future thanks to the improvement in high-speed internet technology. Smartphones and tablet users are increasingly viewing video content on their miniature devices. Nearly 72 hours of video is being uploaded on the YouTube website per minute, and it accounts for nearly one-fifth of downstream traffic in the U.S over fixed networks. YouTube’s latest comment section revamp is likely to increase brand engagement in a more civilized way. Hence brand advertisers will be able to measure engagement levels in a better manner. YouTube, which is known to host 5 pieces of risky content for every piece of risky content on other social media sites, is likely to be free from all such spam and nasty comment threads with comment revamp.
Nearly 76% of Gen C folks prefer YouTube to view online videos and brand lovers prefer YouTube for engaging with brand ads, as there is an option to skip ads if ad is less attractive. About 61% of Gen C folks have taken action after viewing an ad on YouTube. Hence brand advertisers are likely to invest more on video ads. Top 100 YouTube brands have at least 14 YouTube channels and they upload approximately 187 videos on each channel. A Call-to-Action overlays (includes a short headline, ad text, a destination URL, an option to upload an image, and the overlay will appear whenever someone views the video) must be posted to brand videos to drive referral traffic to the brand’s web site.
