SOCIAL MEDIA

YouTube advertising revenue bounces back in latest financial results

By our News Team | 2023

After three consecutive quarters of declining advertising revenue as it fights TikTok’s rising prominence, You Tube’s ad sales improve.

After a long period of underperformance, YouTube’s advertising revenue bounced back in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023, according to financial results published by parent company Alphabet (which also owns Google) last week.

Previously, YouTube had seen its ad sales fall on a year-over-year basis for three straight quarters as TikTok’s audience grew. But now it has bounced back with a 4% increase in ad revenue, versus the same period last year.

Photo by Szabó Viktor from Pexels

As in previous quarters, Alphabet executives said they believe newer YouTube product offerings such as YouTube Shorts (short videos similar to those on TikTok) and YouTube’s connected TV (CTV) will ultimately be strengths that will enhance advertising income.

Shorts, for example, are now said to be watched by over 2-billion logged-in YouTube users monthly, up from 1.5-billion a year ago.

Signs of stabilisation in advertiser spending

“[In] YouTube, we saw ongoing signs of stabilisation in advertiser spending,” Ruth Porat Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google, said during a results call with market analysts.

“We are prioritising product focus on increasing quality consumption of video content with both Shorts and in the living room, which is translating into improved monetisation.”

Comments marketing industry news website, Marketing Dive: “The platform’s gains arrived in the midst of a rocky ad market where many brands have clamped down on spending, with video typically being a pricier option.”

YouTube’s better news on ad revenue comes at a time when Google’s video ad placement practices have been under fire. Adalytics, a specialist in advertising analytics, has alleged that ads placed with Google and intended for YouTube were instead appearing on low-quality sites or with the audio turned off, among other shortcomings.

For its part, has claimed Adalytics’ findings were based on faulty methodology.

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