Video Is Hot: Brands Spent $5.6 Billion On YouTube In 2013

Google’s YouTube took home $5.6 billion global digital ad revenues in 2013. Are branded social videos hotter than ever before?

There are more actionable insights into eMarketer’s first-ever analysis of how much advertizers spend on the video platform.

Discover how to plan and budget your video marketing efforts in 2014.

Or how to make money with branded YouTube videos.

YouTube Grabs $5.6 Billion Ad Revenues in 2013

YouTube doesn’t get to keep all its gross revenues, of course. But after paying back advertising partners and video content creators, eMarketer said the company to net $1.96 billion in ad revenues worldwide in 2013. Up to 65.5% over 2012!

That translates to a 1.7% share of all global digital ad revenues. So YouTube’s income is higher than the market shares of Twitter, AOL, Amazon.com, Pandora, LinkedIn, Millennial Media and other large players.

Unsurprisingly, the bulk of YouTube’s ad revenues came from video formats. $850 million in YouTube’s US ad revenues came from video ads, helping the company to a dramatic 20.5% share of the overall $4.15 billion US video ad market.

Video ad revenues are expected to increase significantly in coming years for YouTube’s US operations, particularly as mobile video viewership grows.

eMarketer estimates the company’s revenues from video ad formats will hit $1.22 billion in 2014, claiming a 21.1% share of all US video ad revenues.

eMarketer believes much of YouTube’s growth has come from growing consumer demand to view video content across devices. Mobile is the next gateway for video as well.

Combined with Google’s continuing efforts to accommodate advertizers’ desire to reach the multiscreen audience through features such as Paid Channels and TrueView.

How Brands Can Make Money on YouTube?

Most famous artist making money of his viral cult hit on YouTube is definitely PSY with Gangnam Style. With 1.2 billion clip views he was a cash cow, making $6 million for YouTube.

However, 50% of that $6 million went to the pockets of PSY’s record label. Nice to earn $3 million without any hosting costs, right?

The viral music video hit Gangnam Style hit the staggering 1 billion views mark in December 2012.

Dance label Spinnin’ Records made serious money in 2013 with its YouTube channel.

My Opinion

Video advertising revenues will keep growing worldwide for at least the coming few years. One very important driver for this prediction?

Many global brands will try to win the APAC markets. The battle for China, India, Korea, Japan and Indonesia will push video ad spend through the roof.

Marketing label Red Bull might be making more money from their massive video eyeballs than the cost of the production and media. Mind you, they are earning attention with viral distribution.

Red Bull live streamed Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking space jump, was not surprisingly YouTube’s biggest brand in 2013 with over 3 million subscribers.

Behind the energy drink’s lead were a slew of tech companies, including PlayStation, Rockstar Games, Apple, GoPro Camera and Rovio.

CMOs and CDOs will benchmark their video views and video spend based on the top 10 brands on YouTube.

More YouTube stories? See our related stories below.

What About You?
Which other brands have great YouTube channels or viral videos? We all get smarter from peer discussions, so share your opinion.

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About the Author
Igor Beuker is an acclaimed trendwatcher & pro speaker, serial entrepreneur, marketing consultant and board member at several disruptive media, technology and entertainment firms. Book Igor as keynote speaker, follow Igor on Twitter or contact him via LinkedIn.

All data at eMarketer.