Programmatic trading helps AOL make advertising revenue strides
Video, mobile and programmatic trading drove AOL to complete its most successful year for a decade, the company’s Q4 results confirmed.
Figures: AOL's 2013 Q4 report is out
Total revenue for Q4 grew by 13 per cent year-on-year to $679m, with global advertising revenue rising by 23 per cent. Within that, there was 63 per cent growth in third party network revenue driven by programmatic trading and the sale of premium formats.
Global display revenue was up by seven per cent, although global search revenue dropped by two per cent, a figure the company attributed to fewer search queries as a result of a decline in domestic AOL subscribers. Subscription revenue fell by 10 per cent to $156.7m, while operating income grew by five per cent to $71.8 million. Net income increased by one per cent.
Tim Armstrong, AOL chairman and CEO, said: “2013 was AOL’s most successful year in the last decade, and we accomplished our goal of industry level growth at scale for AOL.
“AOL’s exceptionally talented team continues to execute against our strategy and our results show meaningful progress in the most important areas of media and technology. AOL plans to invest in our market leading strategies in 2014, while we continue to grow the company.”
In August, AOL agreed the $405m acquisition of programmatic video advertising platform Adap.tv which increased its abilities in the programmatic sphere. Excluding revenue raised from Adap.tv would have left AOL’s third party network revenue increase at 20 per cent instead 63 per cent. AOL has invested heavily in the digital video space by focusing exclusively on premium content and premium publishers.
Earlier this month, the company announced the acquisition of multi-screen content optimisation and personalisation firm, Gravity, for $90m.