Google is making another major move in the mobile ad realm, as the online search giant heralds the release this week of pre-roll advertisements to its YouTube 2.0 video application for Android.
YouTube mobile product manager Andrey Doronichev calls the development “our largest step in mobile monetization to date.”
And there couldn’t be a better time to make such a step.
The Google-owned video site says that YouTube mobile views now exceed 200 million per day. According to PC World, that stat represents a threefold increase in 2010 alone.
The updated YouTube app for Android devices taps into the advertising potential native to such a large and still swelling viewership. Consequently, the revamped app in question will serve up a new slate of pre-roll ads from a variety of partners, including music site Vevo.
“Our next step is to let partners run ads more broadly across other mobile platforms, beyond Android native apps,” Doronichev says.
“Tens of thousands of YouTube partner videos will also now have pre-roll ads appear on the YouTube 2.0 app for Android,” YouTube formally stated on the company’s blog. “This not only expands distribution opportunities for partners like Vevo, but also opens up more revenue to partners distributing their content to mobile.”
Also launched are several new features designed to “make it easier to discover and enjoy music videos on mobile.” They include:
- Music videos are now clearly marked with a ‘music note’ badge
- While enjoying the video you can read ‘artist bio’
- It’s easy to discover more tracks from the same artist using ‘artist tracks’ tab
- You’ll find similar cool bands on the ‘related artists’ tab
As if YouTube needs to remind us, the blog states how the mobile ad market is “growing fast” and poised to surpass $1 billion in the US in 2011.
