Last month, eMarketer released estimates about ad revenue from YouTube, projecting that U.S. video ad revenue alone would increase 39.2% to $1.13 billion. The company expected that the figure would continue to expand in double digit percentages to a possible $1.75 billion in 2016.
One of the reasons eMarketer cited for the bullish predictions was the presence of devoted audiences for specific content creators. Musicians and performers are excellent examples of those content creators, and they tend to attract a particular demographic to their channels. “That relationship can be helpful for marketers, since the content their brands align against is more predictable than if, say, the marketer just asks YouTube to combine all the childcare videos anywhere on the site for ad placement purposes,” according to the eMarketer article.
We’ll have to wait and see how these predictions from October pan out in light of YouTube Music Key’s ad-free listening, starting next week. It’s much too early to guess what proportion of YouTube’s enormous audience will sign on for the upcoming paid plans, and how the subscription income will impact ad revenue and YouTube’s overall finances.