AOL advertising revenue up 40%

3 May 2007

AOL has announced that its advertising revenue for the first quarter of 2007 has increased by 35 per cent in comparison to figures from a year ago.

Paid search along with display adverts on AOL sites were largely responsible for the increases, along with a growing number of sales on other sites provided by AOL subsidiary Advertising.com.

Such ads were particularly effective on the firm's email service, which was the starting point for 40 per cent of ad revenue.

"We are very pleased with the progress that [AOL] has made with the new advertising strategy," commented Richard Parsons, CEO of AOL parent company Time Warner, ahead of the earnings announcement.

AOL recently secured a deal with Google allowing it to sell its paid search results separately from other firms, with advertisers now able to focus on selling adverts solely on AOL related sites.

However, as a result of the firm's switch to providing free content, overall revenue for the quarter fell from $2 billion to $1.5 billion (£750 million).

Category: Other, Paid search