YouTube Pulls the Trigger on Mobile Ads

Eighteen months after it began testing them, Google has officially started selling display ads on YouTube's mobile Web site.

U.S. wireless users who point their browsers to m.youtube.com today will see ads for Mazda on the site's home page, search, and video browse pages. Ad placements will be sold by the day, and each day's advertiser will own all inventory on the mobile site for that day - just like they do on YouTube's regular home page.

The offering will pertain only to people who visit YouTube's mobile Web site - not to those who access videos through custom applications such as the YouTube iPhone app, installed by default on Apple's devices. And the new program only covers display ads. YouTube's "Promoted Videos" ads still do not appear to mobile users. Those ads use a keyword bidding model to allow video content owners to drive traffic from YouTube search results pages. Likewise, in-stream and in-video placements are not included in the new offering.