A strong demand for programmatic inventory hoisted AOL up to $483.5 million in ad revenue for Q1 2015, up 12% over the last year.
Real-time buying took the plaudits as the group’s programmatic offering saw 80% growth in Q1 compared to a year before, allowing it to account for 45% of AOL’s total earnings from display.
Yet with this came a 10% rise in advertising price overall, which was recorded despite programmatic generally representing a cheaper proposition for marketers.
A strong performance from AOL’s ad business paved the way for $625.1 million in Q1 revenue overall, up from $583.3 million last year.
Home and away
Readings from the first quarter show signs of AOL’s heavy investment in online advertising paying off.
This stems to offerings away from AOL’s owned-and-operated properties, as growth from the company’s ad services for third-party websites was higher than for its own sites in Q4 2014.
But things are going pretty well for AOL on home soil, too. A 34% rise in sales of programmatic inventory through its own properties, including the likes of Huffington Post and Engadget, showed this year getting off to a much better start than 2014.
“AOL grew its consumer base strongly and saw continued strength in video, mobile and programmatic advertising, while we also updated the structure and capabilities of the company,” commented CEO Tim Armstrong.
“AOL continues to grow in strength and we are on a mission to scale the first Media Technology company of the internet and mobile age.”
Bringing forward the next phase of AOL’s ad growth could be the company’s new One product – an open, unified platform which enables marketers to align their buying with campaign goals.