YouTube’s ad revenue drops for third quarter in a row

YouTube’s advertising revenue fell for the third quarter in a row.

The platform’s ad spend fell from $6.87 billion to $6.69 billion year over year during Q1, a decline of 2.6%. It fell 7.8% year over year during Q4 and 1.9% the quarter before.

Still, YouTube’s owner, the world’s largest advertising platform, made money: Google posted $69.79 billion in revenue for the quarter, a nearly 3% increase year over year. In its earnings, the company said charges related to staff cuts and office space cost it $2.56 billion.

“In YouTube ads, we saw signs of stabilization and performance, while in-network there was an incremental pullback in advertiser spend,” Google’s chief business officer Philipp Schindler said during the call, referring to Google Network’s 8% year-over-year drop during the quarter.

He said Google’s “search and other” category grew 2% thanks to travel and retail advertisers, though it’s a much smaller bump compared to the double-digit growth it saw during Q1 last year and in 2021. Monetization on Shorts is “progressing nicely.”

Coming this fall: Google will air the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package exclusively on YouTube TV. The company will reportedly spend $2 billion a year for the privilege.