YouTube improving its ad sales

But it's still not enough for Google to realize any revenue benefit from its investment

It's not easy selling video inventory on YouTube. But apparently, Google's success rate of getting ads on that inventory is mproving.

YouTube is selling advertisements against 9% of its video views in the U.S., up from 6% a year ago, according to Ad Age. And, despite the low percentage, it's still a lot of video inventory to cover. YouTube generated 5.3 billion views in the month of February, according to comScore.

Additionally, YouTube is placing more ads on videos than Fox Interactive Media, the parent company of MySpace, a YouTube spokesperson told Ad Age.

While YouTube may be bringing in more ad sales, it's still not enough to give Google any significant benefit from its $1.6 billion acquisition of YouTube.

From Ad Age: 

Estimates for YouTube's ad sales range from $120 million (Screen Digest) to $500 million (Jeffries & Co.). In its 2008 annual report, Google said it "has yet to realize significant revenue benefits" from its $1.65 billion acquisition.

YouTube users upload 15 hours of video every minute of the day; in a real sense, the company is providing bandwidth and hosting services to much of the world for free, at a cost Credit Suisse estimates at $1 million a day for bandwidth alone. Further, about 70% of YouTube's views come from outside the U.S., a much tougher sell to advertisers, and many of its premium-content deals cover U.S. audiences only. Globally, YouTube is monetizing at a much lower rate.