Google+ lost a record $4.2 billion in advertising revenue to advertisers in the second quarter, according to a new report from research firm iSuppli.
The company said it lost $3.9 billion in revenue to companies that pay Google for the placement of ads on their websites, which means that advertisers are now spending an average of $10,000 per ad on Google+ per month.
Google+ ads were up 15 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, while Facebook ads dropped 15 percent, iSuppl reported.
Thats a $2.5 billion loss for the month.
The data is interesting because the number of ad impressions that Google+ sees is not directly comparable to what advertisers are paying Google for those impressions.
Google+ only uses 1 percent of the available data to determine what is actually visible in an ad.
For example, an ad that is only visible on Google+, the ads will show up twice as many times.
That means that Google is losing more money from ads that appear on Google Plus than from ads on the Google Search results page, which is a much more efficient ad channel.
However, the company said that it’s still making progress in the fight against bots and other malicious adware that are using its platform to create false impressions.
For example, it said that a new feature called “Real-Time Ads,” which allows advertisers to create an “ad that never shows up in the browser” is currently in beta.
That means that it is still very early in the testing cycle.
In the meantime, Google+ continues to make strides in eliminating bots and the like that are taking advantage of the platform’s ease of use.
