Google’s new mobile YouTube ads are exactly why it wants a standalone iOS app

Google has announced that it’s launching its TrueView in-stream video ads on mobile devices today. The move comes after the official YouTube app was noted to be missing from Apple’s iOS 6 update and exemplifies one of the major reasons that Google is likely not unhappy about that.

The TrueView ads are skippable (after a certain amount of seconds) and have featured prominently on YouTube’s desktop site for some time now.

When the announcement was made about YouTube’s app being ditched from iOS 6, we told you why Google might not be so unhappy about that. It will allow Google to update its apps on a quicker schedule, making the experience uniform across all platforms.

But it will also allow Google to leverage the app to ship ads to its mobile users, something that it was not allowed to do in its official partner app, which Apple built-in collaboration with the search giant. TrueView ads like the one you see in the screenshot below (on Android) are likely part of Google’s plan to make money on iOS. The traffic on iOS to Google properties is immense and the revenue it earns on Apple’s platform far outstrips what it earns on Android.

Google wants a slice of that pie for itself and these mobile ads are one way that it’s going to do that. Expect to see a lot of tweaks and fiddles with the YouTube experience to make it more lucrative for Google in preparation for the new standalone iOS app that is no doubt coming with the release of iOS 6.

If I had to guess, I’d also say that it will also tweak links on Google.com to open in its own app vs. Apple’s built-in video player. I wouldn’t be surprised if the new YouTube app also opened links in Chrome if installed on iOS, just like the Google+ app does.

Apple has been trying to divorce itself from Google for some time now, and the removal of the YouTube app as a built-in option is another step along that path. But, at least in this case, Google could end up with more revenue as a result.