• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, November 6, 2014

Update: The article initially said that AOL's Q3 2014 revenue was $473.4 million, not $626.8 million. The article has been updated to reflect this. The $473.4 million figure was the company's global ad revs, not the company's total revs for the quarter.

In its Q3 2014 earnings announcement this morning, AOL revealed that it has earned $626.8 million in revenue for the quarter. Of that $626.8 million, AOL Platforms -- the division which houses the company’s ad tech stack -- accounted for $271.9 million, up from $247.1 million in the second quarter.

The company’s programmatic ad business accounted for 37% of its non-search ad revenue, up from 12% one year ago and up from 34% one quarter ago.

The AOL Platforms division saw revenue increase 44% year-over-year, including Adap.tv, which AOL acquired in August 2013. Excluding Adap.tv revenue, the Platforms unit still grew 23% year-over-year, which AOL attributes to the growth of premium ad format sales.

AOL has been pushing into more “premium” ad units, especially in the programmatic space. At its core, the company’s recent Programmatic Upfront event was a medley of video announcements, related to both digital and linear video. AOL is one of several companies attempting to spearhead a charge into the programmatic trading of linear television.

"AOL has successfully turned around its ad business by taking advantage of premium video advertising through Adap.tv and its programmatic buying platform," commented Lauren Fisher, an analyst at eMarketer. "The company is seeing double-digit growth in its U.S. ad revenues for the first time since the recession, and we expect the company to have its highest US digital ad revenues since 2007 this year."

AOL’s programmatic surge has been documented for over a year now, and its Q3 earnings report was less littered with ad tech tidbits than previous quarters, perhaps because it’s not such “new” news for the company anymore. However, it’s still worth highlighting in this space because AOL’s programmatic business continues to grow despite the fact that it already shoulders over one-third of the company’s revenue.

Of course, programmatic growth is not exclusive to AOL. Recent eMarketer projections predict the U.S. programmatic market to reach $10.06 billion in 2014, up 137.1% -- and it’s not showing signs of slowing. eMarketer anticipates the market to double again by 2016, reaching $20.41 billion.

I am not a financial analyst, so this should not be taken as advice and is nothing more than speculation on my part, but I would guess that AOL expects its programmatic (non search) business to continue growing. Its “ONE” platform has yet to launch, but the company has been touting it -- and adding to it -- for nearly eight months now; it’s seems clear the company has big hopes for the forthcoming platform.

AOL Platforms has been recognized for its presence and impact in the ad tech space. More specifically, the unit’s chief marketing officer, Allie Kline, has.

Kline received the ad:tech 2014 Industry Achievement Award along with Peter Naylor, head of ad sales at Hulu.