LinkedIn Ad Sales Up 111% in Q2

LinkedIn's second quarter earnings report seems to support the case that it's the social media network with the most underappreciated business model. Sales for its "Marketing Solutions" business unit - which entails display ads, branded groups, and white paper recommendations - grew 111 percent during the second quarter of the year, on a year-over-year basis. The San Francisco-based company says its revenues accredited to job listings/recruitment tools jumped 170 percent.

LinkedIn increased revenue by 120 percent in Q2 compared to the same period 2010, generating $121 million in total. Premium subscription sales brought in $23.9 million, a 60 percent increase over the year before. It turned a profit of $4.5 million, which somewhat surprisingly, was a small increase over the $4.3 million it netted in Q2 2010.

LinkedIn spokesperson Hani Durzy explained the modest profit hike in an email to ClickZ News. "As we have said consistently, we are in a heavy investment year," he said. "We plan to spend aggressively to build our our products, technology and team, because we are taking the long-term view that this is what is best for the LinkedIn platform and its members."

The company averaged 81.8 million unique visitors per month, an increase of 83 percent from 2010 Q2. Page views jumped 80 percent year over year, totaling 7.1 billion.

Revenue from the company's "field sales" channel totaled $66.7 million, representing 55 percent of total revenue in Q2. Revenue from the "direct sales" channel, meanwhile, totaled $54.3 million and accounted for 45 percent of total revenue in the quarter.