Google violated its promised standards when placing video ads on other web sites about 80% of the time — a dismal rate that raises questions on the search giant’s transparency’s online ad business, in line with an explosive report.
The latest research from ad campaign analytics firm Adalytics cited an absence of transparency in Google’s proprietary TrueView platform, which offers viewers choice-based ads and services Google-owned YouTube, plus hundreds of thousands of other third-party apps and web sites.
TrueView asks users in the event that they need to skip the video ad after five seconds. Google’s policies state that TrueView ads can be played before sites’ major video content, and can be skippable and audible.
The service also guarantees that advertisers will only pay for ads that aren’t skipped and are played in full.
Nevertheless, Adalytics claimed that Google violates these parameters 80% of the time, costing “media buyers as much as billions of digital ad dollars, which were spent on small, muted [or] auto-playing” video ads, the report says.
These ads were also played on sites that don’t meet Google’s standards for monetization, Adalytics noted, citing that Google touts a “careful vetting” system of approving “prime quality Google Video Partners” outside its YouTube platform that it seemingly doesn’t abide by.
“That is an unacceptable breach of trust by YouTube,” Joshua Lowcock, global chief media officer at ad agency UM Worldwide, told The Wall Street Journal.
When Google runs ads on third-party web sites, it guarantees a bunch of standards, including that ads can be skippable and audible. In line with a latest report, the tech giant violates those parameters about 80% of the time.Getty Images
“Google must fix this and fully refund clients for any fraud and impressions that failed to satisfy Google’s own policies,” he added.
For ad placements on third-party sites, brands typically pay $100 for each 1,000 accomplished views of their ad. They’re charged a premium for more desirable ad placements, akin to within the margins of a third-party site’s landing page.
For TrueView campaigns, Fortune 500 brands could spend upwards of $75,000, in line with Adalytics’ report.
Google’s corporate parent Alphabet doesn’t disclose how much of the earnings come from Google Video Partners and TrueView. Nevertheless, Google raked in $224.47 billion in total ad revenue last yr, in line with Statista.
Adalytics also found that TrueView was primarily placing its customers’ ads on these unqualified third-party sites which are home to “clickbait” content and misinformation reasonably than YouTube — which is generally most desirable to advertisers for its nearly 370 million monthly energetic users.
“For one Fortune 500 brand which spent tens of 1000’s of dollars on a selected TrueView skippable in-stream campaign, almost 90% of the campaign budget went to Google Video Partner mobile apps and web sites. Only ~10% of the TrueView campaign budget was delivered against YouTube channels,” Adalytics’ report says.
Adalytics drew its conclusions by observing campaigns for greater than 1,100 brands that recorded billions of ad impressions between 2020 and 2023. The corporate shared its findings with The Journal.
The analytics firm said video-ad placements for giant brands like Johnson & Johnson, American Express, Samsung, Sephora, Macy’s, Disney+ and The Wall Street Journal violated Google’s promised standards, the outlet reported.
Ads for presidency agencies like Medicare, the US Army, the Social Security Administration and the Latest York City municipal government were also affected by the breach.
For each brand in Adalytics’ sample, greater than half the budget they spent on the bundles went to non-YouTube properties, the research found.
Several ad buyers told The Journal that they aren’t aware when — or if — their ads are run on third-party sites.
Google offers TrueView campaigns, where ads will appear each on third-party sites and apps in addition to YouTube — the desirable platform for advertisers due to its massive user base.REUTERS
A Google spokesman, meanwhile, told the outlet that advertisers can clearly see that their ads may run on third-party sites, plus how much is spent there. He also noted that advertisers can easily opt out of Google’s ad programs.
When The Post reached out to the tech giant for comment, a spokesman pointed to a blog post titled “Transparency and brand safety on Google Video Partners.”
“The report wrongly implies that almost all campaign spend runs on GVP reasonably than YouTube,” the blog states.
It also insists that “advertisers are on top of things,” though Adalytics pointed to media buyers’ testimonials in its report, which said they “feel prefer it’s not a transparent investment.”
