Google is under investigation over claims it misled advertisers about where it places video ads – and whether it violated US sanctions. As the Wall Street Journal previously reported, research by analytics firm Adalytics suggests that Google “may have cost media buyers up to billions of dollars in digital advertising” by placing ads on websites in ways that violate Google’s own standards .
The report focuses on one of Google’s video ad formats called TrueView, which the company places on YouTube and other sites across the web, known as Google video partners. These ads appear during videos and offer viewers the option to skip the entire commercial after five seconds. Advertisers only pay for the ad if a viewer sees at least 30 seconds of it without skipping (or the full length of the ad if it’s less than 30 seconds).
While the Journal notes that Google promises these ads will appear on “high-quality sites before the main video content of the page with the sound on,” Adalytics found using data that 80 percent of 1,100 brands did not by 2020 until 2023.
“Advertisers are eligible for a refund”
Instead, Adalytics found that Google placed ads in small, muted video players that appear in the corner of the screen. They were also found to sometimes loop automatically “without any interaction or initiation from the viewer” due to the obscured “skip” button in some cases. Adalytics calls this “a direct violation of Google’s quality standards for TrueView ads” and says it could have “artificially increased” ad completion rates. This means advertisers may have paid for ad views that didn’t deliver what Google promised.
In a response published Wednesday, Google called Adalytics’ claims “extremely inaccurate.” It said the report “falsely implied” that advertisers spend the majority of their money on campaigns that appear on Google video partner sites. The company argues that “the vast majority of video ad campaigns run on YouTube.”
Google also says advertisers can review the ads they serve on third-party sites and ban them from appearing on certain sites. The company adds that it also prohibits publishers from “engaging in any disruptive, invasive, or deceptive advertising practices.”
Nandini Jammi, co-founder of the advertising watchdog group Check My Ads, found a pretty big inconsistency with the language used by Google in its response to the investigation. Google’s blog post states that it “offers the ability to opt out of being served ads on third-party sites at any time,” but Jammi noted that according to Google’s own support page, this is not the case:
Starting September 30, 2021, new video promotions campaigns you create in Google Ads will automatically leverage Google video partners… To ensure you get the best performance across all Google networks, You cannot unsubscribe the Google video partner for video action campaigns [emphasis ours].
Google spokesman Christopher Lawton told The Verge, “There are several types of campaigns and we offer an opt-out from Google Video Partners for each of them.” They want to exclude third-party websites from performance campaigns.
But low-quality ads aren’t the only problem here. While Google says it screens its third-party partners against the criteria of its video ad safety promise, this seems at odds with some websites that serve ads. Adalytics specifically draws attention to several reports that Google has been showing ads on Android apps that aren’t available on the Google Play Store. Some of these came from developers based in countries sanctioned by the US government, including Iran. As Adalytics noted, this raises concerns about whether advertisers inadvertently paid sanctioned companies.
“Google deliberately makes itself the puppet of the dictators”
Additionally, a Check My Ads report breaks down Adalytics’ research and highlights several questionable third-party sites on which Google serves its ads, such as Russian state-controlled media sites Russia Today and Pravda. Other websites mentioned by Check My Ads include right-wing outlet Breitbart, which has already been blocked by over 4,000 advertisers; the far-right financial blog Zero Hedge, which was accused last year of spreading Russian propaganda; and Newsmax, another right-wing media outlet charged with defamation for its coverage of the unsubstantiated Dominion Voting conspiracy.
In a statement to Adalytics and Check My Ads, Member of the European Parliament Paul Tang criticized Google over the possibility that the Parliament may have paid for ads that appeared on Russian websites. “Google deliberately makes itself the puppet of dictators and also smears the European Parliament,” Tang says of YouTube’s scandalous system.”
As of this writing, it’s not clear what’s next for Google, but Jammi tells The Verge that “advertisers are entitled to a refund” of money spent on bad ads. “Advertisers are not only earning their money back, but also the data they need to do an audit of the data Google has given them so far, as we cannot be sure that Google will even refund them the correct amount. ”
Check My Ads also encourages advertisers to ask Google to allow opt-in only to serve ads on partner sites, and asks the search giant to share how it reviews those sites.
Advertisers have already started to act on Adalytics’ findings… and things aren’t looking good for Google. Michael Feeley, co-founder of Black Bean Media, a programmatic advertising management company, tells The Verge that this “should be a wake-up call for advertisers participating in the Google ecosystem.” [and] Buying programmatic videos in general.”