Last week, a huge scandal occurred with Google over ads being shown next to offensive content.
Google Adwords is the largest and most popular PPC advertising platform in the game.
On Wednesday, big brands including AT&T, Verizon, and others are either stopped or substantially reduced their business with Google.
What could cause such a thing?
Big brands came to this conclusion because Google was showing their ads next to content that not only did not align with their company values but was outwardly offensive.
The news sparked an investigation by a British newspaper who conducted an investigation into these offensive YouTube videos that promote extremism and hatred next to regular ads.
This was not only an issue for YouTube but for apps that use Google advertising were also affected. Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. could see a serious hit to their revenues due to this loss in business. Alphabet Inc has had a hard time developing revenue outside of advertising. Before this all happened, financial analyst Brian Wieser changed his recommendation for Alphabet Inc. stock to “hold” instead of “buy”.
Enterprise released the following statement, “it appears that technology has gotten ahead of the advertising industry’s checks and balances”…”There is no doubt there are serious flaws that need to be addressed.”
According to eMarketer, advertisers in 2017 are anticipated to actually spend more on digital than on television for the first time ever.
Since Google’s platform is operated by automated software that uses algorithms to run your ads. Although the customer sets up guidelines and parameters here and there, ultimately the companies themselves have very little insight into exactly who sees your ads and where they are being shown.
But now there is software that exists to track and analyze to see if their ads are showing next to offensive content.
As a result, Google released a statement vowing to add controls to remedy the situation.
Google stated, “we’ve begun an extensive review of our advertising policies” and “we’re also raising the bar for our ads policies to further safeguard our advertisers’ brands.”
This is the kind of news advertisers need as leverage to negotiate better deals with Google.
Even though Google has experienced this hiccup, marketers still heavily rely on the search engine giant’s audience.
Final Thoughts
Even the almighty Google can experience these kind of faux pas. Adwords is the largest and most popular advertising PPC platform in the world but still experiences some adversities. Since the advertising platform is so extensive, things are bound to fall through the cracks. Securing your campaign is becoming an uphill battle. Ensure your ads are being shown in the right place and to the right people. This is just one instance of many that highlights the vulnerabilities that exist in PPC advertising. It is now more important than ever to monitor and protect your campaigns so that they can achieve their intended purpose. Preventing click fraud is one integral step to optimizing your next PPC campaign.