Last week, a huge scandal occurred with Google over ads being shown next to offensive content.<\/p>\n
Google Adwords is the largest and most popular PPC advertising platform in the game.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, big brands including AT&T, Verizon, and others are either stopped or substantially reduced their business with Google.<\/p>\n
What could cause such a thing?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
This was not only an issue for YouTube but for apps that use Google advertising were also affected. Google\u2019s 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 \u201chold\u201d instead of \u201cbuy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Enterprise released the following statement, \u201cit appears that technology has gotten ahead of the advertising industry\u2019s checks and balances\u201d…\u201dThere is no doubt there are serious flaws that need to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to eMarketer, advertisers in 2017 are anticipated to actually spend more on digital than on television for the first time ever.<\/p>\n
Since Google\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
But now there is software that exists to track and analyze to see if their ads are showing next to offensive content.<\/p>\n
As a result, Google released a statement vowing to add controls to remedy the situation.<\/p>\n
Google stated, \u201cwe\u2019ve begun an extensive review of our advertising policies\u201d and \u201cwe\u2019re also raising the bar for our ads policies to further safeguard our advertisers\u2019 brands.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the kind of news advertisers need as leverage to negotiate better deals with Google.<\/p>\n
Even though Google has experienced this hiccup, marketers still heavily rely on the search engine giant\u2019s audience.<\/p>\n