It’s all over the news: Big-name companies and organizations — AT&T, McDonald’s, The Guardian, Verizon and Johnson & Johnson are among them, in addition to the U.K. government — are shunning Google-owned YouTube and other assets, as some ads have been displayed alongside extremist-related videos, hate speech and other offensive materials.
An investigation led by The New York
Times has found that ads placed by British
newspaper The Guardian via Google’s Ad
Exchange — a service for managing multiple
monetization sources of online display advertising inventory — on YouTube were
being displayed alongside extremist-related,
terrorism-backed, offensive and/or violent
videos. The newspaper quickly pulled its ads
upon this discovery, urging others to follow
suit.
Financial analysts expect that Google and
its parent company Alphabet Inc. could lose
about $750 million this year, according to
a report by business news service Fortune.
YouTube alone could see a 7.5 percent drop in
revenue (its earnings have been estimated to
reach about $10 billion in 2017), in addition
to costs associated with fixing the problem.
In the fourth quarter of 2016, Google’s
ad business took in just over $22 billion,
representing about 85 percent of Alphabet
Inc.’s total revenue for that period. A large
part of total income includes Google search
advertising; The New York Times report notes
that the boycott does not include search ads.
Google is now addressing the problem of erroneous ad placement, starting with an
extensive review of its advertising policies,
the company told The New York Times, and is
making “a public commitment to put in place
changes that give brands more control over
where their ads appear.”
Put the reins on content
The internet is a vast worldwide arena that
is growing every minute, and the Google/YouTube boycott storm proves just how
difficult it is to control. So what does all of
this mean for advertisers? Leverage, potentially,
says Recode, an online business news
service. Given the controversy and revenue
losses, advertisers could be in a position to
negotiate with Google to meet their needs
and demands, which include more direct
control over things like ad tracking and ad
placement.
Smaller advertising outlets like Photonics
Media don’t have that problem. They don’t
have to worry about examining millions of
videos and other uploaded materials every
day the way Google does, which reduces concerns
about potentially offensive or violent
content slipping through the cracks.
With such concerns out of the way, advertisers
can get to know their audiences well
and more intimately. This ultimately builds a
trusting relationship, which, in turn, can lead
to successful ad campaigns and outcomes.
The smaller outlets are also in direct control
of the content they receive, as well as what is
shared and posted to their websites.
Smaller web outlets can better moderate
their content and audiences, too. Photonics
Media’s larger publications — Photonics
Spectra and BioPhotonics — are audited by a
third party to assure every reader is qualified.
The audience for its other print and online
publications are already vetted, too, as individuals
seek out information on photonics.
Part of the overarching ad placement issue
right now is that larger web outlets such as
Google don’t typically have much direct
control over uploaded content, given the immense
volume of websites and internet users
they deal with — automation, rather than
humans, places the majority of ads online,
making it difficult to always know exactly
which ads will be near which videos and
other content.
With smaller outlets such as Photonics
Media, advertisers can control where their
content is placed in specific publications and
on websites, because the outlet itself also has
control.
As Google reexamines its services, policies
and procedures, it continues its scouring
of videos and multimedia materials that
pour in to check for potentially offensive or
violent content. Google plans to ultimately
develop a comprehensive and trusted solution
to the problem of erroneous ad placement, but
admits that given the vast amount of content
online, it won’t happen overnight.
With smaller web advertising outlets, such
problems are not a concern.