After new Adalytics research was released that exposed Google’s ad exchange has been serving ads on hundreds of websites located in areas sanctioned by the U.S., Telstra and Qantas cancelled their Google marketing temporarily.
U.S.-located ad tech company Adalytics found Google was posting ads alongside explicit and pirated content and also running ads on Russian and Iranian-sanctioned website for the U.S. Secret Service, FBI, and the U.S. Treasury. There were also alcohol ads found on a website created for children. All of these claimed breaches are a violation of the tech giants’ own policies as well as the governments.
Qantas and Telstra took quick action and temporarily disabled Google Search Partners as they went to the search engine giant for answers.
“We have temporarily paused the Google Search Partner program until we are able to discuss this further with Google and understand how this has occurred,” a Telstra spokesman said.
Based on Google’s search advertising revenue totalling $US 162.45 billion, the magnitude of this breech could reach $US11 billion ($16.53 billion) a year, according to Adalytics founder and chief executive Krzysztof Franaszek.
“If one were to simplistically assume that this sample is representative of the larger Google search ad ecosystem … one could estimate that $US11 billion in search ad campaign spend was allocated to Search Partners or Display Expansion for Search ad campaigns,” the Adalytics report said.
Google denies that the findings are 100% accurate and had alleged that Adalytics formerly made “exaggerated claims”.
However, companies including NAB, Qantas, Woolworths, Telstra and Atlassian’s advertisements all have been found on these searches on Iranian website Arshad Sara. Additionally, advertisements were located on Russian and hardcore pornographic websites.
“Advertisers have told Adalytics that they do not receive detailed placement reports on where ads are served on Google Search Partners when they run Performance Max campaigns. Furthermore, advertisers have reported they do not appear to know of a way to opt out of Search Partners when using Performance Max,” the Adalytics report said.
Google vice-president of global ads Dan Taylor said the revenue claims made by Adalytics are “absurd”, but they intend on reviewing the research.
“The examples shared are from our Programmable Search Engine (ProSE) product (a minuscule part of our Search Partner Network), which is a free search tool we offer to small websites so that they can present a search experience directly on their sites.
According to Joshua, president at marketing agency Quad, said that this is the tip of the ice berg and that this issue is widespread throughout the industry.
“This is an industry-wide problem, where there is a lack of diligence by ad tech vendors with their “publisher partners” and where advertisers are opted into opaque and non-disclosed inventory, often by default,” Lowcock said.
“This is not unique to Google. This is able to occur because there is a lack of regulatory oversight of the billion-dollar advertising industry and too much trust placed in the advertising ecosystem, in automation and AI, and an underinvestment in checks and balances that drive transparency.”
In fact, an Adalytics report said as much as 80% of Google’s video-ad placements on third-party sites breached standard commitments, which presented questions about online-ad business transparency. A claim Google denied.
The results of the report were concerning to Dutch politician and European parliament member Paul Tang, who said it was “the first time in history we face the unsettling reality of AI committing crimes”, according to a statement in the Adalytics report.
