A new audit has begun against Google to try and figure out if its YouTube app misled thousands of advertisers through the placement of ads.
The audit is reportedly going back to the year 2020 after one report alleged that the platform was putting ads across various websites that were owned by third parties and that it ended up violating standards of its own.
This new report mentioned how the popular app could have really tricked so many advertisers through the TrueView feature that’s part of the ad product working on the app.
Since then, we know that the tech giant was not happy with the news and called it out as not true.
For those who might not be aware, TrueView is a feature where ads get served across the app as well as the company’s website. In addition to that, you’ll find ads placed across various web pages that happened to be a part of the company’s partner programs. Moreover, you’ll also find several policies where ads end up popping up on the stream and they’re played across several places when the user is already busy viewing those.
The video is later on played by a user and it must be skippable as well as easily heard, sources have gone on to mention. This thought led to a study by Adalytics that took into consideration so many ads that were scrutinized for thousands of brands around the globe.
This was related to the year 2022 to 2023 and it was mentioned how 80% of those ads were displayed across websites owned by third parties and they similarly happened to be a part of the firm’s video partner initiative.
Shocking revelations were made through the study about how the ads got played on some unreliable sites and they were functioning through an autoplay endeavor with sounds being switched off. Similarly, we saw video slots being projected that weren’t even a part of the user’s window so the chances of them seeing those were close to none.
This whole time, advertisers thought their ads were playing brilliantly but in all reality, that was far from the case. The ads received marks for complete views and that is what advertisers wanted and hence were being billed for this offer.
After the shocking findings of the study went public, we saw new forms of investigations and audits arise that wished to take a closer look at how ads pertaining to the European Parliament could potentially have been impacted. And until now, the process continues to take place as we speak.
Until today, more data continues to be collected related to this subject. It’s designed to really assess the situation well and see where exactly the loopholes are and where Google is guilty of inaccurate behavior.
But the search engine giant has tried to counter the claims by mentioning some downfalls of the study and how the method used was faulty in nature and design. Therefore, it stated that such reports were created to do nothing but spread mischief and mislead both the public and those in the tech world.
However, Adalytics stands by its claims till today. And it’s called for more regulatory bodies to come forward and investigate the matter that it finds to be shocking and unfair on the part of advertisers who suffered enough in silence.
Moreover, other experts claim Google should financially compensate all those it misled in the EP, thanks to such advertisement buys.
The websites where such ads had been served include those that were Russian in origin and designed to mislead people or simply those that had American sanctions placed upon them.
Read next: Federal Court’s New Ruling Says Google Must Face Allegations Of Violating Children’s Privacy
The audit is reportedly going back to the year 2020 after one report alleged that the platform was putting ads across various websites that were owned by third parties and that it ended up violating standards of its own.
This new report mentioned how the popular app could have really tricked so many advertisers through the TrueView feature that’s part of the ad product working on the app.
Since then, we know that the tech giant was not happy with the news and called it out as not true.
For those who might not be aware, TrueView is a feature where ads get served across the app as well as the company’s website. In addition to that, you’ll find ads placed across various web pages that happened to be a part of the company’s partner programs. Moreover, you’ll also find several policies where ads end up popping up on the stream and they’re played across several places when the user is already busy viewing those.
The video is later on played by a user and it must be skippable as well as easily heard, sources have gone on to mention. This thought led to a study by Adalytics that took into consideration so many ads that were scrutinized for thousands of brands around the globe.
This was related to the year 2022 to 2023 and it was mentioned how 80% of those ads were displayed across websites owned by third parties and they similarly happened to be a part of the firm’s video partner initiative.
Shocking revelations were made through the study about how the ads got played on some unreliable sites and they were functioning through an autoplay endeavor with sounds being switched off. Similarly, we saw video slots being projected that weren’t even a part of the user’s window so the chances of them seeing those were close to none.
This whole time, advertisers thought their ads were playing brilliantly but in all reality, that was far from the case. The ads received marks for complete views and that is what advertisers wanted and hence were being billed for this offer.
After the shocking findings of the study went public, we saw new forms of investigations and audits arise that wished to take a closer look at how ads pertaining to the European Parliament could potentially have been impacted. And until now, the process continues to take place as we speak.
Until today, more data continues to be collected related to this subject. It’s designed to really assess the situation well and see where exactly the loopholes are and where Google is guilty of inaccurate behavior.
But the search engine giant has tried to counter the claims by mentioning some downfalls of the study and how the method used was faulty in nature and design. Therefore, it stated that such reports were created to do nothing but spread mischief and mislead both the public and those in the tech world.
However, Adalytics stands by its claims till today. And it’s called for more regulatory bodies to come forward and investigate the matter that it finds to be shocking and unfair on the part of advertisers who suffered enough in silence.
Moreover, other experts claim Google should financially compensate all those it misled in the EP, thanks to such advertisement buys.
The websites where such ads had been served include those that were Russian in origin and designed to mislead people or simply those that had American sanctions placed upon them.
Read next: Federal Court’s New Ruling Says Google Must Face Allegations Of Violating Children’s Privacy
