Google Gives Full Refunds For Fraud; Amazon Goes Big In New York

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.

All Systems Go

Google will give advertisers full refunds for any fraud bought through DoubleClick Bid Manager, Ad Age’s George Slefo reports. The news comes weeks after Google began refunding tech fees for fraudulent buys as well as media fees when fraud was bought through its AdX exchange [AdExchanger coverage]. Now Google is putting the onus on supply partners including AppNexus, Index Exchange, OpenX, Teads, Telaria (formerly Tremor Video) and DoubleClick Ad Exchange to refund fraud found in their exchanges, covering roughly 90% of the inventory available through its DSP. Google will also provide more transparency to buyers around where fraud is coming from both before the bid and after an ad is served, and to exchanges on where the fraud originated on their platforms. To combat fraud and domain spoofing, Google said it will only work with publishers who have adopted the IAB’s ads.txt protocol [AdExchanger coverage]. More.

Amazon Goes Gotham

First, Whole Foods. Now, New York. Amazon is making good on its promise to power up on ad reps and engineers [AdExchanger coverage] by hiring an additional 2,000 people in advertising, Amazon Web Services and Amazon Fashion in New York City within the next three years. Amazon already employs about 1,800 people in Manhattan, but to accommodate its new recruits, the ecommerce giant will move into splashy new digs at Brookfield 5’s Manhattan West. The development, which is directly adjacent to the mega-development Hudson Yards, will house Amazon Advertising’s New York HQ, although the company isn’t detailing specifics on the exact headcount that’ll be based there. However, Amazon’s hiring spree isn’t ending anytime soon. More on CNBC.

From Russia With Love

When you watch a political ad on television or hear it on the radio, you know who’s paying for it. When you see one on Facebook, well, all bets are off – and that’s led to the social network’s current predicament [AdExchanger coverage]. The Wall Street Journal reports that lawmakers are now discussing legislation to compel digital platforms like Facebook to create a public disclosure platform for political ads. Noble intentions aside, the Journal wonders if such legislation would actually address the problem: “Holding social media to the same standard as broadcasters wouldn’t necessarily have stopped Russian ads from appearing on Facebook, experts say, because most of the ads paid for by Russian entities didn’t mention the election, voting or either candidate.” More. Facebook is a step ahead of the swamp however. Mark Zuckerberg described plans to force transparency on political ad buyers.

Not Bearing Fruit

Publishers are having trouble monetizing Apple News, even after the company’s splashy announcement that it would let NBCU rep its ad sales for the platform. While pubs like USA Today are happy with the audience engagement they’re seeing on the platform, revenue is “insignificant,” Michael Kuntz, head of digital revenue strategy for parent company Gannett, told Digiday. Some pubs are reluctant to let a competitor like NBCU sell their ad inventory, but those that deny the opportunity to outsource sales are more focused on selling inventory on their owned properties and let Apple News fall by the wayside. But the real roadblock could be Apple’s commitment to privacy (and subsequent adversity to digital advertising) deeply ingrained in its company culture. “Apple is still not an advertising company. The industry wants more data at a time when Apple is taking away data,” an anonymous source said. “[A]t the end of the day, the customer is the people who buy their phones.” More.

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