Google's Data Plans; Fraud Still A Problem

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Google’s Search Data

Once upon a time, Google’s ad platform chief, Sridhar Ramaswamy, locked horns with his peer, Susan Wojcicki (now YouTube CEO), over the proper use of the company’s valuable search data. The Information’s Amir Efra tells the tale of some meetings where Ramaswamy challenged Wojcicki about the defensible uses of that data. Namely, should Google target ads with it? Their compromise: “Mr. Ramaswamy agreed to use search-history data to target ads on YouTube and other Google sites when a person is ‘logged in’ to their Google account.” When exactly that will happen is unclear. Also: Is this the start of Google’s login-based ID solution? More (sub required). Pair with AdExchanger’s own ponderous story on Ramaswamy.

Immovable Fraud

The digital ad fraud issue is far from solved, The Wall Street Journal’s Jack Marshall reports. Data from comScore suggests 46% of all digital ad impressions served during Q3 2014 went unseen. ComScore measured the exact same percentage of non-viewable ads during Q3 2013. Index Exchange chief Andrew Casale agrees that fraud hasn’t lessened. “Has it slowed at all? Not really, and until we see those numbers drop, what it tells us is the ‘bad guys’ are still seeing enough financial incentive to play the game,” he said. “The industry is trying to squash conversation about the topic because it’s not good for business. Frankly, it’s not good for my business either.”

Programmatic Stats

Building on its July programmatic report, data from BI Intelligence estimates that programmatic transactions will makeup the majority of non-search digital ad spend (52%) this year, with 30.6% of that digital ad spend in RTB platforms and 21.7% in non-RTB programmatic channels. BI says this year US programmatic ad revenue will exceed $15 billion and media-agency trading desks will continue to be decentralized, which could fuel programmatic spending from agency clients. Meanwhile, pricing for premium and guaranteed placements are rising while miscellaneous inventory prices continue to decrease.

Beijing-Boston Alliance

Cheetah Mobile sunk $24 million into Nanigans as part of a strategic partnership between the companies. “Nanigans will be the exclusive third-party advertising automation software provider used by Cheetah Mobile for advertising spend in certain social and mobile apps, until the end of the term of the commercial agreement,” reads the release. Beijing-based Cheetah Mobile hosts more than 395 million monthly active users. The partnership follows Cheetah Mobile’s recent decision to acquire mobile ad network MobPartner.

B2B Ecommerce Cooking

According to Forrester, B2B ecommerce sales will account for $780 billion this year, or about 9.3% of total ecommerce sales. By 2020, B2B ecommerce is expected to eclipse the trillion-dollar mark, and will represent 12% of the industry. So while “online expense management” and “industrial supply efficiency” aren’t exactly media buzzwords, prepare for a world of ecommerce where they’re increasingly important. Read on at Fortune.

Putting Machines In Charge

The ad industry has undergone a massive transformation at the hands of big data, and the same thing is about to happen to health care, crime prevention and banking – to name a few sectors. But as the technology soaks into other industries, concerns are surfacing. “What happens if my algorithm is wrong? Someone sees the wrong ad,” Claudia Perlich, a data scientist who works for an ad-targeting startup, tells The New York Times “What’s the harm? It’s not a false positive for breast cancer.” The dilemma is that the algorithms are built to avoid human oversight, but human bias can be a vital application.

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