The $45 billion Comcast-Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal is officially kaput. If the merger had materialized, it would have created an unsurpassable media and cable conglomerate with massive audience reach. From day one, regulators were wary about one company controlling too much broadband access, resulting in Comcast terminating the deal Friday. “Today, we move on,” […]
When it comes to shopping ads, it’s not all about Google anymore. While Q1 US spend for Google Shopping Ads (formerly Product Listing Ads) was up 37% year over year, Bing/Yahoo is starting to encroach on Google, at least in the United States, where spend increased 72% last quarter, according to the Adobe Digital Index […]
On April 21, Google will begin instituting a change to its mobile search algorithm that will take a site’s mobile-friendliness into account when ranking results. Indexed apps will also start showing up among organic search results. The update applies to mobile search only. In somewhat un-Google-like fashion, Google, which normally makes its search algorithm changes […]
The rumors were true. Google’s skippable and click-to-play YouTube ad format TrueView will be available programmatically, the company announced Thursday at the Programmatic I/O conference in San Francisco. The 5-year-old format, priced on a cost-per-view basis, represents more than 85% of in-stream ads on YouTube, according to Rany Ng, product management director for Google. TrueView […]
The European Commission hit Google with a Statement of Objections on Wednesday, claiming the tech giant prioritizes its shopping comparison service in search results, featuring Google Shopping results more prominently on screens, thereby abusing its dominance. The Commission claims this policy artificially diverts traffic, hinders market competition and violates EU antitrust rules, which ultimately harms […]
Consider it AOL ONE’s coming-out party. A year after AOL first outlined a vision to unify its programmatic technologies for both advertisers and publishers under a single platform, Tuesday marks the day the product officially ships. AOL has also renamed each of its technologies to more accurately reflect their capabilities. For instance, Adap.tv is now […]
Google is slowly revealing the fruits of its cross-screen TV efforts. “We’re introducing new ways for broadcasters to forecast in DoubleClick for Publishers by enabling them to forecast available Internet TV inventory with greater precision, insights and impact from patterns in commercial breaks,” wrote Rany Ng, director of product management for video, in a blog […]
Google’s plan to rival Netflix and Hulu by introducing its own ad-free subscription service has left some questioning as to whether it will restrict content creators enough to move elsewhere. Although YouTube creators will receive a 55% cut of paid subscription revenue for their videos, which is equal to the percentage they earn for pre-roll […]
Facebook violates EU law by tracking users for targeted advertising, a European privacy panel said Tuesday. The report was commissioned by the Belgian Privacy Commission, which sits under the EU’s European Commission, and is an updated version of an initial draft that surfaced in February. A key development of the update claims that Facebook cookies […]
Facebook is working with a dozen mobile ad networks to better track installs beyond mobile media it directly controls. Millennial Media, InMobi and AppLovin are among the networks to sign on for the beta program, but Facebook’s biggest competitors predictably aren’t playing along. The feature is part of a product called Analytics for Apps that […]
If you’re looking for a last-minute hotel in Times Square, who ya gonna call? Google hopes you’ll simply do a quick search. The company has updated its Google Hotel Ads format, an AdWords product first launched in 2011, to include greater searchability on price and location, user reviews, mobile compatibility and high-res images. Hospitality giant […]
Google has snapped up Toro, a tool that helps developers market their apps on the Facebook platform. The deal appears to be an acquihire, since Toro employs fewer than 10 and has begun urging customers to seek out alternative partners to support their Facebook install campaigns. (Read the blog post.) Google declined to comment other than to […]
Google has a long history of working with agencies, but its push for premium video – resulting in more direct relationships with publishers – may alienate it from its longtime partners. A seeming point of contention is Google Partner Select, a video exchange established in 2014, promising exclusive access to 30 premium publishers. Typically, Google […]
If you’re looking for a deep dive into Google’s advertising business, you’re not getting it in an earnings call. Google reported FY 2014 revenue of $66 billion, up 19% YoY. Its Q4 revenue was $18.1 billion, all inclusive of traffic acquisition costs (TAC), which were $3.6 billion in Q4 (22% of ad revenue). Read the […]
Last week at CES, Google had a lot to say about video and viewability. But the company is not a viewability virgin. It’s had a viewable impressions tool called Active View in the market for well over two years and will soon extend viewability reporting across YouTube, Google Display Network and DoubleClick for both desktop […]
Google’s big video reveal this week included a significant update to its premium video exchange, Google Partner Select. At the time of its launch last June, it was unclear how many participants initially were involved in Google’s effort to “bring together the best of brand advertising with the best of programmatic,” Neal Mohan, Google’s VP […]
Hear that? It’s the sound of Google quietly mentioning that it plans to report on audibility for video ads at some point later this year. The audibility reference was buried as a footnote toward the end of a larger update on Google’s intention to roll out viewability reporting across all of its ad platforms, including […]
Just a few months after it hired Digilant COO Nathan Woodman to take charge of its demand-side business, IPONWEB has nabbed another well-known ad tech guy. The 13-year-old ad platform company has hired Bob Walczak, VP product at PubMatic, to oversee BidSwitch, its ad exchange-like product. At IPONWEB, Walczak will run sales and business operations for BidSwitch, a […]
Google spent the year branding YouTube as the de facto video partner for brand advertisers. 2014 was certainly active for Google’s video properties. Its ads and commerce chief, Susan Wojcicki, took the reins at YouTube as senior vice president, Google packaged the top 5% performing YouTube videos for brand buys in a program called Google […]
Google revealed on Wednesday key insight on how consumers see ads online, pooling data from its advertising platforms over June and July. The company compiled the results in a study called “The Importance of Being Seen: Viewability Insights for Digital Marketers and Publishers.” Get the PDF here. “We’ve had Active View available on the Google Display […]
It’s been nine months since Susan Wojcicki was named CEO at YouTube, clearing the path for Sridhar Ramaswamy to take full control of Google’s $50 billion-plus advertising business. As org changes go, it was a doozy. YouTube would get a proven leader to take it to the next level – by investing in talent and courting new […]
App developers are test-obsessed. They don’t spend a dime without knowing how it’ll turn out. That could be part of the reason why they haven’t done much spending on in-app mobile YouTube pre-roll. Until recently, Google Analytics provided developers with feedback on things like rate of install, AdWords performance, how often an app is opened, […]
What do telcos and YouTube talent have in common? Not a lot right now, but that will change once video and TV ad budgets converge. Consider the YouTube multichannel network (MCN), Google content partners that are responsible for both production and audience monetization and which get 55% of banner and pre-roll ad revenue. The digital […]
As fraudsters swarm like so many bees at the display advertising picnic, the industry is trying to blunt their stings with a combination of automated and manual solutions. Google has been among the most proactive ad platform players, hiring legions of real humans to review websites submitted to DoubleClick Ad Exchange. It recently acquired Spider.io, a […]
Considering two of the usual pure-play suspects in Forrester’s Cross-Channel Attribution Wave (Convertro and Adometry) were snapped up by AOL and Google on the very same day in May, its latest release Friday had all kinds of new implications – media neutrality and a platform mentality among them. The report, authored by Forrester analyst Tina […]
Google’s Q3 revenue rose 20% year over year to $16.52 billion, though it continued to see click volume rise (17% YoY) and cost per clicks fall (2% YoY). Google sites comprised about two-thirds of revenue, for a total of $11.25 billion. Partner sites contributed $3.43 billion, or about 20%. Google’s O&O paid clicks (which include […]
Germany is leading the attack in the EU’s deepening privacy war against Google. Late last Tuesday, a legal ruling levied by Hamburg data protection commissioner Johannes Caspar required that Google obtain Germans’ expressed permission in order to access their data, or face $1.27 million in fines. “Our requirements aim at a fair balance between the […]
At the outset of Advertising Week in New York City, WPP chief Sir Martin Sorrell turned his attention to Amazon’s VP of global ad sales Lisa Utzschneider on the stage they shared with Live Nation, CBSi and ESPN. “Your job, I guess, is to demonstrate the value of Amazon’s data for off-platform advertising,” he quipped. “Your revenues […]
CPG giant Mondelēz International, which made waves in the ad industry earlier this year by owning its deal with video demand-side platform TubeMogul, has entered another agreement designed to enhance its online video investments: a partnership with Google covering markets in North America, Europe and emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East […]
Google’s betting the industry needs a hand making ads workable across devices. On Monday, it unwrapped two mobile display formats and a handful of desktop tools that aim to help advertisers optimize ads across multiple screens. Google will release the tools piecemeal over the coming months across the Google Display Network, the AdMob Network and […]
