There is a possibility that Google’s TrueView skippable in-stream video ads have misled advertisers for years. A recent Adalytics research report has uncovered a potential misalignment in Google’s TrueView skippable in-stream video ads, which may have misled advertisers, including Fortune 500 brands, the US federal government, and small businesses, for years.
Adalytics is a browser extension which claims to be working to improve ad targeting and consumer data collection
The report suggests that billions of digital ad dollars may have been spent on small, muted, out-stream, auto-playing, or interstitial video ad units running on independent websites and mobile apps, instead of the intended TrueView format.
Google’s TrueView ads are designed to be skippable and audible, with video play initiated by active user engagement. However, the study reveals that significant quantities of TrueView ads were served in ways that did not meet Google’s quality standards, such as being served muted and auto-playing as out-stream video or as obscured video players on independent sites. This raises concerns about the effectiveness of ad spending and the consumer experience associated with TrueView ads.
“Youtube and Google’s own policies state that TrueView in-stream ads must be skippable, audible, and initiated by viewer action. TrueView in-stream ad placement reports from brands and advertisers – including Fortune 500 brands – showed that in some ad campaigns, between 42 percent to 75 percent of TrueView in-stream ad spend was allocated to GVP (Google Video Partner) sites and apps which did not meet Google’s standards,” an excerpt from the report said.
As per Adalytics, brands that may have purchased muted, auto-playing, mis-declared TrueView skippable in-stream inventory include names like Samsung, Sephora, Macy’s, Disney Plus, Best Buy, Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Office Depot, Pizza Hut, Microsoft, Instacart, IBM (Redhat), Ford, Honda, Vimeo, HBO Max and many others.
Some of the media agencies and media buying companies that appeared to have transacted muted, auto-playing, out-stream TrueView ads as per the same report are Interpublic Group (Matterkind, Initiative, Mediabrands), Dentsu (Amnet), Publicis (Audience on Demand, Precision), Omnicom (Accuen), WPP (Xaxis, Headlight, Essence) and Havas (Affiperf) among others.
Findings of the research say this mis-declared TrueView in-stream inventory goes back as far as 2020.