The June 2023 Adalytics report alleged that YouTube’s TrueView ads aren’t what they are supposed to be, and as a result, advertisers have been wasting billions of dollars on the format. Are you exposed, too? How can you protect your budget? Keep reading to find out. 

What is the big deal?

The report points out that TrueView ads may have been served in standards drastically below those described in Google policies: invisible, muted, auto-played. These issues affect the Google Video Partners (GVP) placement - YouTube ads placed outside of youtube.com on affiliated websites and apps. Media buyers have been complaining about Google pushing GVP inventory: opting-in the placement by default in campaign settings, and for some campaign types not even allowing an opt-out. The estimated waste might have amounted to billions of dollars over the past years.

Should advertisers be concerned?

Simply: yes. The report includes a variety of well documented examples of fraudulent placement implementations which trick Google’s systems into believing a legitimate Trueview impression on a partner website happened, while in fact it didn’t. What’s more, the measurement partners like DoubleVerify or IAS are unable to detect these violations: they do not have the ability to run independent measurement (e.g., place a javascript) to verify the quality of YouTube ad partners’ serving environments. Instead, they rely on YouTube-provided data. Google is grading it’s own homework and IAS, DoubleVerify, and others just report it. 

Which ads are at risk of being wasteful?

As long as your video ads are displayed on youtube.com, you are in a safe place. However, allowing for Google Video Partners (GVP) content puts you in the danger zone. It may be in your best interest to stop using GVPs altogether. 

How to achieve a waste-safe campaign set-up?

As mentioned, Google has been accused of making it difficult to opt out of GVP. However, after the backlash, the opt outs have become easier to access and media buyers have no excuses for failing to exclude the GVP inventory if clearly instructed to do so by the advertiser. However, GVP is still opted in by default, so it takes a conscious action. 

How to make sure media buyers consistently use the proper setup?

Adfidence serves the largest global advertisers who manage multiple brands across many countries. Hundreds of ad accounts, thousands of campaigns. The Adfidence software automates campaign setup monitoring. With Adfidence, global advertisers confirm on a daily basis that all their media execution requirements are followed. It is automated, real time quality assurance across all media platforms, all markets, all campaigns. “Video Partners inventory is excluded” is one of many rules / best practices that the Adfidence platform monitors. 

There’s more

Adfidence was established to help advertisers set clear media execution guidelines and systematically enforce them. It helps global advertisers significantly raise the bar on media execution quality. YouTube’s GVP is just one of many potential leaks in your digital media bucket, our mission at Adfidence is to help you plug them all. Contact us to learn more about how we help the top brands get the most out of digital media.