The outcry for more “transparency” in advertisement transactions and the relevant viewability measurements of video ads has come to Google.
The Media Rating Council (MRC) will be auditing Google’s YouTube, AdWords, and DoubleClick Bid Manager. The focus of the audit will primarily be the “viewability measurement integrations for accreditation,” according to Marketing Land.
For the YouTube audit, the MRC will be looking at the measurement practices of the platform’s third-party companies: DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Sicence, and MOAT. The YouTube audit will cover such aspects as data collection, analysis, and reporting.
Google voluntarily opened up its files for the audit in the wake of Facebook’s struggle to remain private which ended earlier this month. Recent reports on Facebook being pressured with disgruntled or suspicious advertisers led the online titan to prudently open up its information files to auditors in order to appease its ad-base.
In the wake of FB’s apparent compromise and Google’s “voluntary” audit, advertisers have expressed their hope that a policy of informational transparency may become the norm in the online marketing industry.
Although advertisers had been pressing, in vain, for a more fluid exchange of information from the online titans for several years, the outcry finally opened up deafened ears, following a report last summer released by the Association of National Advertisers. The ANA disclosed information about some of the “hidden practices” used in the online advertisement industry.
Finally, the all but hidden conflict came to a head after FB recently announced it had made errors in its self-disclosed view ability numbers from some of its video ads.
