Google search ads spotted in compromising placements – By Natasha Lomas (Techcrunch) / Nov 28, 2023
Adtech report exposes brand safety and ad fraud risks lurking in the Google Search Partners network…
Research delving into a less visible component of Google’s search ads business — a network of third party sites called Google Search Partners (also known as the GSP network or SPN) — has documented scores of instances of Google search ads being served on non-Google websites that the media buyers paying for the marketing campaigns probably weren’t bargaining for. Such as hardcore pornography websites; sites hosting large amounts of pirated content; and websites of companies located in countries such as Iran and Russia which may be under sanctions by the U.S. government.
The report — whose title poses the question: ‘Does a lack of transparency create brand safety concerns for search advertisers?‘ — also found instances of search ads bought from Google being served on Breitbart.com, a news website which espouses far right views, despite brands in question having taken steps to avoid their ads appearing on the site, such as adding it to an ad blacklist.
“This raises the possibility that ads were served on websites and publishers despite the brand’s deliberate efforts to ensure brand safety and control over their media investments,” writes Adalytics, an ad analytics firm which is behind the study of the GSP network, discussing an example involving “a major Fortune 500 brand” client whose Google search ads not only appeared on Breitbart (despite it having the site on a blocklist) — but, per the report, were also being served on “pirated content sites, hardcore pornographic sites, and hundreds of putatative Iranian websites, which may potentially be under US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC) sanctions”.
CONTINUE > https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/28/google-gsp-risks-adalytics-report/
