Adalytics

Industry experts weigh in on Forbes’s MFA subdomain and why ad verification tools still regularly fail to flag some instances of alleged SIVT.

URLs and domains – even those of big-name publisher brands – cannot be trusted in isolation. Buyers need to look at page-level data, too.

In today’s newsletter: Adalytics reveals Forbes was running a separate MFA sub-domain; The New York Times seeks to use attention benchmarking to validate its premium publisher status; and Google is reportedly looking to buy HubSpot.

Why the 4A’s is hosting secret meetings to redefine MFA from “made for advertising” to “made for arbitrage.” Plus, a new report from Adalytics reveals that MFA-blocking solutions aren’t as effective as tech vendors claim.

Practically every ad tech vendor has put out a press release in recent months full of bluster about cutting out made for advertising sites – and yet supply sources remain oversaturated with garbage inventory.

In today’s newsletter: Google agrees to placement-level reporting across its Google Search Partners network; how an explosion of ads is ruining the internet; and Google pays publishers to test an unreleased generative AI tool.

The question isn’t whether Google will fall, but whether its time is near. And, if so, what will finally bring it down?

This is the story of Adalytics, the advertising analytics startup founded by a computational biology researcher with a knack for uncovering ad tech’s ills and publishing blockbuster research reports to expose them.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The AI A/B Google Ads industry liaison Ginny Marvin was called out during a recent Q&A session hosted on an SEO-focused Discord server.  SEO folks had spotted instances where Google clearly A/B tested different ad copy options without a brand’s awareness or approval, Search […]

From clear-eyed looks at the industry’s shortcomings and conflicts of interest to prognostications that presage the next batch of conference panel talking points, you can count on these astute industry voices to drive the conversation.

A small bone is being thrown. AdExchanger has learned that Google is offering advertisers information on certain ad placements across its Search Partner Network in response to the most recent Adalytics report.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Maxxed Out Google will temporarily allow opt-outs for its search partner network, GSP, which serves ads for searches on non-Google sites, Adweek reports. Google is responding to a report last week by Adalytics, an ad tech auditing outfit. Adalytics demonstrated how Google advertisers […]

Google search ads appear on a host of unsavory and offensive sites, according to recent Adalytics research. And without any transparent reporting from Google, marketers can’t do anything about it.

Adalytics published a new transparency report digging into the GSP, a largely unknown and completely nontransparent search ad network.

After 12 years of working in – or adjacent to – the ad tech industry, I am coming to terms with the simple answer to many depressing questions.

Arielle Garcia, UM’s former chief privacy and responsibility officer, explains why she decided to leave the large agency holding company model – a model that is rife with competing interests and conflicting loyalties, shackled to the industry status quo by “dysfunctional interdependencies.”

This summer, after looking into how advertising works on YouTube, ad tech research firm Adalytics released two reports in quick succession that struck a nerve with advertisers and media buyers. Google’s Dan Taylor weighs in on the debate.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Google Bites Back Google isn’t done refuting Adalytics’ accusations that YouTube targets ads to kids watching YouTube. On Thursday, it released an analysis of Adalytics’ report, highlighting how advertising works on YouTube’s made-for-kids (MFK) content to prove it is not, in fact, serving […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Tracking Shot The bad news keeps coming for YouTube. The platform has been under intense scrutiny from research firm Adalytics. Its latest report, which accuses YouTube of serving targeted ads on kid-focused content, may have also uncovered evidence that YouTube has been violating […]

Personalized ads aren’t supposed to run on YouTube’s kid-focused content. But they’re showing up anyway. We bring on Adalytics researcher Krzysztof Franaszek to discuss his growing body of research into YouTube’s murky ad practices.

On Wednesday – less than two months after going to town on the Google Video Partners program – Adalytics published what it says is direct evidence of personalized ads being served against kids content on YouTube in a follow-up to its bombshell report last week alleging the same.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Results Are In YouTube told clients earlier this month about plans to start billing some of its video inventory based on its own co-viewing numbers starting in January. Now the buy-side backlash is rolling in, Ad Age reports. This plan “contradicts the […]

The second round of ad fraud (and worse) alleged by Adalytics on the part of Google/YouTube provides yet another definitive example of the problem with mega walled gardens.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Leave Those Kids Alone Adalytics is taking a second swing at Google. On Thursday, it released its second report about YouTube this summer, this one alleging that the tech giant is targeting ads to content made for kids. Adalytics claims that the installation […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Google Gripe Google is refunding agencies for “billing discrepancies,” aka ads that ran in places where they weren’t supposed to, Ad Age reports. The refunds (which Google refers to as credits) closely follow the viral Adalytics report alleging that YouTube placed TrueView ad […]

Google’s protestations about TrueView’s media quality aside, two questions remain: Why is any of this happening, and why is change unlikely in the short term?

YouTube is very much in the hot seat. However, let’s zoom out and consider all of the different media companies and platforms that are doling out “grab bags” of video inventory.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. How Amazon Ads Keeps Winning A recently ballyhooed eMarketer stat estimates current retail media advertising at more than $45 billion and on its way to $100 billion by the end of 2026. That may be true, but it misses some crucial context. Of the […]

Playground XYZ announced today that its Attention Intelligence Platform is now compatible with YouTube ads.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Trading Up “Investors had gotten away from an industry they used to love, but the fundamentals are still there when you consider what percent of global ad spend is bought programmatically today versus what will be programmatic five or 10 years from now.”  […]