Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) Youtube’s “True-View” framework has made it one of the most popular places for advertisers to buy an ad slot. Under this model, ad buyers only pay if viewers watch at least 30 seconds of a skippable video. If the viewer is not interested and presses “skip” after 5 seconds of play, the buyer is not charged. This has the obvious benefit of charging corporations only when their ads have served their purpose of catching someone’s attention.
For a while, it seemed the only loser in this scheme was the occasional viewer, annoyed at the fact they had to endure five seconds before enjoying their favorite content. But research by “Analytics”, a group specialized in analyzing advertising data, has revealed there is (potentially) another, less obvious loser: the advertisers themselves.
The analysis found that on several websites (as many as hundreds of thousands), skippable ads play in the background, without sound, unbeknownst to viewers. Under the “True-View” scheme, this corresponds to viewing the ad for more than 30 seconds: the “viewer” has no way of knowing they can skip an invisible ad. The advertiser is therefore charged, and this is without the viewer having even seen the product being promoted.
There is clear hypocrisy involved here. This style of hidden advertising is a violation of Google’s (which owns Youtube) advertising terms. It is therefore no surprise that a multitude of ad buyers have requested refunds and even contemplated taking legal action.
Google has released a statement stating that the claims made against them are “extremely inaccurate”. They have also said that they will take appropriate action to avoid any such problems in the future. All in all, they seem to suggest that any sidestepping of their own policy was committed through no fault of their own.
It will be interesting to see how this scenario will turn out. The (understandably) angry advertisers will seek refunds, but Google seems to deny wrongdoing. It could very well be that long-fought legal battles will result.
