Advertisers Boycott Google Over Ad Placement Issues

Google, the world's largest search engine, is under fire, as a reported 250 advertisers have suspended their ad campaigns with the company's YouTube platform. The outcry for a boycott began when AT&T and Verizon both pulled their ads from the company's platform following their ads being placed alongside five racist videos on the platform.

YouTube's platform allows little control over an advertiser's advertisement placement, leading to backlash among companies.

Last Friday, several companies announced that they are pulling their ads from the platform, including Audi, L'Oreal, Starbucks and dozens of other brands.

The boycott spells trouble for the search engine giant. Analysts predict that the platform may lose as much as $750 million in 2017. YouTube's exact revenue from advertisements isn't disclosed by Google, but estimates state the video platform's revenue may be as high as $10+ billion in 2017.

Five of the top 20 advertisers in the United States have pulled their ad campaigns out of Google in recent weeks.

Television companies are expected to reclaim some of their market share as a result. Networks sell a bulk of their advertising slots during the months of March to May. Television companies have a seasoned marketing platform that provides greater controls to advertisers to ensure brand safety.

Companies are also expected to spend more advertising dollars on social media marketing, email marketing and content marketing efforts.

Google's search engine advertising is not part of the current boycott.

The company's search platform allows advertisers to have far greater control over where their adverts are displayed. Analysts suggest that the YouTube backlash, originating from user-generated content, may spill over to larger social media entities, including Facebook and Twitter.

Google will need to spend significant resources to implement direct user controls on ad placement.

The boycott caused a quick policy change for Google ads that allow advertisers more control over their ad placements. Google's policy states that ads will be removed from "hateful, derogatory content" or any form of content that attacks or harasses certain groups of people.

The policy change is immediate.

The company will also ensure that advertiser's ads will show up more frequently on content that is created through the company's YouTube Partners Program. Google's platform suffered a major blow last week when the U.K. government pulled its ads from the company's platform, too.

Video creators that allow hateful content will experience an uptick in demonetization.

YouTube has faced backlash in recent years due to the company's lack of transparency with content creators. Many content creators suffer from demonetization or false copyright infringement claims with little recourse to correct the issues.

New ad guidelines implemented following the boycott are expected to be publicly announced to address the issue with clarity.

Verizon's ads sparking the initial boycott were featured alongside videos of an Egyptian extremist and hate preacher. The video was blamed for inciting a murder of a Pakistani politician. The Egyptian cleric, Wagdi Ghoneim, was banned from the platform.

YouTube's source of income is advertising, a prolonged boycott will harm the platform's ability to generate revenue. The boycott points to the harsh reality that advertisers don't know where their ads are placed in the digital landscape.