Earlier this year, on Thursday 21st January to be precise, SVP of Ads & Commerce at Google, Sridhar Ramaswamy, released a statement discussing the tech giant’s commitment to fighting bad ads. In the blog post, he highlighted six bad practices that Google cracked down on in 2015, stating that upwards of 40 000 sites, and over 12.5 million ads were blocked because they advertised counterfeit goods, or misled audiences about the effectiveness of pharmaceutical goods. Ads for weight loss scams were among those sites blocked.
Ramaswamy went on to say that the team had blocked almost 7 000 phishing sites last year, and an additional 10 000 sites offering unwanted software were disabled. This reduced unwanted downloads via Google by over 99 percent. A big step toward improving the web experience for users as “unwanted software can slow your devices down or unexpectedly change your homepage and keep you from changing it back.”
Google also blocked 17 million trick-to-click ads, which the statement describes as “ads designed to look like system warnings from your computer”. The goal here is a better experience for web users, but advertisers also stand to win with this endeavour. The Ads & Commerce SVP confirmed that they are working on technology that recognises accidental mobile ad clicks. This could potentially save advertisers from wasted spend on mobile since they won’t be charged for those clicks deemed ‘accidental’.
Ramaswamy rounded off the blog post by reaffirming Google’s commitment to stay ahead of fraudsters and ads that don’t follow their advertising policies. He stated that in 2016 we can expect further restrictions for weight loss and pharmaceutical advertising, and new protections against malware and bots. This will surely make more space for good ads. Ads that connect people to the products and services they most want to see.
About Author
Joel Rao is the Regional Head of East Africa at Clicks2Customers. He is based in Kenya.
