On September 22, 2021, Google announced a new initiative to make the Google Ads experience more transparent.
This move comes in response to the growing variety and prevalence of Google Ads, which can now be found across the Google ecosystem on Search, Display, YouTube and more. Going forward, advertisements on Google will now feature disclosures so that users can get insight into who the advertiser is, what other advertisement campaigns this advertiser currently runs on Google, and why this particular ad is being shown.
This change is just part of a larger transformation of Google Ads in response to greater regulatory scrutiny and a broad shift across Big Tech toward greater consumer privacy and advertiser transparency.
In fact, this latest initiative is just building upon the advertiser identity verification program that Google launched last Spring. With that program, Google began requiring advertisers to verify information about their business, location, and products/services in order to limit misrepresentations. So far, Google has already verified advertisers across 90 countries.
Benefits for Users
To give users more transparency, Google is introducing new advertiser pages. This transparency initiative will be a benefit to users, since it will provide more information about a brand and its products.
Users will be able to access disclosures about brand advertisers in Google’s new “About this ad” menu and see all the ads that a particular advertiser has run for the past 30 days. For example, if a user sees an ad on the Google ecosystem for a jacket but doesn’t recognize the brand, they will be able to click and learn more about that advertiser before making their purchase.
In addition to learning more about a particular advertiser and their recent ads, user will also be able to more easily report an ad if they believe it violates any of Google policies, for example Google’s prohibitions on advertising dangerous goods, counterfeits, displaying inappropriate content and more. This user feedback will help ensure a safer online shopping experience for all customers.
The new advertiser pages will be available in the U.S. by the end of 2021 and will rollout globally in 2022. Google is also exploring more ways to share additional advertiser information through the “About this ad” menu as time goes on.
The Larger Strategy 
According to Google, over 30 million users engage with the current ads transparency and control menus every day, especially on YouTube. This suggests the massive reach of advertising on Google’s platform.
To improve the user experience with ads, Google has been making plans for several new initiatives including getting rid of third-party cookies, limiting targeted political ads, and filtering ads in Chrome. However, these initiatives are currently just in development or stalled, so it is unclear if and/or when they might be released. For example, the move against cookies originally planned for mid-2022 has now been delayed by nearly two years.
In the meantime, the new transparency initiative is a step to help users make more informed decisions when shopping online.
Mojdeh Tomsich, Product Manager – Ads Privacy and Safety at Google, says: “We’re committed to creating a trustworthy Google ad experience, and enhanced ad disclosures represent the next step in that journey. We will continue to work towards helping our users have greater control and understanding over the ads they see.”
What does this new initiative mean for your business? If you’re realizing you could use a better strategy to manage your Google Ads for your brand, you’re not alone.
Would you like some expert advice for your next Google Ads campaign? Our team here at JXT Group is among just a few recognized Google Premier Partners, so we ‘re privy to the latest strategies and technological capabilities to help your business succeed on the platform.
To find out more, you can give us a call at 718-690-7302 or submit our online contact form.
