Google's Ads Safety Report is an important way of providing transparency about how ads work across its platforms.
Google places considerable emphasis on a safe user experience when deciding which ads people see and which content can earn revenue on its platforms. Developing and consistently enforcing policies in these areas is one of the main ways to protect people and maintain trust in the advertising ecosystem.
Google published its Ads Safety Report to show its progress in advertising and its commitment to user experience. Providing visibility into how policy violations are prevented has long been a priority, and this year we observed more data being shared than ever.
Google also introduced its advertiser verification programme last year. Advertisers are now being verified in more than 20 countries, with more details about ads becoming available. The aim is to help people understand who is behind the ads they see and make more informed decisions.
What Have Billions of Bad Ads Taught Us?
A free and safe web is vital to livelihoods and empowerment around the world.
For 10 years, Google has documented efforts to prevent abuse of its advertising platforms in the annual Ads Safety Report.
- In 2011, 130 million bad ads were blocked or removed.
- In 2015, 780 million bad advertising experiences were eliminated.
- In 2016, 1.7 billion bad advertising experiences were eliminated.
- In 2017, more than 3.2 billion bad advertising experiences were eliminated—100 bad ads every second.
- In 2020, more than 99 million bad ads from actors seeking to exploit the pandemic were blocked.
Enforcement at Scale
In 2020, advertising policies and enforcement were tested as the world navigated a global pandemic, multiple elections and the continued fight against bad advertisers looking for new ways to exploit people online. Thousands of Google employees worked around the clock to provide a safe experience for users, creators, publishers and advertisers. More than 40 policies for advertisers and publishers were added or updated. Around 3.1 billion ads were blocked or removed for policy violations, while a further 6.4 billion ads were restricted.
Restricting ads allows the approach to adapt to geography, local laws and certification programmes, so approved ads appear only where appropriate, regulated and legal. Online pharmacies, for example, must complete a certification programme. Once certified, they can show ads only in certain countries where online sales of prescription medicines are permitted. Country-specific advertising regulations have increased over the past few years.
Google: “Restricting ads allows us to help advertisers meet these requirements regionally with minimal impact on their broader campaigns.”
Google decided to invest in automated detection technology to crawl the web effectively for publisher policy compliance at scale. This investment, alongside several new policies, substantially increased enforcement. Ads were removed from 1.3 billion publisher pages, compared with 21 million in 2019. Advertising was also stopped on more than 1.6 million publisher sites. These actions relate to policy violations.
Fighting Advertising Fraud
Major events such as the pandemic often lead fraudulent advertisers to seek ways to exploit people online. Last year saw an increase in opportunistic and fraudulent behaviour by advertisers attempting to mislead users. Increasingly, these actors tried to use platforms to promote nonexistent virtual businesses, hide from detection or defraud consumers through apparently unremarkable activity.
Advertising accounts disabled for policy violations increased by 70%, from 1 million to more than 1.7 million. More than 867 million ads attempting to evade Google's detection systems, including through cloaking, were blocked or removed. A further 101 million ads violated misrepresentation policies, bringing the total to more than 968 million.
In 2017, Google developed more granular page-level reviews, including of user-generated comments, to protect advertisers from negative placements while allowing ads to continue across broader sites and stopping persistent violations. Investment continued in the automated technology behind that page-level approach. This was particularly important during a period of rising online hate speech and calls for violence. The investment brought significant progress in preventing harmful web content from earning revenue. Action was taken on approximately 168 million pages under Google's policies.
Google: When we make decisions through the lens of user safety, we know the broader ecosystem benefits. Maintaining trust for advertisers and publishers helps their businesses succeed over the long term. Over the coming year, we will continue to invest in policies, our expert teams and enforcement technology to stay ahead of potential threats. We also remain committed to scaling verification programmes worldwide, increasing transparency and making more information about the advertising experience universally available.
*The figures cited are taken from the report published by Google.
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