I love Google, have done for a long time. But our relationship has been strained lately. Things haven’t been the same and I simply can no longer pretend that everything is OK. I’m done with sheepishly hanging on its every word, just because it looks at me with its tantalizing and seductive red and yellow o’s. Google has just launched ‘Campaign Insights’ which promises better measurement of display advertising. At the moment, you can measure how many clicks your display ads achieve, measure conversions that result from those clicks, compare results with “industry benchmark data” (brought to you courtesy of DoubleClick…which is owned by errr Google), and use “view-through conversion reporting” to measure visits to your website from users who viewed your display ad in the past. The tool compares a base of thousands of web users who viewed an ad with a proportionate group of users who did not and then measures any difference in searches and Web site visits directly attributable to the ad. This approach differs from most display ad assessment tools that typically compare Web site visits or click-through trends following a display ad campaign.
According to Austin Rachlin from the Inside Adwords crew, three simple principles guide their approach: simplify the system for buying and selling display ads; deliver better performance that advertisers and agencies can measure and open up the ecosystem by making it accessible to more participants. Ironically, ‘openness’ is precisely what is lacking in Google’s uncomfortably extending monopolization of display, mobile , search and social. Yet again, we’re supposed to trust the objectivity of Google’s algorithms and business models, both of which are a complete black box. In speaking to a number of (ethical) advertisers, I have detected a sense of unease about the lack of transparency provided by Google around its practices for gathering and interpreting user data. The more Google launches intelligent tools for its advertisers and the more behavioral data it shapes into uncomfortably intelligent profiling, the more Google risks compromising its integrity. For the sake of our everlasting love (and mankind’s trust in the web), I hope that Google will prioritize the interests of its users over those of advertisers. Don’t be evil Google.
I was interested about the recent deal Bing and Google struck with Twitter. I agree with the overarching point on ethics, though I do think at some stage us users should be realistic about the fact that somehow these folks need to make money to give us all these great tools. This stuff doesn’t run itself…
