Let’s talk about how much trouble – real, legal, messy trouble – Google is in with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Why? Because the changes that are going to take place in ad tech as the result of two federal court rulings are going to affect the political ad market much more than brand advertising. The company is the Mississippi River of ad tech. Everything feeds into its system of buying and selling ads. Everything.
Political ad buying is the least able to adapt ahead of any actions taken by the company or its DOJ overseers. And looking at timing, it’s very likely that any of the changes suggested in how the company does business will start in about 18 months just as 2028 planning is starting.
In his ruling on Google’s domination of the search marketplace, Judge Amit Mehta said Google should sell its Chrome browser, which is what most people use to access the World Wide Web. This would cripple Google’s ability to monitor user behavior – the backbone of its ad sales operation, especially for search. Google uses activity from Chrome use to help it – and others – target ads.
Judge Leonie Brinkema’s separate recommendations aren’t out yet, but she’s ruled that Google used its technology to illegally dominate the display ad market by giving publishers technology that tied them to its ad exchange. Most speculation has the judge also recommending that Google sell one or both of these parts of its business.
So four elements of what Google does are likely to be separated from one another. So let’s break this down for the not-so-technically inclined.
A voter searching for a candidate’s website provides that information to Google when they use a Chrome browser to conduct the search and visit the site. That user is then shown more ads for the candidate – on search and potentially display advertising – as they move around the web using their Chrome browser. That information can be used to help third parties – programmatic exchanges not owned by Google – find that voter as well.
Chrome’s uncoupling from Google slows that down. And it fractures the collection of data.
Publishers use Google to sell their ads through Google’s ad exchange and others like Basis and Trade Desk. Since publishers use Google technology to manage the flow of ads for sale to all these vendors, Google has a first look at what they have. And that, said Judge Brinkema allows the company to set pricing in its favor. So, if Google has a buyer, it can offer the ad sale for pennies less than another seller might.
Google’s having to sell some part of that technology slows down that process and opens it up to competition – again, slowing the transaction.
Google, as you might imagine, argues that all of this is very bad for consumers, publishers and ad buyers. They’re not going to break themselves up without a fight.
We haven’t even gotten to the part where these technologies are actually sold – or more closely overseen by the courts – and how that sale might affect other buyers and sellers. Or who might want to sell and if that creates a new sort of monopoly with a different name.
Sales like these take time – lotsa time – and the longer term results aren’t usually what outsiders anticipate. Four years ago, Xandr was a big player in political ad tech; this week Microsoft – which bought the company and dumped political ads sales almost immediately –shut down the ad sales platform.
Now, this is the part where the sales pitch would say that Spot-On’s got the answer to all of these problems.
We don’t. Our company will be affected by whatever happens to Google’s tech just like everyone else and we’ll scramble as well. What we do have – and we think others don’t – is a perspective on how ad tech can be adapted to meet the specific needs of political ad buyers.
One step, we think, is to focus on direct buying on local news sites where voters go to get their news and information. At the American Association of Political Consultants Conference this week, we’ll be doing early demos of our Pinpoint Persuasion automated direct buying platform. Hit us up for a look – it’s free for anyone in a sporty Spot-On conference lanyard.
Not at AAPC? Send us an email. and we’ll get you a private showing in June.
