Author Archives: Nicole Burgan

2017 Google Partner Summit: Marketing In the Age of Assistance

Last month, we held our largest ever Google Partner Summit in New York City, bringing together more than 1,000 1,029 executives from Premier Google Partners from around the world. The event featured some of the brightest minds in the advertising industry and allowed attendees to build connections and leave with new insights that can help them walk confidently into the Age of Assistance.


The day kicked off with President of Google Marketing Solutions, Mary Ellen Coe, who shared how customer behavior is changing as the mobile age gives way to automation and how marketers need to adapt. Several senior Google product leads and experts highlighted recent Product launches in mobile, audience, video, local & attribution. And the main stage concluded with Google’s Head of Behavioral Science, Maya Shankar, who spoke on how applying the principles of behavior economics can drive growth for a diverse set of companies.


In the afternoon, attendees had the chance to attend various breakout sessions, which offered a deeper-dive into the topics most relevant to their business. Content covered how science and data apply to hiring practices, utilizing YouTube to not only increase reach but to drive results, and how to lead in an era of complexity.


The day culminated with the announcement of this year’s global Premier Partner Awards winners. The six winners hailed from Thailand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, India and the United States, and were chosen from hundreds of high quality nominees representing incredible diversity of thought, strategy and innovation. Congratulations to our global finalists and to all regional winners and shortlisted Partners from around the world!


To see more posts and learnings from the event, check out our Twitter Moments collection here, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at @GooglePartners to continue the conversations started and to build on the learnings shared.


Thank you to everyone that travelled thousands of miles to New York to join us at the event and for all of your feedback. We heard you liked content covering Behavioral Science and new Product releases, while wanting more charging stations and restrooms. We’ll do our best to best to fix this at next year’s Partner Summit.


See you online,
The Google Partners Team

Finding and Reaching Your Best Customers on YouTube


A recent ComScore study found that customers who visit a brand’s website after engaging with that brand on YouTube spend more than customers who come from anywhere else. The same study also showed that 20% of those customers will buy from that brand again in the future.1 As if in response, direct-response-focused advertisers who may have previously scoffed at video are rethinking their strategies. Read on to see how three such advertisers -- ForRent.com, Batteries Plus Bulbs, and CarGurus -- are now using YouTube to reach their highest value audiences.


ForRent.com reaches millennials and empty nesters at the same time
With Mike Bozeman, Vice President of Media Solutions
Through their consumer research, ForRent.com found that they could divide their audience into two groups you don’t normally see together -- millennials and empty-nesters. “Though these two audiences may seem dissimilar at first glance,” says Mike Bozeman, vice president of media solutions, “their housing spend habits actually look quite similar, and these housing spend habits make them both ForRent.com’s target consumer.”


ForRent.com already knew they’d be able to reach millennials on YouTube, but quickly realized that empty nesters conveniently are also spending more and more time on YouTube. Now the brand turns to YouTube to reach both of these audiences at the same time, with slightly different messages.


“We’re trying to segment and create a storyline that resonates with each consumer and ultimately drives awareness and consideration,” said Mike. To do so, in addition to using keyword and channel targeting, ForRent.com used in-market segments to reach people in-market to rent and lookalike audiences to reach people similar to others that have already visited ForRent.com. “YouTube’s advanced targeting options are working great so far -- so much so that we even stopped all our print advertising in January.”


According to Mike, “We’re still experimenting with formats to figure out what the best mix looks like. But today we lean into TrueView for introducing our brand and bumpers to re-engage people in a nice, quick way. We’ve already seen a 1200% increase in brand interest alone. But beyond that, we’re seeing that about 20% of people coming from YouTube end up searching for an apartment at ForRent.com.”


Car Gurus brings an edge to YouTube
With Sarah Welch, Senior VP of Marketing


For performance advertiser CarGurus, YouTube is primarily a top-of-the-funnel, attention-grabbing solution. “Because of its unparalleled reach among video platforms, we rely on YouTube to tell our brand story and extend the reach of our brand in effective and interesting ways,” says Sarah Welch, senior VP of marketing at CarGurus.


CarGurus’ video media strategy relies on using TrueView and 6-second bumper ads to build awareness among In-Market Auto Shoppers who haven’t yet visited CarGurus site. “Car shopping isn’t something people do every day,” says Sarah, “or even every year, so we want to make sure that when people are actually in market, we reach them.” In addition to In-Market Audience targeting on YouTube, the brand is now taking advantage of the newly available option to leverage Google Search data in its YouTube campaigns as well. Employing YouTube’s powerful audience tools, CarGurus reached 12.5 million entirely new users in Q4 2016.


CarGurus’ video creative strategy is still evolving as the brand develops its YouTube presence. “So far we’ve been using our TV spots but with slightly different endings for YouTube to appeal to the slightly edgier humor of our audience there. Our first foray into video was functional and instructional,” says Sarah. “We laid out brass-tacks case examples of how CarGurus can help you decide what car’s best for you. It’s been a nice workhorse piece of content, but now we’re starting to get more creative with our storytelling.”


CarGurus’ new campaign takes one step back before educating about its products and instead focuses on pure and simple name recognition among their highest value audiences. “Our ‘motivational guru’ campaign is all about name recognition. It’s intended to be hard-hitting and humorous. We take the guru concept and hammer it home hard with a bit of edge to build brand awareness for ourselves. And it’s performing quite well for us, based on our video measures of success: view-through rates and brand lift.  Of course we look at ROI too, but our primary goal on YouTube is to capture attention and build our brand among the right people. Then we follow up with them elsewhere via remarketing.”  


Batteries Plus Bulbs takes the “DIY” out of screen repair
With Bob McKinney, VP of Digital Marketing


Performance advertisers are increasingly turning to YouTube to drive lower-funnel actions. In the case of Batteries Plus Bulbs, they used hyper-specific targeting on YouTube to reach people ripe for conversion, and bring them in-store.


“Because Batteries Plus Bulbs stores are located all across the United States,” said Bob McKinney, Batteries Plus Bulbs VP of digital marketing, “we found it very difficult and inefficient to drive awareness on television. Besides, we don’t have 3-5 days to get our audience through the funnel. We have maybe an hour, so our marketing is real time. Right now.”


When it comes to reaching the right people at just the right time, Batteries Plus Bulbs relies on  YouTube. “Our priority recently became understanding how to find an audience currently dealing with a broken device,” said Bob, “So our team created a Custom Affinity segment on YouTube to target individuals researching their repair options. This new targeting solution allows us to marry intent with YouTube’s massive reach.”


According to Bob, “When you break your phone the first thing you do is Google how to fix the screen. People often end up on YouTube looking for videos about how to repair their screen themselves. And that’s our trigger. We reach them on YouTube and use clever creative to quickly demonstrate how much easier it is to let the Batteries Plus Bulbs ‘WeFixIt’ team do the work instead. That’s our whole pitch, the convenience pitch.”


The combination of smart targeting and witty creative with this campaign so far has led to an overall lift of 77% in brand awareness and an 85% lift in purchase intent, in addition to a spike in cold-hard appointment signups for screen repairs.


Conclusion:
Your highest value customers are paying close attention on YouTube, and we have the tools to help you understand when and how to reach them. As these examples show, there’s no “right” way to use YouTube as a performance advertiser. You can think of formats, creative, and targeting as your tools, but you’re the (performance) artist, and your consumer insights are your creative inspiration!


1 Source: Google commissioned Comscore YouTube Value of Audience Study, U.S., February 2017 ↩

Google awards digital agencies that are helping SMBs grow

Summer’s finally here. And for digital communities across the world, that means sun, sea...and shortlists. Yep, the wait is finally over—as Google announces the agencies and third parties in the running for a 2017 Premier Partner Award. You can see the full shortlist here.

This year, there are six different awards to be won, across categories ranging from innovation in search and mobile, to a wider ‘Growing Businesses Online Award’. Each award recognises Premier Partner agencies and third parties who have used Google’s products to not only achieve marketing excellence through ground-breaking innovation, but also generate outstanding results for their SMB clients.

What’s also special about the Premier Partner Awards, is that the panel of independent judges look beyond the usual campaign performance metrics. For example, they take into account how Partners have managed their creative talent, applied technology in new and clever ways—or even improved their own internal culture as a result of the campaign.

The six winners in 9 regions of this first round will then qualify for the global awards, held in New York on 28 September.

To be part of the Premier Partner Awards, entrants must first become a Google Partner and earn the coveted Premier Partner status. This is Google’s elite programme for agencies, designed to give them the tools and support they need to help their clients succeed with AdWords. By working with a Google Partner, SMBs get access to the very latest digital best practice, and the peace of mind their business (and budget) is in safe hands. Visit the Google Partners website to learn more, or find a digital specialist near you.

See you next year?
If you’re a digital marketing agency or professional and would like to learn more about becoming a Google Partner, please visit the Google Partners website

The Google Partners Team

Get Ahead of the Creative Curve With YouTube

According to a custom Nielsen analysis, the amount of time adults 18-49 spend on YouTube in a month has grown 54% year over year[1]. And with TV cord cutting on the rise, the YouTube audience is getting larger every day. To help you make the most of YouTube to connect with your audience, we're announcing a new resource: the Playbook for Creative Advertising.

The Playbook is designed around three core themes, full of case-studies, examples and best practices that give you all the tools to run effective campaigns on YouTube.

First, our courses will help you maximize the attentionyou win on YouTube from your existing and potential consumers.  We’ll help you make sure you’re reaching the people you want to reach efficiently, and drawing on the learnings of other brands and creatives to develop creative executions that resonate with YouTube viewers.

Second, we aim to provide an inside view into the culture of YouTube.  Creators on YouTube don’t just reflect what’s going on in the world; they influence and shape the cultural zeitgeist.  We’ll help you understand how to work effectively with creators so you can best connect with their fans.

Finally, the Playbook will guide you through the best ways to measure your impact.  It provides a deep dive into the reports and metrics you can use to unlock critical data and insights to power creative decision-making and optimization.  

We’ve given a sneak peak of the Playbook to a few industry experts and we’re thrilled by their reactions:

“The information in [The Playbook] is like having a 24/7 Google expert at your fingertips.”
-Brandon Solis, Global Digital Strategy Director at McCann Worldgroup

“Bookmark this resource NOW! It's packed with resources and inspiration to help you take full advantage of both the creative opportunities on YouTube, and the data and insights Google can provide to fuel your next creative idea.”
-Luke Eid, Global President, Digital and Innovation at TBWA\Worldwide

Check out the Playbook for Creative Advertising here for content that helps you understand the YouTube ecosystem, find your audience, make great creative for the platform and measure your impact.



[1] Source: Google commissioned Nielsen study. September 2016 and September 2015 average primetime time spent of all days on YouTube among Persons 18-49 (mobile only), EMM custom analysis.

Introducing Ads Data Hub: Next generation insights and reporting

Mobile has fundamentally changed how we live our lives. With our devices never more than an arm’s length away, people can find, watch or buy anything at anytime. That’s why earlier this year we shared that we’re developing a new, cloud-based measurement solution for YouTube, designed for a mobile world. Today, we’re announcing the beta for this solution, Ads Data Hub, to help advertisers get more detailed insights from their campaigns across screens while also protecting user privacy.  

We are also announcing that Ads Data Hub is a solution not just for YouTube, but a tool that offers access to more data and helps unlock actionable insights across Google ad platforms, including the Google Display Network and DoubleClick. And with Ads Data Hub now in beta, we’re expanding who can use it.

Built on infrastructure from Google Cloud, including BigQuery, Ads Data Hub gives advertisers or their preferred measurement partners access to detailed, impression-level data about their media campaigns across devices in a secure, privacy-safe environment. Data from other sources, such as a CRM system or marketing database, can be incorporated as well. With this full view, advertisers or their partners can analyze the data and draw out insights specific to their business.

For example, if an e-commerce retailer wants to understand what the path to conversion looks like, they can bring additional online data about their customers into BigQuery, and Ads Data Hub will enable them to combine that data with their ads data so they can see what a typical journey is from first encountering a user until conversion.

Consistent with our commitment to privacy, no user-level data can be removed from the secure Cloud environment. Impression-level data is only accessible for the purposes of analysis and generating insights. In the future, advertisers will be able to act on the insights they get from Ads Data Hub and buy media with greater precision.

As an early alpha partner, Omnicom Media Group helped to define the solution and has seen significant value from both the amount of data available through Ads Data Hub and the broad set of analyses and custom queries that are possible.

"With the complexity of today's consumer journeys, we are seeing that marketers are looking to solve harder business challenges than ever before. Through our partnership with Google and our use of Ads Data Hub, we will be able to answer a broader range of questions and expand our analytical services." - Slavi Samardzija, Global CEO, Annalect, An Omnicom Media Group Company

With the shift to mobile, consumer behavior has changed for good. Marketers need tools to help them make sense of this new world, and Ads Data Hub is a key step forward.

Posted By: Geoff Samek, Senior Product Manager, Ads Data and Privacy

From the Brandcast stage: New star-studded shows for audiences around the globe

Kevin Hart. Rhett and Link. Ellen DeGeneres. Katy Perry. The Slow Mo Guys. Demi Lovato. Ludacris.

These amazing stars all have something in common: They're starring in new shows premiering exclusively on YouTube. And since these shows are ad-supported, you—and every single one of our billion-plus viewers—can watch for free.

Bringing even more can’t-miss content to audiences globally

For years, we’ve been proud to work with creators like Casey Neistat, Jackie Aina and countless others who have turned their channels into daily destinations. And with these channels packaged within Google Preferred—our offering that allows brands to advertise on some of the most-loved and most-watched content on YouTube—brands have been able to support the videos you love, so you can enjoy for free.

These channels continue to be hugely successful. That’s why, starting in 2016, we made the decision to take YouTube to the next level. We began making premium original content for our subscription service, https://www.youtube.com/red, releasing 30 series and movies in just over a year. And we kept hearing from brands they wanted to be more involved in these premium series.

Launching new ad-supported shows, exclusively on YouTube

When excited fans, brands, and creators tell us something, we listen. We’re thrilled to announce that beginning later this year, some of the biggest YouTube creators and Hollywood names will be featured in seven new series on YouTube—bringing more can’t-get-enough-of and can’t-find-anywhere-else shows to everyone, everywhere. With these new shows, brands can be a part of content that’s generating buzz around the world.

Check out the must-see lineup:

  • Ellen’s Show Me More Show: Like nothing Ellen has done before, Ellen’s Show Me More Show is a twice-a-week series built just for YouTube, giving fans behind the scenes access to some of the biggest stars and her favorite moments.
  • Good Mythical Morning: Worldwide YouTube superstars—and hosts of YouTube’s most popular daily show—Rhett & Link will go to new heights in a long-form expansion of Good Mythical Morning, giving fans even more of what they crave: larger-than-life stunts, zanier challenges, and over-the-top laughs.
  • Kevin Hart: What the Fit?: Kevin will team up with celebrity friends and YouTube stars each week as they attempt to master a different trending, grueling and sometimes ridiculous workout routine.  
  • I Am: Demi Lovato: Global music sensation and social advocate, Demi Lovato reveals a yearlong personal journey of music reinvention and deep discovery as she dives into the writing and recording of her new album in her new series, I Am: Demi Lovato.
  • Best.Cover.Ever.: From Ryan Seacrest Productions and Endemol Shine North America, Best.Cover.Ever. is a cutting-edge talent competition series hosted by Ludacris where emerging talent from across the globe submit covers to YouTube to vie for the ultimate prize: an opportunity to perform a duet with a superstar artist. Submit your cover now at thebestcoverever.com.
  • The Super Slow Show: YouTube stars The Slow Mo Guys will test the latest in technology to reinvent the way we look at celebrities, music, pranks, comedy sketches and more, giving a one-of-a-kind glimpse into what the world looks like in slow motion.
  • Katy Perry Live Special: It's real. It's raw. It's Katy Perry. Live on YouTube, The Katy Perry Live Special will take you inside of her world, revealing the experiences and emotions she poured into her all-new soul-baring music on the eve of her highly anticipated album launch. With unique access, global reach and surprise fun packed along the way, Katy will break it all down in this album listen-along, and if you stick around long enough, there might just be fireworks.

We’re excited to partner with top creators and world-class production companies to offer these new shows to audiences globally—on the platform where the world chooses to watch over a billion hours of video every day. People turn to YouTube to express themselves, engage with creators, and connect with the thriving communities they’re proud to be a part of.

This vibrant fan and creator community is also why brands turn to YouTube. And we're excited that Johnson & Johnson Consumer Brands will be our first advertising partner of this new content. In addition to a major investment in our creators through Google Preferred, they’ve signed on as the exclusive sponsor of Best.Cover.Ever., helping to make the talent competition accessible to YouTube viewers.

Check out #Brandcast to see highlights from the night and look here to see what new YouTube trends were announced.


Robert Kyncl, Chief Business Officer, YouTube

Marketing in a Multicultural World: 2017 Google’s Marketing Forum

The Google US Multicultural team hosted the first ever Multicultural Marketing Forum (MMF) in the NYC and LA campus late March. The Forum, previously focused on the Hispanic audience, evolved its scope to include African American, Asian and LGBT audiences. The theme of the forum this year, “Marketing in a Multicultural World,” urged brands to continue to think of Multicultural audiences in all of their company’s initiatives and not as a niche audience. Those brands who successfully shift their mindset will reap the benefits and experience brand growth. Both event keynotes, John Leguizamo in NY and Soledad O’Brien in LA, shared their personal stories on how the lack of diversity in the media has created challenges in their career and presented opportunities for them to change the conversation in the industry. Both John and Soledad are now using their own voice to influence how consumers and executives think of Multicultural audiences.
Kicking off the forum, Eliana Murillo, Head of Multicultural Marketing, gave insight into Google’s latest Global Youth study exploring Multicultural teen’s behaviors, tastes, and wants. Making up 37% of all US teens, Hispanics and African Americans are getting phones at younger ages, value personalization by brands, shopping more online than older segments, and are more comfortable using credit cards (see below for additional Teen stats).
Oona King, Director of Diverse Marketing at YouTube, took the stage to discuss with clients and agencies how African American audiences want advertisers to connect with them. Through an engaging story that started with the beginning of time, Oona shared pieces of advice from content creators to brands, made the case that Black Audiences and creators are not “niche”, and built the argument for more inclusive ads on YouTube. In addition to YouTube as a platform to engage Multicultural audiences, Kelsey Price and Diego Antista and Yesenia Bello from the Multicultural team, unveiled new research in partnership with ThinkNow and Ipsos for Hispanics who search. Both behavioral and survey based research shows that Bilingual audiences are search superstars (Highest avg. number of search pay views per session, Highest search share % of all views, etc) and Hispanics are not as brand loyal as you think. In fact, 85% Of Hispanics are not certain of brand choice when they first begin looking for information online meaning brands have an opportunity to influence decisions.
In addition to Googlers sharing the latest and greatest pieces of Multicultural research, this forum featured three branded case studies from Nestle, State Farm and TMobile/MetroPCS. Margie Bravo joined Salvador Maldonado on a fireside chat to discuss their success in 2016 with Coffeemate, Nescafe and other brands. Margie discussed Nestle’s effort to bring together the company through summits and top-down leadership to help empower Nestle brands to embrace Multicultural efforts. Nikki Newsome from OMD discussed how their agency has helped State Farm amplify their brand message through the passion point of music and leveraging influential music icon, Prince Royce. Lastly, Judy Popky and Daisy Terrazas-Cole discussed TMobile & MetroPCS’s success partnering with digital first content and testing different ad formats that have resulted in a growth in store visits.
Hearing from those who develop content for YouTubers, Seth Baron, Head of Creative Buisness Partnerships at the Zoo, hosted a fireside chat with YouTube content creator Gabriel Zamora who most recently partnered with MAC cosmetics. Together the two discussed Gabriel’s journey on YouTube and how he builds authentic connections with his Multicultural audience. Closing out the event, Susanna Kohly and Jackson Georges brought the magic of Google to MMF by presenting Google’s journey in Cuba and the initiative behind the island’s first ever VR experience.  During the cocktail reception, attendees were immersed in a live Cardboard demo of the video taking viewers through the life of the National Cuban hero, Jose Marti.

It’s time to recognize our Premier Google Partners

Our partners are critical to the health of the global marketing ecosystem. With the help of Google Partners, every business -- whether it’s a small business or a big brand -- can take advantage of the power of the web to deliver business results and grow.


One year ago we launched the Premier Google Partner badge to recognize advertising partners who manage a substantial portfolio of Google advertising campaigns and consistently deliver great results for their clients.



Today we’re excited to announce the launch of the Premier Partner Awards. These awards will celebrate our Premier Partners and their contribution to their clients’ performance and success over the past year.


At Google, we believe that a stronger agency ecosystem makes everyone better. I encourage you to apply for our Premier Google Partners awards and share the magic of what you’ve accomplished.


Mary Ellen Coe
President, Google Marketing Solutions
________________________________________________


Premier Google Partners globally are eligible to apply for one (or more) of the six award categories below. This year’s application process is open from April 24 until May 26, 2017.


Product Innovation
Awarded to Partners who have demonstrated expertise, excellence, and innovation in any of the following five product areas: Search, Display, Mobile, Shopping and Video.


Growing Businesses Online
Awarded to Partners who have had a significant impact helping businesses get online and grow with Google.


Judging will take place in June and July 2017 and will include reviews from both Google experts and third-party ad industry experts. We’ll announce local and regional winners in North & Latin America (Americas), Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) in August and September.


Regional nominees will then go on to compete in the global awards, where global winners will be announced at the Google Partner Summit on September 28, 2017.

Introducing Marketing Mix Model Partners: Helping brands better understand the impact of their marketing

CMOs and marketing executives use marketing mix models to understand how their marketing investments are driving sales and how to optimize their spend across multiple brands, channels, and regions. With rising investment in digital and mobile advertising, marketers want to be sure the models they use correctly value the impact of these channels.

Today we’re excited to announce a program to help marketing mix model providers better incorporate Google media data into their services. The Marketing Mix Model Partners program is designed to ensure advertisers can accurately measure the ROI of their digital investments and confidently understand the digital drivers of ROI to improve returns year-over-year.

The Marketing Mix Model Partners program offers:
  • Data Access: Partners get access to accurate, granular campaign data across all relevant Google video, display, and search media in a standardized format. We’re also making the data easier to access by providing data from multiple properties, like Search and YouTube, in one centralized location. 
  • Expertise: Partners also get dedicated training, resources, and specialists to better understand Google advertising products and practices and incorporate digital data into their model methodologies. 
  • Actionability: We provide Google account and technical teams to help advise on results and strategies designed to understand the drivers of ROI and improve returns over time. 
Our partners

We’re excited to be working with the initial participants in the program, Marketing Management Analytics, Neustar MarketShare, and Nielsen. Google customers can talk with their Google representatives about working with one of these partners on using Google data in their marketing mix model engagements.

Here’s what our partners have to say about the program:

“The ability to collect and analyze digital data at extremely granular levels enables both marketers and their advertising partners to more successfully measure, predict and action the most effective and profitable means of optimizing each digital channel to achieve their business objectives. We are excited that Google has taken such a proactive approach in working with MMA and analytic companies within the marketplace in providing such a high level of objectivity and transparency."
— Patrick Cummings, CEO of Marketing Management Analytics 
“Today’s measurement solutions need to be connected, always on and incorporate the myriad of channels, as well as critical econometric externalities in order for marketers to truly get an accurate view of marketing’s impact. We are thrilled to be a Google launch partner as this signals our commitment to helping brands understand how their marketing investments are driving business results. Through this partnership our advanced analytics models will incorporate more accurate, granular data, giving marketers a more complete understanding of the effectiveness of their marketing and how best to optimize their spend to improve future outcomes.”
— Julie Fleischer, Vice President, Product Marketing, Marketing Solutions, Neustar 
"As the marketing landscape rapidly evolves, it is critical to use the most robust data-streams in our Marketing Mix models to ensure the highest standard of insight quality. Working with Google, we will have better input and better consultative output so that our advertiser clients can best understand what is driving their performance today and make informed decisions for tomorrow.”
 ‒ Jason Tate, VP of Global Analytics at Nielsen 

As part of our commitment to providing the industry with trusted, transparent, and independent third-party metrics, we’ll be expanding the program over the coming months. If your company provides marketing mix model services and you’re interested in learning more about the partner program, please sign up here.

Posted by Mallory Fetters, Product Manager, Marketing Mix Models

Expanded safeguards for advertisers

By Philipp Schindler, Chief Business Officer, Google

The web has opened a door for new communities and platforms that help people find diverse views and have a voice. Today, anyone with a smartphone can be a content creator, app developer or entrepreneur. And Google has enabled millions of content creators and publishers to be heard, find an audience, earn a living, or even build a business. Much of this is made possible through advertising. Thousands of sites are added every day to our ad network, and more than 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. We have a responsibility to protect this vibrant, creative world—from emerging creators to established publishers—even when we don’t always agree with the views being expressed.

But we also have a responsibility to our advertisers who help these publishers and creators thrive. We have strict policies that define where Google ads should appear, and in the vast majority of cases, our policies and tools work as intended. But at times we don’t get it right.

Recently, we had a number of cases where brands’ ads appeared on content that was not aligned with their values. For this, we deeply apologize. We know that this is unacceptable to the advertisers and agencies who put their trust in us. That’s why we've been conducting an extensive review of our advertising policies and tools, and why we made a public commitment last week to put in place changes that would give brands more control over where their ads appear.

I wanted to share that we've already begun ramping up changes around three areas: our ad policies, our enforcement of these policies and new controls for advertisers.


Raising the bar for our ad policies



We know advertisers don't want their ads next to content that doesn’t align with their values. So starting today, we’re taking a tougher stance on hateful, offensive and derogatory content. This includes removing ads more effectively from content that is attacking or harassing people based on their race, religion, gender or similar categories. This change will enable us to take action, where appropriate, on a larger set of ads and sites.

We’ll also tighten safeguards to ensure that ads show up only against legitimate creators in our YouTube Partner Program—as opposed to those who impersonate other channels or violate our community guidelines. Finally, we won’t stop at taking down ads. The YouTube team is taking a hard look at our existing community guidelines to determine what content is allowed on the platform—not just what content can be monetized.


Increased brand safety levels and controls for advertisers


Every company has brand guidelines that inform where and when they want their ads to appear. We already offer some controls for advertisers that respond to these needs. In the coming days and months, we’re introducing new tools for advertisers to more easily and consistently manage where their ads appear across YouTube and the web.

  • Safer default for brands. We’re changing the default settings for ads so that they show on content that meets a higher level of brand safety and excludes potentially objectionable content that advertisers may prefer not to advertise against. Brands can opt in to advertise on broader types of content if they choose.
  • Simplified management of exclusions. We’ll introduce new account-level controls to make it easier for advertisers to exclude specific sites and channels from all of their AdWords for Video and Google Display Network campaigns, and manage brand safety settings across all their campaigns with a push of a button.
  • More fine-tuned controls. In addition, we’ll introduce new controls to make it easier for brands to exclude higher risk content and fine-tune where they want their ads to appear.



Increasing resources, accelerating reviews and improving transparency


We’ll offer advertisers and agencies more transparency and visibility on where their ads are running, and in the coming months we’ll expand availability of video-level reporting to all advertisers.

We'll be hiring significant numbers of people and developing new tools powered by our latest advancements in AI and machine learning to increase our capacity to review questionable content for advertising. In cases where advertisers find their ads were served where they shouldn’t have been, we plan to offer a new escalation path to make it easier for them to raise issues. In addition, we’ll soon be able to resolve these cases in less than a few hours.

We believe the combination of these new policies and controls will significantly strengthen our ability to help advertisers reach audiences at scale, while respecting their values. We will continue to act swiftly to put these new policies and processes in place across our ad network and YouTube. But we also intend to act carefully, preserving the value we currently provide to advertisers, publishers and creators of all sizes. In the end, there’s nothing more important to Google than the trust we’ve built amongst our users, advertisers, creators and publishers. Brand safety is an ongoing commitment for us, and we’ll continue to listen to your feedback.