Advertising technology (or ‘ad tech’ as it’s known) is helping support our digital economy and has given Australian businesses and publishers new ways to reach their customers and grow their audiences online. 

The innovation of technologies like ad tech has provided a lifeline for many businesses during the pandemic, and an online ecosystem for businesses to compete and thrive. While our global, national and local economies continue to experience considerable impacts from COVID-19, we know that many businesses are looking to recover — and for many, that recovery will be enabled by digital technologies. 

New research from PwC Australia, commissioned by Google Australia, has identified the way in which ad tech services have led to job creation and helped small businesses to grow and reach a global audience.

And while the economic benefits are clear, the ad tech industry remains largely misunderstood, perhaps due to how dynamic and multifaceted it is. We want to play a part in helping Australians better understand how the broader ad tech ecosystem works, and the ways in which it is enabling innovation, jobs and creative competition across the digital economy. So, let’s start with the basics.

What is ad tech?

Advertising technology services are used extensively. Everyone from government, to media organisations, corporates, and small businesses use it to get their message across and reach their audiences. Ad tech is essentially the umbrella of software and tools that help agencies and brands to target, deliver and measure their online campaigns — and allow online businesses and content creators to maximise ad revenues by connecting advertisers to their audiences.  Ad technology enables advertisers to reach the right consumer, at the right time, making for a more efficient online advertising experience. 

How did we get here?

The advertising industry continues to evolve as the digital economy evolves. It started with billboards on our roads and paid placements with print newspapers, TV commercials, magazines and radio — before expanding to online news sites and other services with the rise of the Internet. As the Web grew, so did the number of digital publishers across different verticals including food, travel, sports, lifestyle, entertainment and news. As consumers divided their time across a long list of websites, the question became: how could advertisers and publishers connect with each other at scale effectively? This is where ad tech came in.

As technology evolved so did ways to reach new audiences, including through mobile apps and other Internet connected devices.  The arrival of ad tech innovation has helped businesses and publishers grow their revenue streams. This trend has been accelerated by COVID-19 and the rise of our digital economy which has motivated more people and businesses to do business online. That’s how we got here - but where we are going will help to define our digital future.

How does ad tech help our economy? 

The growth of online ad tech services has helped businesses to scale and achieve results in the most cost-effective and efficient way. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).  It doesn’t matter if you are a budding start-up or running a fully-fledged operation — ad tech evens out the playing field and encourages a dynamic marketplace.

PwC estimates that the existence and use of Google’s advertising technology directly supports more than 15,000 full-time equivalent jobs and contributes $2.45 billion in gross value add (GVA) to the Australian economy each year. 

These tools are helping businesses and advertisers to save time, reduce costs and grow their reach in the face of increased competition and large barriers to entry associated with traditional forms of advertising. In fact, of those surveyed by PwC, almost three in four businesses that use our ad tech services observed these benefits.

And on average, respondents indicated that 28 per cent of their advertising media is targeted at overseas markets — allowing businesses from all corners of Australia, including rural communities, to communicate directly to the people that matter to them.

What role does Google have to play?

Google is proud to help millions of Australians every year navigate our increasingly digital world. Australian businesses choose Google’s products because they work seamlessly to deliver business value and drive economic growth in Australia — no matter the size of your business or the industry you operate in.

The rise of Google’s ad tech has allowed SMEs across Australia to compete against larger businesses through an accessible and affordable platform, improving efficiency and reducing the friction of scaling globally. 

People use Google’s ad tech to reach new channels and opportunities which they wouldn’t otherwise have access to or could afford, and it is important that regulation in the industry ensures that these businesses can continue to be the bedrock of Australia’s digital economy. 

Google is not alone — there are many companies working together and in competition to support the growth of a healthy digital ads ecosystem across different technologies — from web display, to apps, to connected TV and more. 

Together, the ad tech industry is supporting a universe of Australian creators, publishers and business owners who underwrite the useful digital content and services that Australians enjoy everyday on the free and open Web. It’s powering our digital economy forward and helping people to find their passion, build their audience and grow their own way - important work that Google is proud to be a part of.

For decades, Google has been a proud supporter of the Australian media industry, providing hundreds of millions of dollars to media organisations through our products and services, training programs, partnerships and assistance with digital transformation. 

Earlier this year, we introduced our biggest investment to support the news industry yet - News Showcase and have signed more than 100 titles from across Australia with talks continuing with dozens more outlets of all sizes.  

Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve significantly expanded the number of regional outlets on Showcase, having reached a new in-principle agreement with Country Press Australia. 

Dozens of regional media outlets across Australia join Google News Showcase

Country Press Australia represents almost 180 independently owned regional and local newspapers and online platforms  across Australia.

Under the agreement, it’s expected that Google will welcome over 70 regional Country Press Australia news publications to Google News Showcase - a product and licensing program that pays publishers to curate content and build deeper relationships with readers.

Kate Beddoe, Google’s Director of News Partnerships APAC, said the agreement would support many titles that have operated in their local communities for decades, providing vital news and information to their regions. “We are very pleased to reach this agreement and welcome Country Press Australia outlets to Google News Showcase,” Ms Beddoe said. “We are also working with Country Press Australia to support the ongoing digital transformation of its members, helping with the sustainability of these news businesses.”

“We’ve helped support the news industry for two decades and Showcase is our biggest investment yet. We look forward to continuing to build on this important work in partnership with the Australian news industry,” Ms Beddoe said. 

Andrew Manuel, President of Country Press Australia, said the agreement recognises the vital importance of local news media to their communities. “Country Press Australia member newspapers provide an essential service to local communities and are vital to the local democracies being able to assist in holding those responsible to account," Mr Manuel said.  

“Local newspapers are often the only source of local news and provide a platform for informed public debate. This agreement will help sustain public interest journalism across regional Australia well into the future with a monetary exchange, innovation changes as well as enabling a sustainable online model for traditional newspaper publishers," Country Press Australia President Andrew Manuel said.The CPA members bring the total number of publications on Showcase globally to nearly 1000.

Our work to support regional journalism through GNI

This investment  builds on our efforts to help support regional journalism through the Google News Initiative (GNI), which has increased the capabilities and revenues of newsrooms through training programs, direct funding and Google products.

In the past year, GNI rolled out a new pilot program, led by Publishing Fellow Neil Varcoe, helping small newsrooms digitally transform through skills training and the development of new sustainable publishing models. The program provided training to more than 1,500 journalists and 200 publishers. 

Through Project Kookaburra, we worked with media consultant Megan Brownlow, Buzzfeed Australia founder Simon Crerar and AAP Studios to help five regional publishers experiment with new business models and strategies to thrive in the digital age. The results showed publishers recording an increase in subscribers, advertising revenues and audience reach. We also worked with the Victorian Country Press Association to create a new digital advertising network across more than 80 regional publishers, enabling them to attract larger advertising customers.  

We look forward to continuing to build on this important work in partnership with the Australian news industry. 

Since 2009, Google has been supporting top graduate students who want to make an impact on the future of technology. The Google PhD Fellowship program recognises candidates doing important and innovative research in computer science and related fields. In Australia and New Zealand, the program focuses on early-stage candidates. Winners receive fellowships which include a monetary award of $15,000 AUD to cover stipend and other research related activities, as well as a Google Mentor who works on topics related to their field of study and provides guidance. In 2021, we’re pleased to announce four new PhD students in Australia who have been awarded fellowships for their outstanding efforts. 

Sampson Wong, Google PhD Fellowship in Algorithms, Optimisations and Markets, The University of Sydney

"Transport networks require regular monitoring and maintenance to sustain a high level of operability. As networks grow and as technologies improve, there is a rising demand for data-driven analysis of transport network data. This has resulted in governments and companies developing domain-specific tools to provide its citizens and users with the best recommendations. The speed and quality of these tools depend greatly on their fundamental building blocks. The goal of my thesis is to develop efficient algorithms for fundamental problems involving geometric movement data on transport networks. We use clustering and other algorithmic methods to detect commuting patterns in geometric movement data, and to select beneficial upgrades for a transport network."

Theekshana Dissanayake, Google PhD Fellowship in Machine Learning, QUT

"Deep learning has shown great success in solving biosignal-based medical diagnostic problems. However, present solutions cannot generalise across multiple datasets captured from different experimental settings. Furthermore, the black-box nature of current solutions hinders the trust associated with the predictions made from a clinical perspective. This PhD research focuses on the generalisability and interpretability of deep learning models designed for biosignal-based medical diagnostics and considers both single and multi-channel biosignals (such as heart signals and brain signals using EEG and ECG)."

Xinlong Wang, Google PhD Fellowship in Machine Perception, Speech Technology and Computer Vision, The University of Adelaide

Xinlong's research interests lie in computer vision and machine learning, specifically  in enabling machines to see and understand the environment. Xinlong’s research focuses on object-level recognition, including 2D/3D/video object detection and instance segmentation.

Yun Li, Google PhD Fellowship in Machine Learning, University of New South Wales 

"Deep learning has been demonstrating the potential to significantly revolutionise the practice of medicine and the delivery of healthcare. However, low volume, high sparsity, and poor quality of healthcare data and their diverse contexts may limit the efficacy of deep learning methods. In my research, we aim to develop a suite of robust and versatile few-shot machine learning methods to effectively discover personalised, transferable insightful knowledge with very limited data. Specifically, we have identified and proposed the solutions to 1) data-efficient methods for genomics sequencing; 2) medical image argumentation, 3) hierarchical multi-view data analysis; and 4) tinnitus diagnosis. We will continue to improve the explainability, transparency, and personalisation for better clinical translation. Our studies will have a broader impact on a wide range of practical scenarios such as genome study, medical diagnosis, drug discovery, and disease treatment."

In supporting these Australian Fellows we recognise their significant academic achievements and hope that they will go on to be leaders in their respective fields. We look forward to building even stronger links between industry and academia to help support important research in Australia. You can find out more about the Google PhD Fellowship program here