Google (GOOGL) Clamps Down on Bad Ads With Advanced Tools
In a bid to strengthen its search platform, Alphabet’s GOOGL division Google continues to take initiatives to enhance search results by curtailing bad ads.
The search giant revealed that it has removed 2.3 billion ads in 2018 that violate its ad policy which include phishing scams, ad fraud and malware, basically any ad that can mislead or exploit vulnerable people. Further, the company came down heavily on misleading sites.
In order to achieve this, the company killed almost 15,000 sites, 22,000 apps and 1.2 million pages.
Removal of Bad Ads to Aid Growth
The latest announcement of the company bodes well for its strong commitment toward eradicating misleading ads from its search platform.
Although, the total number of bad ads removed was down 28% compared with 2017, the company launched three times the detection classifiers than 2017. The number of launched classifiers that aid in detecting the level of badness on each page was 330.
These detectors helped Google in removing ads that violated publisher policies from 1.5 million apps and 28 million pages by banning 734,000 publishers and app developers.
Moreover, the company introduced 31 new policies in order to cover more categories of suspicious ads. Google was successful in killing around 207,000 ads for ticket resellers, 531,000 ads for bail bonds and 58.8 million phishing ads to tackle abuses in these categories.
Further, the company did verify 143,000 election ads in the United States and released a report on purchase of election ads with the aid of its new election ad policy in the country.
The company will continue with its strong endeavors to combat bad ads with its strengthening ad policy structure.
This in turn will help Google to bolster presence in the online advertisement world from where it earns the major part of revenues. Notably, advertisement generated 83% of the company’s total revenues in 2018.
Alphabet Inc. Revenue (TTM)
Alphabet Inc. Revenue (TTM) | Alphabet Inc. Quote
Advertisement Battle Intensifies
Like Google, Facebook FB is also leaving no stone unturned to expand footprint in the booming online advertisement space by focusing on banning misleading ads.
The social media giant unveiled a new policy last year that enables people to file a complaint against businesses that have misled users on clicking their ads. This is primarily focused on combating bad shopping experience via the company’s platform.
Further, Facebook is now using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to identify and more quickly review ads. This significantly helped during the U.S. midterm elections.
However, Google’s advanced tools and policies are likely to give a tough competition to Facebook.
The company is set to introduce tools and policies similar to the ones utilized during 2018 U.S. election in 2019 ahead of the elections in Europe and India.
Further, the company has announced the launch of new Ad Policy Manager this April which will instruct publishers to avoid publishing ads that have compliance issues. Additionally, Google will leverage the power of Machine Learning (ML) techniques to scan ads before they are listed on its network.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Currently, Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
A few better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector are Autohome ATHM and Akamai Technologies AKAM. While Autohome sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Akamai carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Long-term earnings growth rate for Autohome and Akamai is pegged at 29.41% and 14.67%, respectively.
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