For the past couple months, there has been an ongoing “scandal” spreading throughout YouTube and Google, and consequently the entire internet. In brief, the issue is that YouTube’s terms of service are written in a way that allows extremist videos to be posted and, as of right now, monetized through advertisements. So, what does this mean?

As of right now, advertisers have minimal control over which videos their advertisements are displayed on. If a YouTube video has selected the option to monetize their video, then there is a chance your advertisement will play, no matter the video’s content. The reason for this, you ask? YouTube utilizes an algorithm that mediates a virtual bidding war – companies will select the maximum amount they would like to spend per view and whomever has the highest bid will get the placement. There is no predetermined advertisement on any videos, in fact, the last advertisement spot you saw was probably bid on by at least 50 different companies, all paying for your attention.

Because of this algorithm, an advertisement supporting the adoption of dogs could play on a video endorsing the adoption of cats. Obviously, this is a benign situation, but nonetheless, the content within real videos and advertisements on YouTube can create quite a bit of turmoil.

Recently, there have been reports of banking advertisements being displayed on videos with homophobic, racist, and terrorist agendas. For rather obvious reasons, these banks and large corporations do not want to be associated with these topics and have therefore pulled their entire advertising campaign from YouTube. In the past three months alone, more than 250 large brands have pulled their advertisement funding, costing YouTube millions of dollars.

Obviously, there is a lesson to be learned from this extreme pullout.

If you are marketing your brand online, it is crucial you know how to properly advertise to your clients and future customers while keeping your current clients happy and content with your business and morals. Today, politics extends into every little bit of life, an unfortunate happening, but something that can easily be leveraged when properly understood. If you ever have any questions or would like to set up an advertising campaign today to build your business, contact us at any time!