Google Expands ‘Confirming Gross Revenue’ Tool In Ad Platform via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson

Google Ads made the Confirming Gross Revenue tool available for more publishers and advertisers.

The announcement comes after a study from Integral Ad Science, where 42% of marketers surveyed indicated that transparency is a significant challenge in programmatic buying.

Read on to see who now has access to Confirming Gross Revenue.

What Is Confirming Gross Revenue?

Confirming Gross Revenue is a tool introduced by Google in 2022.

The solution verifies to buyers and publishers that hidden fees aren’t taken from digital advertising transactions during a Google Ads auction.

The tool uses a privacy-safe way to confirm this transparency by using the Revenue Verification Report. Publishers can access this report to see the aggregate gross revenue received from a particular buyer. 

Both the buyer and publisher can cross reference the buyer’s reporting to ensure that gross revenue matches what the publisher report produces.

Image credit: Blog.Google.com, June 2023

Confirming Gross Revenue Expansion

As of the June 8 announcement, the Confirming Gross Revenue tool is now available to the following:

In addition to publisher and advertiser expansion, Google is expanding the integration of other ad tech providers, such as Yahoo and Index Exchange.

This tool expansion aims to improve overall trust in programmatic buying.

Providing Visibility While Keeping Privacy In Mind

The Confirming Gross Revenue tool only uses necessary data to confirm hidden fees haven’t been taken during an ad auction.

Since the report relies on aggregate gross revenue instead of granular log-level data, it significantly reduces the risk of user identification.

Google stated that the tool is built to be an industry-wide solution for transparency.

Google is working to standardize with other industry organizations, such as IAB Tech Lab.

2023: The Year Of Transparency?

Google has unveiled numerous tools and solutions to provide transparency to both advertisers and end-users.

Some of Google’s other initiatives in recent years include:

The Ads Transparency and My Ad Centers are geared toward end-users to provide them with a better understanding of why they’re receiving ads. It puts more control into the consumer’s hands by enabling them to opt out of specific or all tracking or interest groups.

While advertisers still have many questions about the type of data they’re receiving (or not receiving) in ad platforms, such as the Search Terms report, it’s essential to acknowledge that Google is providing transparency to publishers and advertisers.

Marketing budgets continue to be carefully monitored and watched and can quickly be taken away if performance doesn’t follow spending. Advertisers shouldn’t worry about hidden ad tech fees in consistently rising platform CPCs or CPMs.

The Confirming Gross Revenue tool is a big step in the right direction towards better transparency towards advertisers and publishers alike.

Featured Image: frabellins/Shutterstock