DIVE Blog - Potential Bias at Google?

Google: The Biggest Vendor, Auditor, and Judge in Digital Advertising – Can We Trust the Results?

It’s worth considering the remarkable position Google holds in the advertising ecosystem. As the largest media platform globally, Google dominates the digital ad space, with the majority of advertisers relying on Google Ads for their search and display campaigns. At the same time, Google is also the most widely used tool for tracking and measuring ad performance, with Google Analytics (now GA4) being the go-to platform for most businesses.

This creates a unique situation where Google not only controls the advertising distribution but also serves as the primary provider of performance data, making it both the vendor and the evaluator of campaign success. This dual role raises questions about impartiality. Can we fully trust the data and insights provided by a system where the same entity that benefits from increased ad spend is also responsible for measuring its effectiveness?

While Google's tools are undeniably powerful, this combination of roles places advertisers in a position where they must rely on Google's reporting to assess their return on investment, without much independent verification. Essentially, Google acts as both the prosecutor and the judge in the court of advertising, a structure that could inherently favor its own interests over those of advertisers.

For businesses, it’s critical to recognize this potential bias and seek external validation to ensure that campaign performance is accurately measured and optimized for their benefit, not just for prioritising Google’s revenue objectives.