Safeguarding Businesses From Security Challenges In Advertising

Uploaded on 2023-10-06 in FREE TO VIEW, BUSINESS-Services-IT & Telecoms

Google's AI-driven advertising solution, Performance Max, empowers businesses to streamline their advertising efforts by allocating a fixed budget across various channels to reach their target audience effectively.

Nevertheless, in exchange for this streamlined approach, businesses relinquish some control over ad placement and data collection, potentially exposing them to challenges related to invalid traffic.

The even more worrying aspect of this is that it can lead to children’s data being captured and wrongfully targeted with ads. This is concerning, not only from a data privacy perspective and breaching the US Children's Online Protection Act (COPPA) but also for advertisers wanting to maximise their returns.

Marketers need access to accurate data at a granular level to overcome the risks posed by PMax.Statista reports that costs related to digital advertising fraud will reach $100 billion this year, making it more important than ever for marketers to gain complete visibility into their data. Without this capability, they run the risk of squandering valuable budgets and, in certain instances, inadvertently violating regulations when collecting data from minors.

The AI Algorithm Challenge

Performance Max is a Google advertising solution that simplifies the ad campaign management process for businesses. It allows advertisers to provide a fixed budget and lets Google's AI algorithms determine how and where to distribute it across various Google platforms and channels, aiming to maximise campaign effectiveness. While Performance Max offers convenience, it lacks a high level of transparency, posing growing concerns regarding cybersecurity and data visibility.

Google’s mysterious ‘black box’ algorithms use vast amounts of data and incredibly complex machine learning (ML) calculations to deliver what they decide are the best outcomes for the user. While these may appear efficient on the surface, they’re not always serving the best interests of marketers and are often intentionally opaque to remove decision-making.

Marketers are beholden to the decisions of algorithms they do not fully understand or control, making it a huge challenge to align their marketing efforts with the best interests of their clients or businesses. This also poses a challenge in terms of security and privacy, especially given the recent revelations that Google’s AI may have inadvertently been showing ads to children on YouTube. Taking this example, if an ad was wrongly shown to a child who clicked through to the website, that data is automatically collected which could put businesses in the firing line when it comes to breaching data privacy laws.

This is not simply a PMax issue, nor is it simply a Google issue. Advertisers need to take steps to distinguish between what data they can and cannot collect and that distinction is not easy to manage.

Reaching The Light At The End Of The ‘Black Box’ Tunnel

Ignoring Google’s advertising ecosystem isn’t an option for marketers. They need to question the efficacy of black box solutions like PMax and the potential risks they pose. Alongside that, action must be taken to take back control and protect themselves from being caught up in the wrongful targeting of ads and thus the wider cybersecurity challenge.

There are a few key actions marketers can take to gain visibility and control over their ads that will ultimately reduce breaching data privacy laws:

Incorporate Detailed Reporting: A lack of visibility into data can lead to budget wastage and ineffectual campaigns. By having a comprehensive channel breakdown of spend along with detailed conversion performance data marketers take back control over their ads. With detailed reporting, they gain visibility into which strategies are truly effective and which ones are underperforming to allocate budgets more efficiently. From a security perspective, this acts as a second layer of defence against any unwanted activity across channels.

Prioritise the Right Platform: To safeguard their investments and ensure maximum campaign impact, marketers should prioritise platforms that offer transparency, data accessibility, and control over their advertising strategies. By embracing more transparent and accountable solutions, marketers can steer clear of the pitfalls associated with black box algorithms and make informed decisions that lead to more successful campaigns.

Explore Security Tools: Lacking actionable insights, marketers face challenges in making informed decisions. By integrating security tools alongside black box solutions, marketers can effectively harness the power of Google's AI-driven marketing automation network while ensuring their ads adhere to data collection regulations. This additional layer of security not only safeguards against legal breaches but also plays a crucial role in protecting the long-term viability of businesses.

The Way Forward For Marketers To Achieve Security

The onus is on the industry’s big players to create a more equitable and efficient advertising
ecosystem by increasing algorithmic transparency. But until they are driven to make those changes,
businesses must explore alternative means to gain transparency from their advertising networks and
optimise their marketing efforts.

It's widely acknowledged that marketers heavily rely on the capacity to comprehend their audience, evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising strategies, and make well-informed decisions backed
by trustworthy data. Therefore, it's imperative that they pay attention to and proactively address
potential data privacy risks associated with Google's AI to safeguard their interests.

Mathew Ratty is CEO & Co-Founder of TrafficGuard

Image: John Schnobtrich

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