Will Google’s Ad Empire Be Broken Up?

When I first started in programmatic, 2nd price auctions ensured advertisers paid a fair market rate. You could bid confidently knowing you’d only pay a cent more than the next-highest bid.

Then, about 8-9 years ago, Google led the shift to 1st price auctions (where you pay exactly what you bid) & enabling their publishers to create dynamic bid floors (to artifically increase the clearing price). This fundamentally changed how media was bought, increasing advertiser costs while boosting Google’s profits.

My First Exposure to Googles dominance was in 2016.

A programmatic trader in Google’s DSP meant to raise their bid from $5.00 to $6.25 but accidentally entered $625. No big deal, they caught and fixed the mistake just 5 seconds later.

In that 5 seconds, the remainder of their entire 200,000 daily impression budget was spent at a CPM of over $200. What should have cost $1,200 ended up costing more than $40k.

And where did that ad spend go? Straight into Google’s ecosystem.

Keep in mind Google has Unmatched Control

Today, Google dominates every part of digital advertising:

🔎 Search ads (Google Search)

📺 Video ads (YouTube)

📈 Ad buying (DV360, the largest DSP)

📡 Ad selling (Google AdX, the largest SSP)

✅ Verification & measurement (Google Analytics, Campaign Manager 360)

🌐 The largest browser in Chrome in the US and the largest Global smart phone operating system in Android.

They own the buyer, the seller, the marketplace, devices, browser, and the referee, a level of control no other company has ever had.

Will Google’s Dominance End? We’ll get an answer this summer…

In the meantime, what can you do about it?

PSA for the day: if you’re a marketer in any DSP, don’t think twice about using AI Bidding, if you can get screwed 9 years ago in 5 seconds, just imagine what the technology is today across any entity representing publishers. Pick a DSP that only represents the buyer, and let them work for you.🤔

Anyone else have a similar experience?

#GoogleAds #AdTech #ProgrammaticAdvertising #Antitrust