Ad buyers have switched up their YouTube strategies after a report rocked the industry late last month, accusing the tech giant of misleading advertisers, sources told Adweek.

Google Video Partner (GVP) inventory is a network of third-party online video that Google says meets high-quality standards. For certain ad formats like Video Action Campaigns, buyers are automatically opted-in to buy GVP inventory alongside YouTube content.

The report, authored by independent ad-tech research outfit Adalytics, found that when advertisers pay for premium campaigns that include GVP, the third-party inventory did not meet Google’s own standards for these campaigns. As such, ads were silent rather than playing with sound-on, ads were found on tiny out-stream video players in the corner of webpages, and ads ran on publisher sites that failed to meet Google’s quality media standards, due to peddling disinformation and copyright infringements.

By analyzing clients’ ad-buy placement reports and using web archive data, Adalytics found that this kind of unsavory GVP inventory, at times, made up the majority of campaign budgets from Fortune 500 brands.

In response, five ad buyers told Adweek they are taking action to limit their exposure to GVP inventory.

“Since the report, all campaigns that were running on GVP are being reevaluated based on performance against primary KPIs, as well as inventory served on,” said David Mirsky, group director of media at Crispin, Porter & Bogusky, who noted few clients were advertising on GVP inventory prior to the report. “Decisions to pause, or not, are being made on an instant-by-instant basis.”

Buyers redirect away from GVP

A director of media at a large brand said 19% of their YouTube inventory was being spent on GVP inventory, without the brand knowing. The brand is directing its media away from GVP and assessing all YouTube buys, the executive said, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive industry relations.

A buyer at an agency said they are in the process of auditing clients’ exposure to GVP inventory. For one campaign, with a $1 million budget that ran on over 25,000 sites and apps, 33% of impressions were delivered on GVP inventory. The agency is working with Google to turn off GVP for this client.

We turn off GVP, so performance is going to tank

Anonymous media buyer source

Two other agency buying sources said clients were en masse working to eliminate their exposure to GVP. One buyer said that before the Adalytics report, the majority of the agency’s brand advertiser clients were opted-out of GVP placements, while most performance advertisers opted in. Now, nearly all brand clients and half of performance clients are opting out of GVP inventory. The agency is also negotiating with Google to get more granular reporting data.

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