Google has announced Confirming Gross Revenue, a solution that gives buyers and publishers a privacy-safe way to verify that no hidden fees are taken from the digital advertising transactions when using Google Ad Manager.
Publishers can use the Revenue Verification Report to see the aggregate gross revenue received from a specific buyer.
The buyer and publisher can then verify that the media cost from the buyer’s reporting matches the gross revenue the publisher received. If the numbers match, the buyer can confirm that their full media spend reached the publisher and no hidden fees were taken.
Display & Video 360, Google's own demand side platform, has come onboard as an early tester, with Google also announcing they’re in communication with other demand-side platforms, sell-side platforms, publishers and agencies who will test the feature and provide feedback.
Philip Pollock, chief operating officer of Omnicom Media Group Australia, said: “OMG prides ourselves in being industry leading advocates for full supply chain transparency.
“We believe this feature will be a great first step toward confirming that there are no hidden fees in programmatic buying, and having a seat at the table gives us the best opportunity to affect positive change for advertisers.”
Anthony Katsur, CEO of IAB TechLab, said: “Greater transparency in the digital advertising supply chain through solutions like Confirming Gross Revenue is sorely needed.
“That’s why we’ve made it a priority to invest in creating industry standards like ads.txt, sellers.json, DemandChain Object and buyers.json to help everyone raise the bar on trust in programmatic buying.
“We look forward to working with Google on this privacy-forward solution and potentially incorporating these concepts into IAB Tech Lab’s standards portfolio.”
Confirming Gross Revenue only uses the data needed to confirm no hidden fees have been taken. To reduce the risk of user identification, the feature relies on aggregate gross revenue amounts, rather than combining granular log-level data.
In a blog post announcing the solution, Google said: “Over the next few months, we’ll continue to work with the industry on shaping this new solution and, more broadly, initiatives to instill more confidence in online advertising.
“Bringing greater transparency to advertisers, agencies and publishers is core to our approach. We welcome participation from others who want to work together to advance an ad-supported internet that works for everyone.”
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