Despite these buyers’ concerns, YouTube says that the change had nothing to do with the Adalytics report.
“There is no impact to campaign controls or reporting as part of this change, and it had nothing to do with the flawed and inaccurate Adalytics report,” the spokesperson said.
Buyer concerns
Some buyers are rankled because when they buy YouTube ad inventory, they expect their ad placements to air against a YouTube video, not a mini video player with the sound off on a cooking blog, for example. YouTube says that the ad inventory this name change refers to only runs in-stream.
According to previous Adweek reporting, many buyers have been looking to divert spend away from GVP as a result of the Adalytics report. Outstream video placements are generally only a problem on GVP inventory, and not on YouTube proper, where every webpage is designed to emphasize a video and not hide it in a corner.
“They now further muddy the waters around whether a skippable ad played in an outstream video player is an eligible impression,” said a second media buyer source, also not authorized to speak to the press. “It will make it more difficult for advertisers who want to audit historical campaigns and get refunds.”
A group of advertisers filed a class auction lawsuit against Google late last month as a result of the Adalytics report, accusing the company of misleading buyers, The Hollywood Reporter first reported.
The wider outstream versus in-stream debate
Even before the Adalytics report, the industry was already in the throes of conversation about what constituted in-stream video.
The IAB released new standards about what kind of online video can be classified as in-stream last August, later updated in March. These policy changes drastically reduced the amount of video inventory that could be legitimately classified as in-stream, a format associated with CPMs 15%-20% higher than out-stream inventory, as Adweek has previously reported.
While the changes are on the books, actual implementation will take longer, as there is no clear enforcement mechanism. As such, YouTube, as a seller of online video, needs to be cautious when labeling its inventory, as it may be selling a video ad slot that a publisher is labeling as in-stream by the old, invalid definition, said Ed McElvain, executive vice president at Mediahub.
