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Eye-opening, shocking, disturbing, rage-inducing – whatever adjectives you use, the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google has been all of these and more.
Here are some things we’ve learned about how Google has harmed search advertisers, according to the DOJ:
- Google “tunes” (i.e., manipulates) the ad auction to increase revenue, resulting in higher prices for advertisers (and a worse user experience).
- Project Momiji (introduced quietly in 2017) increased bids for the runner-up advertiser in the ad auction, increasing costs by 15% for the “winning” advertiser.
- Google raised prices via “squashing” (manipulating predicted click-through rate), which again resulted in the winning advertiser paying more.
- RGSP (Randomized Generalized Second-Price) resulted in higher costs for advertisers – Google compared RGSP to a slow form of “inflation.”
Dig deeper in my article, How Google harms search advertisers in 20 slides.
Danny Goodwin,
Managing Editor, Search Engine Land & SMX
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