Back in April 2020, Google rolled out a new program forcing advertisers to verify their identity and country of origin. The idea was to increase transparency about ad providers for consumers and to ensure that bad actors do not infiltrate the system. Currently, Google verifies the identities of advertisers in over 90 countries. Now, the company has announced that it is enhancing this program with the introduction of advertiser pages that will further improve transparency.
As can be seen in the GIF on the right, people seeing an ad can simply access disclosures provided by an ad provider from the "About this ad" section. It will also allow them to see all the ads that the provider has run in the past 30 days.
According to Google, this will make it easier for a consumer to make an informed decision about whether they want to visit an external website to make a purchase based on the ads they are seeing. Google has emphasized that if people spot ad providers violating its policies, they can simply report them, after which a company representative will review the report and take the ad down, if necessary.
Google further went on to say:
Enhanced ad disclosures build on our efforts to create a clear and intuitive experience for users who engage with ads on Google products. More than 30 million users interact with our ads transparency and control menus every day, and “About this ad” has received positive feedback on its streamlined experience. Users engage with our ads transparency and control tools on YouTube more than any other Google product. To help our users make informed decisions online — no matter where they engage — we will roll out the “About this ad” feature to YouTube and Search in the coming months.
Advertiser pages will be making their way to those in the United States in the coming months. A staggered global rollout is planned for 2022.