Sales representatives from Google have suggested that advertisers target teenagers on YouTube, seemingly in violation of the platform’s own policies, according to three ad buyers and written documentation seen by ADWEEK. This activity goes beyond the practice that was first identified by Financial Times earlier this month.
Earlier this month, FT reported that Google worked with Meta to target 13- to 17-year-old YouTube users with ads, targeting a group of users labeled as “unknown”—a group that Google knew skewed towards under-18-year-olds, the article said.
But buyers told ADWEEK that this activity involves more advertisers than the special arrangement between Meta and Google identified by FT. All buyers who spoke to ADWEEK for this article did so anonymously to discuss sensitive industry relations, but their identities are known to ADWEEK.
Google announced in 2021 that it was no longer allowing advertisers to target users under 18 via age, gender, or interests.
Buyers can target the unknown category, where the demographic information of the users is not known to Google, according to its blog post. A Google spokesperson said unknown users include people not signed into their accounts or who have chosen to turn off personalized advertising.
But, the FT article notes, Google has thousands of data points—on everything from users’ location via phone masts, to their application downloads and activity online—to indicate that this cohort includes younger users.
Targeting the unknown category of users can be a tactic to expand the reach of a campaign to a broad audience, a Google spokesperson said.
“We strictly prohibit ads being personalized to people under 18—full stop. Our policies are reinforced with technical protections, which continue to work properly,” a Google spokesperson told ADWEEK. “We take this matter very seriously, and as we’ve said, we will be taking additional action with sales representatives to reinforce that they must not help agencies or advertisers attempt to circumvent our policies.”
Google gave a similar statement to FT about taking action to make sure sales representatives don’t help advertisers attempt to work around Google’s policies.
In the past week, following the FT article, Google sales reps have told one buyer that they can still target teens by targeting a group of users labeled as unknown.
“It shows that even Google can’t manage Google,” the buyer said. “So at what point do we stop and ask if Google is the best partner to give us advice?”