Prof. Defends Online Advertisers’ Rights

Google Adwords, the popular search company’s flagship advertising arm that matches online advertisers with related websites, is drawing flak from Business School Professor Ben G. Edelman for business practices he says deprive advertisers of basic rights.

In a report published last Monday, Edelman outlines what he considers the five basic rights of online advertisers and argues that Google—which commands 72 percent of the online advertising market—systematically violates these rights.

In the report, titled “Towards a Bill of Rights for Online Advertisers,” Edelman wrote in support of an advertiser’s right to: “Know where its ads are shown;” “Meaningful itemized billing;” “Use its data as it sees fit;” “Enjoy the fruits of its advertising campaigns;” and “Resolve disputes fairly and transparently.”

To Edelman, many of these rights seem obvious, like itemized billing and knowing where ads are placed. Edelman likened the right of “meaningful itemized billing” to the right of a consumer at the supermarket to have a written receipt of exactly what they are being charged.

Edelman charges that Google’s practice of not telling advertisers exactly where their ads are shown only serves to protect Google’s monopoly. “If they did share it, [advertisers] might not like everything [they] saw,” he said.

The professor’s push for transparency has already garnered support from some in the industry.

“Edelman is shining the flashlight on issues that marketers and advertisers should be aware of,” said search engine marketing expert Kevin Lee.

But despite his support for Edelman’s guidelines, Lee is uncertain that there’s “immense pressure from advertisers” for change.

He said it is unlikely that any immediate change will be seen from Edelman’s proposal because the vast majority of ad disputes come from a small minority of parties.

Harvard undergraduate publication Freeze Magazine has had its own share of problems with Google advertising, according to Windsor G. Hanger ’10, former executive editor of the magazine. She said she remembered having frequent problems with an ad for the University of Phoenix being displayed by Adwords on Freeze’s site, which is geared toward Harvard students. “The University of Phoenix has no benefit from being on our site and the ad’s irrelevance decreased the overall quality our the site,” Hanger said. Because of the irrelevance of Adwords’ placements, Hanger said Freeze stopped using it.

For her new online venture Her Campus, Hanger said she plans to use an “old fashioned approach” to find companies looking to advertise on the Internet—by individually soliciting companies.

Edelman’s full report is available at www.benedelman.org/advertisersrights.