By Jack Nicas 

Google on Friday said it plans to give advertisers more control over where their ads appear online after major clients in the U.K. withdrew their spots because some ads ran before extremist videos on its YouTube site.

Tensions between Google, the world's biggest advertising platform, and its advertisers have increased over the past several days following a report showing ads by the British government and several companies -- including French cosmetics giant L'Oréal SA and British grocery chain J Sainsbury PLC -- appeared before videos supporting terrorist groups.

In response, many advertisers, including the British government, pulled their spending from YouTube and the Google Display Network, a network of more than 2 million websites that partner with Google to serve ads.

The British unit of France's Havas SA, the world's sixth-largest ad-agency holding company, said it was suspending all advertising on YouTube and the Google Display Network for its clients in the U.K., including Domino's Pizza Inc. and British mobile operator O2, because it couldn't be assured that the "environment is safe, regulated to the degree necessary and additive to their brands' objectives." Havas SA said its British unit's policy was "a temporary move made by the local team" and that Havas didn't change its use of Google globally.

Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., said in a blog post that it has "heard from our advertisers and agencies loud and clear that we can provide simpler, more robust ways to stop their ads from showing against controversial content." The company said it has started reviewing its policies and "will be making changes in the coming weeks to give brands more control over where their ads appear across YouTube and the Google Display Network."

The advertising industry is starting to demand more transparency and say over placement of their ads after several reports showing big brands being promoted alongside hateful content and fabricated news stories, some of which garner significant audiences.

The videos that sparked the most recent controversy, revealed in stories in the Times of London, were made by supporters of terrorist groups, including Islamic State and a violent pro-Nazi group, and were broadly condemned.

Procter & Gamble Co., the world's top advertising spender, has publicly complained in recent months about problems in the digital-ad industry, including ads being placed next to inappropriate content. P&G's marketing chief, Marc Pritchard, has called on advertisers to increase pressure on the effective digital-ad giants, Google and Facebook Inc., which together account for roughly half of world-wide digital-ad revenues, according to estimates from research firm eMarketer.

Advertisers are also concerned about the accuracy of data fed to them by Google and Facebook about their ads. The companies say they are auditing their metrics.

On Friday, the British government demanded that Google officials provide an explanation soon about how it will prevent ads from appearing on inappropriate content.

The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers, a British ad-industry trade group, called on Google to immediately pull from its inventory of ad slots any YouTube videos or websites that "it cannot guarantee as a safe environment for advertising." The group also pushed Google to study whether it should first review videos before placing ads on them, rather than automatically placing ads on videos after they are uploaded. "Google should ensure that content is quarantined until properly categorized," the group said.

L'Oréal and Sainsbury, two of the companies whose ads appeared during the videos supporting terrorist groups, didn't respond to requests for comment.

Google said it already employs software to automatically scan YouTube video titles and images to decide whether they are appropriate for advertising before placing ads on them. But those checks can miss many videos because offensive content can be nuanced.

Google policies prohibit it from showing ads on a variety of websites or videos, including those that are pornographic, promote illegal behavior or incite violence. Google also allows advertisers to exclude their ads from being shown next to certain topics or categories of sites, such as content that is sexual, profane or discusses tragedies.

Google said it employs thousands of people to stop violations of its ad policies. The company said that last year it removed more than 100,000 websites from its ad inventory and blocked ads from more than 300 million YouTube videos. "However, with millions of sites in our network and 400 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, we recognize that we don't always get it right," Google said in its post Friday. "We know we can and must do more."

Advertisers can also blacklist certain YouTube channels or sites in the Google network. Google is planning to ask advertisers and ad agencies what additional controls they want, but it declined to comment further on potential changes.

Havas UK, which spends about $217 million annually on digital advertising in the U.K., said it decided to pull its YouTube spending because Google couldn't guarantee Havas ads would only run next to appropriate content.

Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the world's largest ad agency, WPP PLC, said in a statement that Google and Facebook must take more responsibility in screening content on which they place ads. "They cannot masquerade as technology companies, particularly when they place advertisements," he said.

In an email to clients Friday, WPP said Google "deploys brand safety technology but it is not infallible....We have communicated at the highest levels with Google and are working toward a solution in respect of un-curated content, if there is one."

Nick Kostov, Jenny Gross and Suzanne Vranica contributed to this article.

Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 17, 2017 19:03 ET (23:03 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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