Investigation: Google, “The Rise Of DSPs,” And What’s Really Fueling Its Display Ad Growth

Google is blowing the doors off with its display advertising business, which is doing so well that the company bragged about that it is on a $2.5 billion annualized revenue run-rate just in display. A big part of that growth is coming from YouTube and Google's own sites. But another big driver of display advertising growth both for Google and across the industry is coming from a less well-understood source: the big advertising agencies themselves and their so-called trading desks and demand side platforms (DSPs). By one estimate , these DSPs already account for 10 percent of online ad spending, and could grow to as much as 50 percent over the next few years. One advertising agency in particular, Publicis, is pushing a ton of advertising dollars through Google in return for what two industry insiders independently refer to as "kickbacks" or "rebates." Kurt Unkel, an SVP at Vivaki (the digital arm of Publicis) flatly denies there are any payments of this kind. "There isn’t a rebate in play. We have a strategic partnership," says Unkel. Any suggestion that Publicis is accepting payments from Google in return for driving online ad spending through Google is "an utter crock of shit," he says. He adds, "That is illegal in the U.S." Google is a bit more circumspect. "There are incentives," admits a Google spokesperson. "I don’t now that there is a wad of cash," he adds, "payments are predicated on a bunch of things." Those things are more along the lines of investing in the trading platform, co-marketing, and training if Publicis and Vivaki hit certain milestones. "There is no commission being paid," says the Google spokesperson. So there are payments, but they are framed as technology incentives to help Vivaki test and prove out its exchange.