Alphabet’s revenue from Google advertising declined in the third quarter of 2022, marked by declines in search spending from the financial services and cryptocurrency subcategories.
Google’s parent company Alphabet’s latest earnings call highlights declining search advertising spending from the financial services and cryptocurrency subcategories.
Alphabet released its third-quarter earnings report on October 25, highlighting a 6% increase in revenue totaling $69.1 billion compared to last year’s third quarter. Revenues declined slightly from the second quarter of 2022, falling from $69.7 billion.
However, the breakdown of Google Services revenue, which includes its advertising revenue, showed that this segment increased from $58.8 billion to $61.3 billion last year.
Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, noted particular conflicts in the financial and cryptocurrency sectors, particularly with noticeable declines in ad spending quarter over quarter during Alphabet’s earnings call on October 25:
“We have seen a decline in spending by some advertisers in certain areas and search ads. For example, in financial services we have seen a decline in the subcategories of insurance, loans, mortgages and cryptocurrencies.
Google updated its financial products and services policy in July 2022 to clarify the scope and requirements for ads related to cryptocurrency businesses, services and products. This sets rules for advertisers of exchange and wallet services targeting countries including France, Germany, South Korea, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Thailand.
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Provided that they have met certain regulatory requirements within these jurisdictions, advertisers may continue to promote their cryptocurrency-related products and services through the Google advertising platform.
The change came a few months after Google greenlit crypto-related ads in August 2021. The multinational tech giant had previously banned crypto-related ads in initial coin offerings in June 2018.
Global markets and cryptocurrency markets continue to face tough times, with the latter enduring what analytics firms such as Glassnode have called the worst bear market on record.
However, the decline in advertising from the crypto sector does not reflect Google’s attitude to the space. Google announced a partnership with US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in October to enable payments for cloud services using Bitcoin.
BTC
to mark
$15,689
and ether
ETH
to mark
$1,127
in the year 2023.
