• by Ray Schultz , December 10, 2022

Google says it has resolved an issue with its Ad Manager and that service was restored for users affected by a three-hour outage last Thursday evening. 

But major news websites and their advertisers were hurt by the breakdown, which caused “impressions and revenue through GAM [to] drop to zero” at a critical time of year, AdExchanger reports.  

Publishers impacted by the outage include the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, according to Reuters. 

At around 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, Google said it was “investigating reports of an issue with Google Ad Manager,” namely that “Ad Manager is not delivering ads for the affected users.”

The outage lasted until approximately 11 p.m. ET. Google apologized for the inconvenience. It is not clear if make-goods will be offered, although Google has done so for certain issues, Reuters writes.  

Salon, to name only one example, lost around $500 million in revenue before in about two hours before its ad tech partner Sovrn staunched the bleeding, AdExchanger continues.  

The lack of competition to Google Ad Manager has left “publishers with few back-up options,” Reuters adds.

Ad Manager software has about a 90% market share, an antitrust lawsuit filed by several states alleges, Reuters continues.