Blockchain-based Ad Service Revolution: Crypto Answer to Social Media Bans

Widespread bans of initial coin offering and cryptocurrency adverts on major social media platforms and search engines could provide the opportunity for a Blockchain-based advertising service revolution.

In June 2018, Google's ad service will stop serving any advertising content relating to cryptocurrencies or ICOs.

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, digital advertising revenues in the US totalled $40.1 bln in their 2017 half-year internet advertising revenue survey conducted by PwC - with a an estimate of $85 bln in revenue for the full 2017 calendar year.

Just to show how much of a stranglehold Facebook and Google have on the digital advertising space, AdAge cited a report from Pivotal Research that estimated the two giants totalled 73 percent of all US digital advertising revenue in the first half of 2017.Calls for accurate digital advertising metrics.

"The market for delivering digital advertising to consumers is notoriously 'murky': businesses which buy advertising services don't know how their money is being spent, whether their advertising is being displayed next to content which is obscene or which supports terrorism, or whether their ads are being viewed by a human being at all."

While conventional digital advertising networks look to overhaul their processes, Blockchain technology is being used to answer some of these problems already.

A major concern for the advertising industry is how companies can accurately assess the true value for money out of an advertising campaign, according to a blog post by Automate Ads CEO Andrew Torba on Huffpost.

IBM's global solutions head Chad Andrews wrote a column in which he said that almost half of every dollar spent by advertisers is lost in the digital advertising supply chain.

Another big industry player, the Dow Jones Media Group, is also exploring the possibilities of a Blockchain-based advertising solution for its content brands.

"With a Blockchain backed peer-to-peer network, achieving transparency in the digital advertising supply chain is possible. But, ensuring its success will require the entire industry, including advertisers, ad tech providers, publishers and agencies to coalesce around a shared, auditable version of truth."