Google collaborated with Meta to launch ads targeting young teens, despite this being against Google’s own policies, according to a report by the Financial Times. Documents obtained by the publication reveal that Google was involved in a marketing initiative aimed at promoting Instagram to YouTube users aged 13 to 17. Although Google had previously prohibited age-based ad targeting for users under 18, the company allegedly exploited a loophole.
Since direct targeting of this demographic was restricted, Google suggested targeting a group labeled as “unknown,” a category that, according to Google, included a significant number of users under 18. Google reportedly assured Meta that daily engagement from 13- to 17-year-olds on YouTube surpassed that on TikTok and Instagram. The *Information* reported that using this loophole violates Google’s own policies, which prohibit proxy targeting.
Meta and Google, in partnership with media agency Spark Foundry, launched the campaign in Canada between February and April. After the campaign’s initial success, a trial in the U.S. began in May, with plans to expand it to other regions and include other Meta apps.
However, after being contacted by the *Times*, Google investigated and eventually shut down the project. A Google spokesperson stated, “We prohibit ads being personalized to people under 18, period.” While the company claimed that its safeguards worked as intended by not directly targeting registered YouTube users known to be under 18, it did not explicitly deny using the loophole. Google added that it would take “additional action to reinforce with sales representatives that they must not help advertisers or agencies run campaigns” that circumvent its policies.
