The boycott of more than 250 advertisers against YouTube related to ads appearing next to extremist content on the video platform could end up costing YouTube’s parent company Google $755 million in 2017. That is according to analysts at Nomura Instinet, who cut their revenue forecast for YouTube by 7.5 percent in response to the boycott.
While $755 million sounds like (and certainly is) a lot of money, seeing it in context with Google’s total advertising revenue adds a bit of perspective. In 2016, Google’s advertising revenue amounted to more than $63 billion (net of traffic acquisition costs) and it’s expected to climb beyond $70 billion this year. Considering these numbers, the damage done by the ongoing boycott is expected to amount to roughly one percent of Google’s ad revenue.
Despite the probably limited financial damage inflicted by the boycott, Google appears to be taking the concerns of the companies involved seriously. In a blog post published last week, the company announced it will update its ad policies and give advertising brands more control over where they want their ads to appear.
This chart shows the estimated effect of the advertising boycott against YouTube on Google’s results in 2017.