Google Chrome's Future IP Masking and Its Impact on Search Ads

Chrome IP masking is a proposed privacy change to Google Chrome that could affect advertisers. It involves using a proxy to connect to websites, which would mask users' identities. This could impact advertisers in several ways:

• Ad location targeting: Advertisers would be limited to targeting regions designated by Google, which may not be accurate.
• User identity masking: The inability to distinguish between genuine users and bot traffic due to the masking of users' identities.
• Location data collection: Google's increased collection of uniquely valuable location data could potentially increase advertising costs.

For those who are technical, more information on Google Chrome's IP protection proposal can be found by digging through the Chrome IP Protection on Github or checking out the Google slides IP Protection Updates. For a more simplified explanation, Anu Adegbola's article provides a breakdown of the topic.

According to Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, advertisers still have control over the general areas they target in their ad campaigns. This includes options like countries, cities, or privacy-safe radius targeting around their businesses. While IP address is one signal used to determine if a customer is in the targeted region, it is not the only one, and geo-targeted campaigns must meet strict thresholds for minimum area and user counts to protect privacy.