Google Smells Bear Market as Crypto Ad Revenue Falls Since July

Alphabet's revenue from Google advertising declined in Q3 2022, with lower search spending from financial services and highlighted cryptocurrency subcategories.

The latest earnings call from Google's parent company, Alphabet, highlighted lower search ad spend in the financial services and cryptocurrency subcategories.

Alphabet released its third quarter earnings report on October 25, highlighting a 6% increase in revenue to $69.1 billion from the third quarter of last year. Revenue was down slightly from Q2 2022 to $69.7 billion.

However, Google's services revenue breakdown, which includes its advertising revenue, showed that this segment has grown from $58.8 billion to $61.3 billion over the past year.

Philipp Schindler, Chief Commercial Officer of Google, noted particular strife in the finance and cryptocurrency sectors, in particular, with notable declines in quarter-over-quarter advertising spend during the Alphabet's October 25 earnings call:

"We saw declines in some advertisers' spend in certain areas of Search Ads. For example, in financial services, we saw declines in the subcategories of insurance, lending, mortgages and crypto."

Google updated its Financial Products and Services Policy in July 2022 to clarify the scope and requirements for advertising about cryptocurrency businesses, services, and products. This sets out rules for advertisers of exchanges and wallet services targeting countries such as France, Germany, South Korea, Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Thailand.

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