Google’s DoubleClick ad network suffered a major outage today. It reportedly began at around 9:40 AM Eastern, and lasted a little less than an hour.
Everything should be back to normal now. Google just tweeted this:
Our team has worked quickly to fix the software bug. It's now back up, so our publisher partners can return to funding their content.
— DoubleClick (@doubleclick) November 12, 2014
While everything may be back to normal, and an hour without ads may not seem like a big deal, it could actually mean a pretty substantial amount of money down the toilet.
According to AdWeek, the potential amount lost could be as much as $2 million. Lauren Johnson writes:
Google’s third-party ad network brought in $3.4 billion last quarter, according to the Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s third quarter report. That equates into $1.5 million per hour when applying back-of-the-napkin math, which also suggests the damage could have been as much as $2 million this morning.
Many, many websites utilize DoubleClick ads, including AdWeek itself, as well as The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Forbes, The Guardian, and countless others. It’s not hard to see why an hour of downtime could add up quickly.
Image via Google