Crypto Ad Spending Slowdown Contributes to Google’s Soft Quarter

Google (GOOG) reported its softest advertising growth in nine years, with company management taking note of softer crypto ad spending as contributing to the weak numbers.

"We did see a pullback in spend by some advertisers in certain areas in search,” said Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler, speaking on the earnings call on Tuesday evening. “We saw a pullback in the insurance, loan, mortgage, and crypto subcategories.”

Overall ad growth of 6% in Q3 was the softest since 2013, reported CNBC, with YouTube ad revenue actually slipping year-over-year to $7.1 billion from $7.2 billion.

“While travel and retail were again the largest contributors to growth, Google did see a pullback in spend in the financial services vertical from insurance, loan, mortgage, and crypto advertisers,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Maria Ripps said in a note to clients. “Network and YouTube also faced difficult comps and FX headwinds, with management adding that the pull back in spend from brands due to broader macroeconomic uncertainty that started in Q2 increased during Q3,” she added.

Shares of Google are down 7.5% on Wednesday morning.

Read more: Google Partners With Coinbase to Accept Crypto Payments for Cloud Services