A word from our digital marketing team about how ad algorithms and ad placements work

How ad-buying works, how websites make money from ads, and how we try to ensure our ads don’t appear where they shouldn’t

I’m Max, Octopus Energy’s head of digital marketing. We’re trying to spread the word all around the UK about our fairly-priced green energy, so we advertise in a lot of places – from billboards at bus stops to post offices to television ads, and of course, through digital ads online. From time to time, someone may notice one of our ads appearing on a website which may be considered to include offensive content. Like this:

There’s a lot of confusion about how digital ads work (for example, a lot of people don’t know that we don’t usually choose individual sites to advertise on) so I've recorded a quick explainer: