Brand safety refers to protecting your brand's reputation by ensuring your ads appear only in appropriate contexts and environments online. It's about making sure your programmatic advertising messages don't show up next to harmful, offensive, or controversial content that could damage your brand's image.
Why brand safety matters for advertisers
When your ads appear alongside questionable content, it can create negative associations in consumers' minds. This can lead to decreased trust and lost sales. Brand safety issues can also waste advertising budgets through IVT and invalid clicks from low-quality websites.
Common brand safety threats
- Fake news websites and misinformation
- Hate speech and extremist content
- Adult content and explicit material
- Violence and disturbing content
- Illegal streaming and download sites
- Click farms and botnet networks
How brand safety connects to ad fraud
Fraudsters often use brand safety violations to their advantage. They may create networks of low-quality websites with questionable content. These sites generate fake clicks through bots and click farms.
When advertisers don't have proper brand safety measures in place, their ads can end up on these fraudulent sites. This leads to wasted ad spend and potential reputation damage.
Protecting your brand
Several tools and strategies can help maintain brand safety. Use reputable ad networks with strong safety controls. Implement blocklists of dangerous websites and content categories. Monitor where your ads appear regularly.
Working with anti-fraud solutions is also crucial. These tools detect suspicious traffic patterns and block invalid clicks. This helps ensure your ads only reach real humans on legitimate websites.
The future of brand safety
Brand safety challenges continue to evolve with technology. New threats emerge as fraudsters develop more sophisticated methods. Staying informed about the latest risks and protection measures is essential for modern advertisers.
