Brand Safety & Suitability

Think your ad is safe just because it’s viewable? Think again.  According to the standards set by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) for measuring viewability, for an impression to qualify as a view, at least 50% of the ad must be visible on the screen for a minimum of one second.  Based on these criteria, your brand ads might be showing up on premium websites. But are you sure you are driving the genuine audience to your dashboard even after your ads show up – and show up beside those perfect placements?  What if 40% of your views are still fraudulent? What if the metrics are still being skewed by the bots?  This is the uncomfortable truth: viewability doesn’t equal validity; it does not tell how well an ad is performing as safe-looking environments can still host fake engagement, ad fraud, and brand damage.  Ensuring brand safety solution after the ad is served is equally important as ensuring the ad is being served alongside safe and relevant content.  This will only happen when marketers start leveraging the right set of technology and brand safety solutions and ask the right questions like – Who saw the ad? Was it even a real person? Did it drive real action?  It’s high time that marketers and advertisers get out of the illusion loop. Let’s discuss how. Brand Safety Starts with Smart Placement, But It Can’t End There Brand safety begins the moment your ad is about to be served. However, the concept of brand safety has evolved and so should your strategy.  Today, your campaigns don’t just run on websites. They appear across YouTube videos, OTT platforms, in-app environments, gaming platforms, influencer content, and more based on business requirements and individual campaign goals. That means your brand can easily end up next to content that’s contextually inappropriate, emotionally misaligned, or subtly harmful, even if it passes through basic checks or domain filters.  That’s where modern AI & ML-based brand safety tools help.  These tools don’t just block offensive content; they analyze the tone, sentiment, and contextual relevance of the content around your ad. They ensure your ad doesn’t appear next to misinformation, low-value sensationalism, or emotionally charged material that’s off-brand or reputation-damaging.  Whether it’s a pre-roll ad on YouTube, a banner in a news app, or an OTT streaming ad, the emotional environment matters just as much as the content category.  But here’s the crucial truth: ensuring safe placement is only the first step.  An ad could be placed in a brand-safe, high-relevance environment, but still be viewed by bots, clicked by click farms, or engaged with inorganically. That’s why brand safety must extend beyond placement and viewability metrics to validate what happens after the impression is served.  Beyond Safe Placement: Breaking the Illusion Loop with Full-Funnel Protection  Now imagine this:  Your ad is placed beside high-quality, sentiment-aligned content on YouTube or an OTT app. It gets great viewability. Attention metrics are up. Engagement looks strong.  But something is still off.  Sales don’t add up. Audience retargeting campaigns underperform. And further analysis reveals:  Most views were bot-driven or incentivized traffic  Clicks were generated by fraudulent devices or repeat clickers  Installs were inflated by click injection and SDK spoofing  Even the most brand-safe placement means little if the traffic and conversions aren’t authentic.  This is the Illusion Loop – a pattern where campaigns appear successful on the surface, but deeper layers reveal fake engagement, invalid traffic, and misleading performance metrics.  And the danger?  Marketers trust these metrics and reinvest in the same environments, audience profiles, or creatives, unknowingly feeding back into the fraud loop.  That’s why a full-funnel brand safety advertising strategy is as critical as smart placement.  Why Brand Safety Requires a Full Funnel Protection Approach? To break the illusion loop of misleading campaign performance, brands must embrace a full-funnel brand safety approach, one that doesn’t stop at placement but verifies every stage of the ad journey, from impression to engagement to conversion.  Here’s how it works across the funnel:  This end-to-end approach not only ensures brand protection but also restores data integrity, helping marketers make decisions based on authentic engagement, not vanity metrics.  Brand Safety as a Performance Enabler The shift to full-funnel validation also reframes the purpose of brand safety. It’s no longer just a way to avoid risk; it’s a way to unlock better campaign performance.  When your ads are seen by real people, in the right context, and drive genuine engagement, the benefits ripple across your marketing strategy:  Better ROI: Ads reach real people who are more likely to convert.  Smarter Optimization: Campaigns scale based on clean, verified signals.  Audience Integrity: Retargeting pools stay high-quality and human.  Brand Trust: Your ad shows up in the right emotional and contextual environments.  When you combine placement integrity, audience authenticity, and conversion validity, the right brand safety strategy becomes a growth lever, not just a checkbox activity.  How mFilterIt Powers Full-Funnel Brand Safety Across Channels At mFilterIt, we provide end-to-end brand safety and fraud detection built for multi-platform media – covering web, mobile, YouTube, OTT, and app environments. Here’s how our full funnel brand safety approach helps:  Pre-Bid Intelligence Our brand safety solution scans ad environments for context and sentiment, not just category.  Blocks unsuitable inventory across OTT, CTV, YouTube, and apps, beyond traditional keyword filters to ensure only safe placements make through the filters.  Post-Bid Traffic Validation Detects bots, IVT, data center traffic, and engagement farming across platforms.  Applies device fingerprinting and behavioral anomaly detection to spot fake interactions.  Conversion & Install Fraud Protection Validates leads, installs, and actions to ensure real outcomes, not just numbers.  Protects from click injection, fake installs, and SDK spoofing, especially critical for app campaigns.  Campaign Optimization with Deeper Intelligence Identifies and blacklists bot-driven traffic sources  Conducts ad placement analysis for contextual and emotional relevance  Flags ad delivery issues like frequency capping violations or suspicious delivery patterns on MFA sites  Helps brands optimize performance without wasting spend on invalid impressions or misaligned placements, improving media

Imagine you’re investing in branding ads to be visible among your target users, but instead, your ads are getting placed beside content that harms your brand image. And unknowingly, you’re funding that content, and your users perceive your brand to be associated with this content. Something similar happened during the recent incident of the Pahalgam attack. Many brands’ ads were appearing beside the terrorist attack news, putting them in a negative light. An analysis done by mFilterIt indicates that 7% to 12% of brand safety violations occur in campaigns that do not prioritize curated content platforms. Brands using traditional methods to block brand unsafe ad placements often lack contextual awareness, resulting in either excessive blocking of appropriate content or overlooking potentially harmful placements. Every misplaced ad leads to erosion of brand integrity and credibility, making viewers assume your brand is funding misleading and harmful content digitally. This directly influences the audience’s perception of your brand, and in worst cases boycotting a brand. Therefore, it is more important than ever for advertisers to keep a vigilant check and control over brand placements and brand safety in the digital advertising landscape. So now the question is for advertisers and marketers globally – Are you sure your ads are not appearing next to brand-unsafe content, fake news, conspiracy theories, or any kind of harmful content that might hurt the emotions of your audience? If not, keep reading ahead. In this article, we will explore the new threats hurting brand reputation, why traditional safeguards are no longer enough, why regions like the USA, MENA, and India must embrace a new level of vigilance – brand safety solutions, and how these solutions ensure brand relevancy and contextual targeting.  How are Brand Safety threats evolving?  Brand safety threats have grown in complexity, driven by automation, evolving content formats, and the unpredictable nature of programmatic ecosystems.  1. AI-generated misinformation and deepfakes The rapid increase in use of generative AI has enabled the creation of hyper-realistic fake content. From synthetic news anchors to manipulated interviews, these deepfakes blur the lines between reality and fiction. When brands are unintentionally associated with such misleading or polarizing content, reputational damage is severe and swift. 2. UGC and influencer-led campaigns With the rise of the creator economy, brands are increasingly promoted in environments they don’t fully control. User-generated content and influencer endorsements can shift tone unpredictably moving from inspiring to controversial in seconds. A misaligned post or unmoderated comment thread can quickly escalate into a brand crisis. 3. Programmatic advertising and algorithmic misplacement While programmatic buying enables scale and efficiency, it often prioritizes impressions over context, which can now be easily manipulated by fraudsters using malicious techniques. This means brands may find themselves appearing next to offensive, misleading, extremist sites, or politically divisive content without ever realizing it until it’s too late. 4. Unsafe YouTube ad placements Despite platform controls, YouTube remains a challenging space for brand safety. Ads can still appear before or within harmful videos, ranging from conspiracy theories to extremist content or inappropriate children’s content disguised as family friendly. This risk of “non-contextual advertising and brand relevancy” remains one of the most visible and publicly damaging threats to brands. 5. M Algorithms M algorithms refer to poorly trained or misaligned algorithms that recommend, rank, or pair with content in unintended ways. For instance, a brand-safe ad could end up placed between two harmful videos due to flawed recommendation logic. These algorithmic failures erode trust and make it harder for brands to control the digital environment in which they appear. 6. Volatile content categories and news cycles Real-time global events, from armed conflicts and political protests to celebrity scandals and financial crises, often drive unpredictable spikes in sensitive content. Without real-time scanning and contextual awareness, brand ads can appear alongside highly charged, emotionally volatile material that damages consumer trust. Why MENA, USA, and India Demand Specific Attention Solving brand safety is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. Every region has its own nuances and with each unique requirement, the solution cannot be the same. Similarly, MENA, the USA, and India represent three distinct digital ecosystems each with its own blend of opportunity and risk. Here’s how: MENA: High Sensitivity, Low Moderation Culturally sensitive content: Misplaced ads risk backlash due to religious and societal norms. Volatile news cycles: Frequent political or religious events heighten reputational risks. Under-moderated local platforms: Arabic and regional languages lack strong content controls. Influencer-driven marketing: Widespread but lacks structured brand safety safeguards. USA: Polarization and AI-Powered Misinformation Politically polarized media: Brands risk appearing near divisive or partisan content. Deepfakes and fringe content: Brand ads are increasingly at risk of appearing alongside conspiracy theories, hate speech, or deepfakes. Consumer activism: Both advertisers and publishers face growing pressure to moderate content more effectively and ensure responsible media buying practices. India: Language Diversity and Informal Ecosystems Vernacular content environment: With over 20 officially recognized languages and hundreds of dialects in use, content moderation and contextual understanding must be language-specific. Unregulated affiliate ecosystems and third-party ad networks: Continue to operate without standardized guidelines for ad quality, traffic authenticity, or contextual advertising relevance. Socio-political sensitivities: Content that’s acceptable in one state may be deemed offensive in another, necessitating hyper-local risk assessment. Therefore, for global brands operating across these markets, understanding and adapting solutions addressing regional, cultural, and political sensitivities is no longer optional but a strategic necessity. Why Traditional Brand Safety Solutions Fail to Solve This Gap? With the evolved landscape and the new threats emerging, traditional methods of brand safety like keyword blacklisting have become outdated. Once the gold standard of brand safety falls short in the arena of dynamic formats and unpredictable algorithms. Brands that still rely solely on outdated methods like keyword blacklisting missing real threats entirely because: It Lacks context: A keyword like “violence” might be blocked even when used in a harmless setting (e.g., a film review). This leads to missed opportunities and reduced reach. Over blocking and under blocking: Generic blacklists often over-filter safe content while still allowing

Imagine this- a consumer goes online to find a real estate project where they can purchase a home. They start their search on a well-known search engine and come across results from some of the most reputed names in the real estate game in the country. They click on one of the sponsored results, look through the website, and shortlist a project that aligns with their needs. This prospect then fills out a contact form which subsequently leads to a call with the builder’s sales team. The salesperson informs the prospect that they will have to pay a small fee as an expression of interest in the project, to reserve their property. To incentivize the prospect, the sales rep even promises to offer them a competitive price that almost seems too good to be true. Considering the opportunity cost of not acting immediately, the prospect makes the expression of interest payment. However, they never receive any confirmation from the builder’s side and are never able to reach the sales rep again. This unsuspecting prospect has just fallen victim to a scam. While this scenario may seem far-fetched to some, it is an unfortunately frequent occurrence in the realm of digital ads and real estate. While the plight of the victim of the scam, the consumer is evident, the builders whose names are used to execute such scams stand to lose a lot more. For the builders, such instances translate into lost revenue, legal issues, and broken customer trust. To further cement the notion that this isn’t a made-up scenario, here’s a case study about one of our clients who was facing a similar predicament, and was able to get out of it with the help of Brand Protection Tool. Let’s find out more about this case: The Challenge: Why Real Estate Brands Are at High Risk Big real estate firms face an enormous yet hidden risk in the online realm. Scammers can employ a number of methods to dupe unwitting consumers while also tarnishing the name of the builder. Some of the most common ways scammers do this are: Fake Property Listings This is perhaps the most common and the easiest way for scammers to steal money from potential customers of real estate firms. Scammers create fake property listings on popular listing websites and use them to lure potential buyers. From this point, depending on how much they are able to influence individual buyers, scammers take money from them in the form of visitation charges to booking amounts for reserving a property for purchase at a later date. Impersonation & Brand Misuse This method is quite similar to the previous one, except with this, scammers are not limited to property listing websites. They may go one step further by creating fake social media profiles or even fake websites under the name of reputable real estate players. Using these, they can once again attract potential buyers and scam them. Intellectual Property Violations Real estate businesses have to publish a variety of documents when advertising a project. Since most such documents, such as floor plans and certificates are available in the public domain, they can be used by scammers to appear authentic in front of potential customers. Besides causing distress to buyers and potential customers, such practices cause a lot of damage to authentic and well-meaning real estate players. Consumers who fall victim to these scams often form the impression that the actual real estate business has tried to outsmart them. While clarification on the subject can change this notion, providing such clarifications to tens of customers every day can prove impractical. In fact, a similar reason is behind the widespread proliferation of such scams. Since it is impossible to manually track every instance of a brand’s name being used by a third party, especially in the case of big brand names, scammers take advantage of volume to outsmart vigilance. The Solution: AI-Powered Brand Protection for Real Estate While manual tracking cannot solve this problem, overcoming this issue is possible. With the Brand monitoring tool, such as the mFilterIt solution, real estate businesses can track and monitor instances of fraud and protect their prospects, customers, and most importantly, their brand image. At mFilterIt, we used the following brand protection features to help our client overcome the dangers of online scams: · Automated Digital Scanning: This feature is designed to detect fake listings, impersonations, and other forms of unauthorized brand usage. The AI-enabled feature does the tracking across platforms, including property listing websites, social media platforms, ad platforms, and even search engine result pages. · ML-Based Categorization: In severe cases, automated digital scanning can uncover hundreds, even thousands of instances of brand impersonation. Dealing with so many cases one by one can take a long time. With Machine Learning (ML) based categorization, mFilterIt helped by identifying and prioritizing high-risk cases for quick takedowns and bulletproof protection. · Confidence Scoring: Confidence Scoring is a feature that assigns a severity score to violations, based on the amount of risk they pose against the brand and its customers and prospects. · Data-Driven Enforcement: All of the data points collected using the previously mentioned features are presented in an easily digestible format on a central dashboard. This dashboard enables smart and quick decision-making, enabling brand managers to monitor their brand protection in real-time. The Results: Real Impact So what did we achieve by helping our client? How big was the problem? Did we manage to solve it? Here are the numbers: Our solution detected 1,177 cases of brand impersonation in the span of just six months. With this data, we took down 905 fake listings and fake social media accounts spread across five different platforms. New fake pages and listings that would pop up on our radar were being removed in an average of 1-2 days. As a result of this exercise, the brand experienced an improvement in its brand reputation and enjoyed enhanced customer trust. Evaluating a Brand Protection Solution for Real Estate Real estate

Digital advertising has grown into a vast industry. Thousands of advertisers use advertising networks to publish their ads through millions of publishers. This scale in the ability to reach consumers is nothing short of a miracle, especially for smaller businesses trying to cut through the noise created by their larger competitors. However, thanks to the same scale, there are grave issues concerning all advertisers, regardless of the size of their business or advertising budget.   In this article, we are focusing on one of the most pressing issues faced by digital advertisers- tracking where their ads appear in the digital ecosystem. Why does it matter? Just as a good placement will drive more sales, a bad placement may result in a wasted ad budget or worse, it may end up harming your brand’s image.   This flaw in the way the digital ad industry operates has been exposed by a recent report published by Adalytics. According to the report, ads representing some of the biggest, most well-known brands across the globe were found to be hosted on websites that publish and host child sexual abuse material (CSAM).  The irreparable damage to brand reputation in such a case is not difficult to imagine. Thankfully, there’s a lot that advertisers can do to prevent their ads from being published with harmful or illegal content. This guide will walk you through all the steps you can take to protect your brand against such threats.  Let’s start at the beginning:  Step 1: Gain Visibility – Understanding Your Ad Placements  The first step to safeguarding your brand against problematic ad placements is to understand how ad placements are decided. One of the most common ways to publish ads at scale is to use programmatic ad platforms. These platforms, in theory, allow advertisers to precisely target specific audiences at scale, in real-time.   However, since programmatic platforms operate using a complex ecosystem of algorithms, supply-side platforms, and delivery-side platforms, advertisers have extremely limited visibility into their ad placements.   This was evident in the Adalytics report that highlighted big brand names like Amazon, Arizona State University, and even US Government Departments like the Office Of Texas Governor were found to be unaware of their ads appearing on a website that would also host CSAM content.   This lack of transparency on programmatic campaigns can be counteracted with the right tool.   One of the best ways to ensure that your ads are placed in a safe environment is by implementing a brand safety monitoring solution . mFilterIt’s brand safety tool makes use of real-time monitoring to help advertisers get transparency on their ad placements, where it is getting placed to ensure that their brand name is not associated with appraising advertisers about all the brand safety issues that they may be facing, presented through an actionable data points dashboard. The dashboard offers a categorized view of all unsafe content categories, along with risk levels and a detailed list of placements on which advertisers can take proactive action to safeguard their interests.  Step 2: Conduct Content Safety Analysis Once it is clear how ad placements are decided and you have set up the tracking for the same, it is time to ensure your ads are appearing next to contextually relevant content. While programmatic advertising promises the same, the CSAM case has made it clear that the content verification methods of ad networks are incredibly lacking.  Once again, a reliable brand safety tool can prove extremely handy in such a situation. The tool features a Content Safety Analysis feature that is designed to detect harmful content environments that may not be suited to hosting a specific advertiser’s ads. The tool should not just consider safe ad placements but monitor and flag content based on contextuality and relevancy.   Step 3: Check the Website’s Safety Parameters  Next, brands and advertisers must conduct individual website audits to determine whether a publisher is suited to host their ads. These checks are important because in many cases, a website may seem like a safe bet at a glance but may be holding questionable content within its deep pages. The website exposed in the Adalytics report is a good example of the same. At a glance, it seems like a safe image-hosting website. However, by monitoring the specific URLs one can identify harmful or illicit content websites like the CSAM content.  To make sure none of your ads appear on a questionable website, analyze the list of websites associated with an advertising platform on the following metrics: Website Basics: These include the URLs, titles, meta descriptions, and tags associated with the pages where the ads may appear. While these may seem like rudimentary aspects of website analysis, one may find themselves surprised at how much information these tidbits of a website contain.  Website History: This one may be familiar to many business owners. Checking the history of the website for instances of blacklisting from an advertising platform is a great way to ensure that the ads are appearing in a reputed publication. To be thorough, it is a good idea to also check for historical instances of policy violations.  Domain Safety: Advertisers must also give the domain of the publishers a second look to scan for terms that may not align with their brand safety standards.  Whois Information: The Whois Database is a superb resource for checking any website’s hosting details, credibility indicators, and the name(s) of the owner(s). This information can be used in conjunction with the website’s history and basics to make sure that the website in question truly fits within the brand’s safety guidelines.  These checks, when done thoroughly, can do wonders for ensuring your brand’s safety in the ad ecosystem. However, a typical ad network may have thousands of publishers suited to an advertiser’s targeting needs. Analyzing thousands of websites can prove to be cumbersome, to say the least. For such cases, a tool like PACE can be beneficial. It helps advertisers build an exclusion list and ensure that any of

If you’re currently managing YouTube Video Action Campaigns within Display & Video 360 (DV360), there’s a significant update on the horizon that you’ll need to prepare for. Started in October 2024, Demand Gen campaigns will become a core feature of DV360. This transition will expand your campaign capabilities, offering enhanced reach, new creative formats, and advanced audience targeting In this article, we’ll break down what this shift means, how it impacts your current campaigns, and the steps you can take to get ready for the change. What is Demand Gen in DV360? Demand Gen is a versatile campaign format designed to drive conversions through dynamic multi-format creative storytelling. With Demand Gen, you can now run both video and image ads within the same campaign line item. This brings more flexibility to your advertising efforts, enabling you to streamline workflows and craft more cohesive brand narratives. Key Advantages of Demand Gen: -Broader Reach: Engage with up to 3 billion monthly active users across Google’s vast ecosystem, including YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and other Google platforms. Unlike traditional YouTube Video Action Campaigns, you won’t be restricted to just YouTube for video placements. -Multi-Format Creativity: Demand Gen allows you to combine video and image creatives in a single campaign, simplifying management while ensuring that all your assets work seamlessly together to convey a unified brand story. -Advanced Audience Targeting: Leverage lookalike audiences to reach users who exhibit behaviors and interests similar to your existing customers. This feature is perfect for finding new potential customers who are most likely to engage with your brand. These capabilities make Demand Gen a powerful tool for marketers seeking to amplify their reach and drive higher conversion rates. In fact, according to internal Google data, campaigns that utilized both video and image assets experienced a 20% boost in conversions at the same cost per action when compared to campaigns that used video alone. The Transition from YouTube Video Action Campaigns Currently, many advertisers use YouTube Video Action Campaigns (VACs) to drive conversions within YouTube and its partner platforms. However, starting in 2025, YouTube Video Action Campaigns will transition into Demand Gen line items. Here’s what you need to know about the shift: Key Changes: -New Campaign Types: From March 2025 onwards, new YouTube Video Action Campaigns will no longer be supported in DV360. Instead, you will need to create Demand Gen campaigns. -Existing Campaigns: While your existing YouTube Video Action Campaigns will continue to run, transitioning to Demand Gen should be a priority. Familiarizing yourself with Demand Gen now will ensure a smooth transition and allow you to take full advantage of the new features before the change is mandatory. Though many of the functionalities from YouTube Video Action Campaigns, such as Floodlight optimization and third-party brand safety verification, will be preserved, it’s crucial to adapt to the new Demand Gen setup sooner rather than later. The earlier you start, the easier the transition will be. Maximizing the Impact of Demand Gen Campaigns in DV360: How mFilterIt can help advertisers The shift to Demand Gen campaigns within DV360 offers a significant opportunity for mFilterIt to enhance its pitch to advertisers, especially in terms of driving performance while ensuring brand safety solution . Here’s how mFilterIt can help brand capitalize on the new features of Demand Gen campaigns to offer valuable benefits to advertisers: -Enhanced Brand Safety & Ad Verification: With the expanded reach of Demand Gen campaigns, ensure that your ads are placed in safe, brand-compliant environments across YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and more, using mFilterIt’s robust ad verification and brand safety solution. -Advanced Audience Targeting and Optimization: Leverage mFilterIt’s audience optimization features alongside Demand Gen’s lookalike audience capabilities, ensuring you’re reaching the most relevant customers with the highest likelihood of conversion. -Cross-Platform and Multi-Format Campaigns: Simplify your cross-platform, multi-format campaigns with mFilterIt’s real-time reporting and optimization tools, ensuring both video and image creatives perform to their fullest potential. -Conversion Tracking and Floodlight Integration : Use mFilterIt’s integration with Floodlight to gain deeper insights into your Demand Gen campaign performance, ensuring you’re driving more conversions and optimizing your ROI. -Transparency & Reporting : Get complete transparency into the performance of your Demand Gen campaigns across all formats and platforms with mFilterIt’s comprehensive reporting tools, empowering you to make informed decisions. -Improved Efficiency with Automated Brand Safety Checks : Streamline your workflow and ensure continuous brand safety across all your multi-format Demand Gen campaigns with mFilterIt’s automated monitoring and real-time protection. Conclusion: With the introduction of Demand Gen campaigns in DV360, advertisers have a unique opportunity to expand their reach and connect with the right target audience. Clubbing this new feature mFilterIt has a unique opportunity to position itself as a crucial partner for advertisers. By offering robust brand safety, performance optimization, advanced audience targeting, and transparent reporting, mFilterIt can help advertisers navigate the complexities of multi-format campaigns and make the most of their expanded reach across Google’s ecosystem. This comprehensive approach can boost both the effectiveness and security of Demand Gen campaigns, ultimately driving better results for advertisers. Want to get a demo of how we do it? Contact our team today