Brand Safety is the ability to limit ads to unsafe content categories. It is available in many advertising accounts: Facebook, Linkedin and others. We as Google Marketing Platform partner will focus in this article on brand security specifically in Campaign Manager and Display&Video 360, GMP tools.

How Brand Safety works in GMP

As part of Brand Safety, you can add topics on which we do not want to be shown. That is, we can prescribe, conditionally, 3000 negative keywords, next to which our content should not be advertised. The system will analyze the page and, if there are these keywords, it will show an empty space or a stub instead of the prepared creative. This analyzes not only the web, but also applications and Youtube videos.

This is useful for advertisers who care about brand reputation – that is, for the majority. For example, for one of our clients, the context in which an ad is displayed is very important. With this tool, we created a list of words like “death”, “war”, “devastation”, etc., in order not to show the client’s ad in this context, and to protect the brand from being associated with such topics.

Note! If we use CM as an adserver and it sees that the display matches our Brand Safety settings, we will still have a display in the same DV360, we will still pay for it. But instead of ads, either an empty square or a default image that you upload will be shown.

Filtered traffic report

After launching Brand Safety, you can see in CM a report on filtered traffic and how the adserver qualified this or that content. You can evaluate which content ads were shown next to and which ones they didn’t.

In SM, we can immediately form a white-list and black-list in this report. This is convenient: we logged in and immediately marked the domain where we do not want to appear. And they can also be formed in DV360.

Output

Brand Safety is a great reputation tool for big advertisers. It helps to protect the brand from negative or unusual contexts. The disadvantage here is the need to pay for failed impressions, but with the right campaign settings, their share will be insignificant.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions About Brand Safety

What is Brand Safety?

Brand Safety is a set of tools and rules that help prevent ads from appearing alongside undesirable, harmful, or potentially reputation-damaging content.

What is the difference between Brand Safety and Brand Suitability?

Brand Safety focuses on excluding unsafe content, while Brand Suitability allows advertisers to define acceptable content environments more flexibly based on a specific brand’s policies and the requirements of an advertising campaign.

How can you protect your brand in DV360?

In DV360, you can use Brand Safety settings, Content Categories, Digital Content Labels, Inventory Mode, exclusion lists, White Lists, third-party verification tools such as IAS, DoubleVerify, and MOAT, as well as custom lists of websites and YouTube channels.

Are negative keywords enough for Brand Safety?

No. Negative keywords provide only partial protection. For more effective brand protection, it is recommended to combine several mechanisms, including content categories, inventory settings, exclusion lists, third-party verification, and regular monitoring of ad placements.

Does Brand Safety affect campaign reach?

Yes. The stricter the Brand Safety settings, the smaller the amount of advertising inventory available to the campaign. However, these restrictions help reduce reputational risks and ensure that ads appear in higher-quality and safer content environments.