With the rise of online advertising and social media, brands can reach consumers in unimaginable ways. However, with great opportunity comes great responsibility, especially when we are talking about brand suitability.

In this digital age where the internet is filled with tons of information, ensuring your brand is seen in a safe and appropriate context is paramount. Keep reading to understand the basics of brand safety and suitability and explore why brand suitability begins with brand safety and why it should be a top priority for every business.

What is Brand Safety?

Brand Safety refers to the practice of safeguarding a brand’s image by preventing it from appearing alongside content that could be damaging or inappropriate. This includes avoiding associations with topics such as hate speech, terrorism, illegal activities, piracy, obscenity, and content related to death or injury. For instance, a brand wouldn’t want its ads to be displayed next to breaking news about a conflict or crisis. Traditionally, brand safety has employed methods like keyword banning and URL blocklisting to avoid unwanted connections between the brand and harmful content.

What is Brand Suitability?

Brand Suitability, on the other hand, takes brand safety a step further. It goes beyond simply avoiding harmful content and focuses on understanding the deeper meaning and context of the content surrounding the brand’s advertisements.

For example, a publisher in the banking industry whose ad inventory is ideal for banks. If reports of financial wrongdoing emerge in the news, banks may want to avoid placing ads within those specific articles. However, completely blacklisting the entire website may harm the advertiser’s efforts. This is where brand suitability comes into play, allowing advertisers to filter out specific articles or content that may be considered “risky” while still benefiting from advertising on the rest of the site.

In short, brand safety is about avoiding content that is obviously harmful, while brand suitability involves a more nuanced approach, taking into account the context and meaning of content to ensure a brand’s advertising aligns with its values and objectives. Both practices are essential for maintaining a positive brand image in the ever-evolving digital advertising landscape.

How Brand Suitability Begins With Brand Safety?

Historically, brand safety has centred on the marketer’s need to prevent ads from appearing next to content deemed inappropriate for the target audience. These tactics now seem outdated and inflexible, lacking the level of control needed to build and maintain successful online businesses.

Currently, the major challenge for brand safety is the consideration of context and audience, both of which are essential for determining brand suitability which require more nuance.

Brand suitability is critical for the success of any advertising campaign since it focuses on the context of advertising and its influence on the brand. Furthermore, brand appropriateness may aid in determining which regions appeal to the intended demographic.

As a result, it might be viewed as the next evolutionary step in brand safety. While brand safety is mainly concerned with preventing or deleting the most harmful and destructive information, brand appropriateness is the act of minimising the possibility of a brand appearing in an improper setting so that companies’ reputations may be maintained. However, by tweaking the message, some firms are changing and employing historically dangerous pages for advertising.

Brand Suitability and Safety in a World of Constant Change

As consumers become more sophisticated, marketers and brands must adapt and adopt brand safety and suitability best practices.

In line with the media targeting strategy, brand safety should be flexible and evolve over time to assess emerging events and news cycles independently and determine which content is acceptable or inappropriate for a brand so that ads appear only on websites and apps that will benefit.

As a result, brand safety technologies that enable you to regulate and include or omit ad placements are critical for keeping a positive and suitable brand image.

Unfortunately, certain brand safety products are designed to be one-size-fits-all. It is tough to identify whether the ad is acceptable since not enough attention is paid to a brand’s distinctiveness or the context of words or visuals that appear in an ad.

Conclusion

By prioritizing brand safety and suitability, brands can protect their reputation, reach the right audience, and maximize the impact of their advertising efforts. In today’s competitive digital landscape, ensuring brand suitability is not just a choice; it’s a necessity for long-term success.

Advertising is a crucial element for any brand as it drives its revenue by pursuing customers from the beginning of the funnel, that is, brand awareness to conversion. Along with customer acquisition, it also generates strong brand awareness and builds a brand image.

The advertising landscape today is facing the issue of users’ online privacy which has become an alarming concern for brands. It is moving towards privacy-first advertising.

“66% of consumers have expressed discomfort with businesses and brands tracking their browsing history to deliver personalized ads.”

This statistic highlights a growing unease among internet users regarding the use of their data for targeted advertising purposes. As a result, businesses and advertisers are increasingly seeking alternative strategies that respect user privacy while still delivering relevant and engaging advertisements. In this context, finding a balance between personalized advertising and privacy has become crucial for brands to maintain consumer trust and loyalty.

Mirrors is a contextual advertising solution for the open web by Silverpush which is helping brands tap into the audience while abiding by the privacy guidelines set by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

How can Mirrors be a Game Changer in a Privacy-First Environment?

More and more internet users worldwide are expressing increased concern about their online privacy, with 67% of the population is  stating that they are more concerned than ever. A study found that 81% of people prefer to see ads that are relevant to their browsing experience, and 65% of consumers have a more positive opinion of brands that offer contextually relevant ads.
And, with this, brands need to be more concerned about their advertising strategies to navigate this shift in consumer mindset.

To address these concerns and preferences, contextual advertising has emerged as an effective solution. The AI-powered technology analyzes the content of the webpage and deploys the most relevant ad based on contextual triggers. These triggers include identifying key contexts of the entire content. With this approach, advertisers ensure that the user is targeted with the most relevant ad.
Contextual ad targeting also benefits advertisers by providing a higher number of relevant ads to consumers. Since the ads are displayed based on the content of the page, they are more likely to align with users’ interests and increase engagement.

For example, if a user is looking for the latest laptop, the AI will target the user with the most relevant ad that will be related to the content of the webpage.

Another benefit is that, unlike other targeting methods, contextual advertising doesn’t rely on collecting or storing personal data about users, alleviating privacy concerns. This form of targeting offers a privacy-friendly approach that aligns with users’ increasing concerns about data usage. It delivers relevant ads based on webpage content, enhancing user experience and generating more positive perceptions of brands.

But why has contextual advertising been a widely accepted approach?

Contextual advertising has been a widely accepted approach because in the changing landscape of advertising it aligns the best with the requirements of users and advertisers.
Today, users expect privacy assurance more than a personalized ad experience. They want their identity and information to be safe as they browse the web.

Keeping the rising concerns in mind, major browsers like Firefox, Safari (Apple), and Opera banned third-party cookies from use and Google Chrome began working on the alternative.

Third-party cookies have historically played a significant role in behavioral targeting. Here’s an overview of their role:

1. Collecting User Data: Third-party cookies are small text files that are stored on a user’s browser by a website other than the one they are currently visiting. These cookies allow third-party advertising networks or tracking companies to collect data about a user’s browsing behavior, such as the websites they visit, the pages they view, and the products they are interested in. This data is crucial for behavioral targeting.

2. Profiling and Segmentation: With the help of third-party cookies, advertisers were able to create user profiles and segment audiences based on their browsing habits and interests. By tracking users across multiple websites, third-party cookies gathered a wealth of information that helped advertisers understand individual preferences and tailor their advertising messages accordingly.

3. Personalized Advertisements: Advertisers use the information provided by the third party to serve relevant ads based on a user’s browsing history and interests.

4. Retargeting: Third-party cookies enable retargeting, where ads are shown to users who have previously interacted with a brand or visited a specific website, thereby increasing the chances of conversion.

5. Measurement and Analytics: Advertisers could monitor click-through rates, conversions, and other key performance indicators by leveraging the data stored in these cookies. This information helps advertisers optimize their campaigns, refine their targeting strategies, and make data-driven decisions.

These factors increased concerns about privacy among users which lead to drastic changes in the advertising. Hence, contextual targeting has become a useful alternative to survive in this dynamic advertising landscape.

Conclusion

The advertising landscape will continue to evolve, advertisers must find a solution that caters to the privacy concerns of the user without diverting from personalized messaging. Advertisers are rapidly inclining towards the contextual targeting approach. This is because it is the only and best available option to gain a competitive edge. This approach not only ensures safety but also drives better results and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

The FMCG industry is a vital component of the global economy, contributing significantly to a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and job creation. As a major driver of consumer spending, FMCG plays an essential role in various aspects of the economy.

The FMCG market size was evaluated to be 716.3 Billion in 2022 and the CAGR growth rate is expected to be 4.41% from 2023 to 2028.

The market size of the FMCG industry has significantly grown in the U.S., China, and other developed markets. Keeping the growth in mind, the experts are predicting 70% growth on a global scale. The World Bank predicts that in terms of consumer market the FMCG market in India will take the third place surpassing Japan and Germany by 2030.

The consumer industry is a highly competitive landscape, with brands vying for market share based on product type, production techniques, and distribution channels. However, in this fiercely contested arena, advertising is the key to success for them. But the advertisers are facing a set of challenges in the advertising landscape.

What are the Advertising Challenges Faced by the FMCG Industry?

According to a study, till 2023, FMCG firms were expected to raise their digital advertising spending by 7% yearly. FMCG expenditure decreased by 10.7% to $ 26.7 billion in 2020, a more significant decrease than the whole advertising industry.

But utilizing the ad spend is a bigger and more important factor. Since the FMCG industry is flooded with brands and products, getting brand visibility and brand recognition are the two main purposes of advertising for them. To achieve both goals choosing an appropriate advertising approach is crucial. But due to a shift in consumer behavior creating a positive and solid brand image has become difficult.

The consumer has become more empowered and they want to control everything they see, especially in the virtual space. They want to see the ads of their interest but without getting digitally stalked. 72% of people believe that virtually all of what they do online is being monitored by advertising, technology corporations, or other businesses, and 81% believe that the threats can surpass the possible rewards of data collecting.

Not only the audience but the traditional advertising ways have often led brands to face consequences of negative branding due to wrong ad placement. This not only damaged their reputation but also resulted in ad wastage.

The Rise of Contextual Advertising

Have you ever noticed that whenever you walk into a supermarket to get one item from the shelf you end up filling the cart? This is because at that moment you were interested in the items, they were relevant and you were triggered to buy them.

Contextual advertising is similar!

Through contextual targeting, advertisers reach the target audience at the right moment which triggers them to engage with the brand. According to a study, 79% of respondents agreed that they were comfortable with the ads that are relevant to them. Also, 65% said they would be more tempted to buy from relevant ads.

How can the FMCG Industry Benefit from Contextual Ads?

One approach to take advantage of the opportunity is through omnichannel contextual advertising. Silverpush’s remarkable AI-powered solution, Mirrors, ensures brand safety and suitability across various advertising channels. The high-powered AI technology ensures the message reaches the right audience.

Mirrors identifies key contexts in the blogs and videos, word by word. The AI-powered technology works on six detectors, renowned celebrities, brands, locations, emotions, objects, and actions to place the relevant ads.

1. YouTube

For the FMCG industry, video advertising is the most suitable ad format. YouTube offers various ad formats and advertisers can choose the most suitable format for them. According to a study, 88% of video marketers were satisfied with the ROI of their video marketing on social media.

In the past, an FMCG brand chose 1 video creative to connect and interact with the target audience. The campaign has delivered more than 9 million impressions in 28 days.

Post-campaign analysis the brand concluded that they had reached more than 5 million unique users. The campaign performed beyond the industry benchmarks as it surpassed the planned KPIs (VTR).

2. Open Web

Relevant advertising can be shown depending on the webpage content that the target audience has viewed. The mirror captures the audience’s attention, without invading the user’s privacy. This gives users a sense of safety and the advanced AI-powered technology ensures that the ad is placed in a brand-safe environment.

3. Meta

To extract contextual signals that enable the distribution of real-time, in-the-moment advertising for outstanding results, Mirrors carefully selects and examines brand-safe Facebook pages. Models for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Natural Language Processing (NLP) are used to do this.

4. CTV

On most streaming TV services, CTV represents over 80% of all viewing. The remaining 20% is accounted for the other devices connected to the internet (laptops, smartphones, and tablets).
As per studies, ad spending on linear and connected TV (CTV) combined will increase from $87.24 billion to more than $100 billion in 2026. This will be due to the surge in CTV viewing.

When marketers purchase advertising space on CTV, their commercials are played to viewers when they stream movies, TV series, and other content to their linked television. To ensure brand safety, ads are delivered in the proper context with the help of semantic analysis, content analysis, and customized ad segments.

Takeaways

The advertising arena is changing rapidly and for the FMCG industry, it is their primary source of establishing brand recall. Contextual advertising can be a game-changer for them as it will help them in capitalizing on the interest of the user. It will help drive engagement without intervening with the privacy of the user. Also, omnichannel advertising can play a significant role in strengthening brand recognition.

Video games have always engaged a large audience, especially GenZ, and millennials. This gives advertisers and brands an opportunity to innovatively establish a solid brand recall.

As gaming devices continue to gain popularity and offer more opportunities for brands to reach their audience, the global gaming market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 9.9% from 229.39 billion in 2022 to 252.10 billion in 2023. Additionally, it’s projected to reach 401.32 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 12.3%. 

The gaming industry is in an evolving phase and advertisers must explore this in-video game advertising. The primary reasons are: 

• The gaming industry has a huge audience base who play games on different devices. This means brands have more than one opportunity to reach their targeted audience. 

• With a large audience reach, the gaming industry has a loyal fan base. According to a study, in-gaming advertisements had influenced 44% of gamers to engage with brands. 

However, this pool of advertising opportunities will require brands to focus more on brand safety. 

What are the Key Components of Brand Safety for In-Video Gaming Advertising?

Measures taken to protect the brand image are known as brand safety. This is done to protect brands from irreparable damage as we had a few examples in the past of how the brand’s reputation was damaged beyond repair due to ad placement next to inappropriate content. 

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has shared an impactful framework for advertisers which can help them in ensuring brand safety.

1. Contextual Targeting:

The process to phase out third-party cookies was started years ago. This was done to abide by the privacy of the user. Amidst the evolving landscape of advertising, advertisers began to rely on contextual targeting which resulted in higher brand engagement. In-video gaming advertising, advertisers must rely on contextual advertising to be profitable as the AI-powered technology ensures that the ads appear to the relevant content. A customized blocklist is prepared but unlike keyword-based targeting, the AI understands the context of the keywords used like a human mind. This increases the advertising opportunity, brand safety, and audience engagement with the brand.

2. Partner Selection:

Brands look for partners who would help them in setting up the ads in the video games. But before finalizing the partners, brands must evaluate them based on their game quality, advertising ecosystem, and compliance with General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR) and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) regulations. It’s also essential to review the game’s content for any violent or inappropriate content that doesn’t align with the brand’s values. Advertisers should request a comprehensive explanation of the partner’s brand safety policies and a block list of prohibited advertisers or services. 

To enhance your brand safety, you perform the following steps to ensure multi-level verification. Use a combination of the following verification tools: 

• Viewability – This will help you get the percentage of ads seen by your audience. This tool ensures that your ad is seen by the target audience. 

• Fraud detection-This tool will help you in identifying and preventing fraud. It will detect invalid traffic, bots, and any fraudulent activity which has the ability to impact your campaigns. 

• Brand Safety Protection- This tool will add an additional layer of protection for contextual targeting. The tool will ensure that your ads aren’t displayed against inappropriate content. 

• Audience Verification- This tool will give you insights into the audience who have seen your ad.

 3. Ad Placement and Monitoring:

A key component of brand safety in video game advertising is ad placement. To prevent any unfavorable connotations with the brand, advertisers should make sure that their adverts are positioned in the proper areas inside the gaming environment. 

For instance, advertisements for gambling or alcohol shouldn’t be included in kid-targeted games since they might expose kids to unsuitable content and harm the reputation of the company. 

In a similar vein, advertisements for graphic or explicit content need to be kept out of games targeted only at adults. To make sure that their advertising is neither obtrusive nor disruptive, advertisers should also take the context of the gaming environment and the entire user experience into account.

Apart from the placement advertisers should keep a close eye on their campaigns to ensure they are not running in inappropriate places. Utilizing technology solutions and collaborating with partners to resolve any problems that may occur be part of this. For instance, advertisers may check ad placement and look for any possible brand safety issues using third-party technologies. They may also closely collaborate with their partners to resolve any problems and make any necessary modifications. In order to track success and pinpoint any areas for improvement, advertisers should also set up clear reporting tools. Advertisers that regularly report on their campaigns can better spot potential problems and take proactive steps to solve them before they become a problem.

Conclusion

The gaming industry is on the rise and in the coming years gamers will be a prominent and much larger community. Advertisers must explore this evolving landscape of advertising while they focus on brand safety. 

The 22nd Edition of FIFA World Cup 2022 is about to begin soon. The World Cup stimulates a frenzy of marketing activities – both official and unofficial. It is about to kick off before Black Friday, and with the final seven days before Christmas, making the market more challenging but unique for the advertisers, and marketers.

Qatar World Cup Audience is Projected at 5 Billion this year. According to the official broadcast coverage of the 2018 World Cup, a combined 3.572 billion viewers – more than half of the global population aged four and over – tuned in to world football’s ultimate competition. One of the biggest sporting events in terms of viewers is a unique and great opportunity for advertisers to connect with the audience and make an impact.

The key to connecting with the audience during game time is to understand how they engage with the content, and who they listen to. Here we have highlighted best practices for you to meet your goals.

This World Cup Win Hearts and Minds of the Consumers

Research from Trends shows that brands need to show diversity, promote gender equality, take a stand on social issues, and show sustainability in their ads if they are to win the hearts and minds of their target audience. The research also found that leveraging high-attention premium publishers during the tournament will be a key highlight for advertisers, as fans go check the scores online (71 percent), while some read online articles about the matches (51 percent).

This will be a huge opportunity for the brand as billions of people intend to follow the game. It is always a massive draw for the brands as the consumers are stuck to their screens in the hope that football will, once again, or this time come home.

Some Interesting statistics to see:

• 65 percent of football fans believe that sponsors/ partners of the World Cup to have a business model that supports sustainability.
• 75 percent of UK consumers intend to watch football at home which means for FMCG brands these consumers will buy alcohol (65 percent), and snacks (65 percent) to see them through the game.
• Qatar 2022 will be the first World Cup which will take place in an Arab nation.
• In the year 2018, the sporting event added an estimated $2.4 billion to the global advertising market
• Around two-thirds of the World Cup’s market value comes from Europe.

A Tip for Marketers: Go Beyond Core Football Fans

There is no denying that the appeal of World Cup goes well beyond hardcore football fans. Considering this, advertisers are advised to develop creative that speaks to a broader audience to stand out from the wild competition.

Take a Bet on ‘Crunch Time’

More and more viewers are consuming football content on YouTube. Football-related searches on Youtube increased to 80% since Euro 2020. More searches mean more viewing. And after years of not being able to watch sports in person, there is definitely an adrenalin rush among people to go back to the stadium to watch the match live.

How to Connect with Fans While They Are Online?

After COVID-19, the usage of digital platforms has experienced a major jump. Not letting this opportunity go to waste, brands made good use of it to spread awareness about their products as much as they could.

However, as there are no roses without any thorns, there have been many events and controversies making their way into the digital sphere too. This has made brands more aware of the importance of brand safety in digital advertising. 

Even after spending millions of dollars on advertising, mixing fake news with genuine digital advertising is not what any brand would desire

For example, a bottled water company like Danone, Bisleri, or Nestle wouldn’t want their ads to be played on an article talking about plastic water bottles polluting the ocean.

When it comes to sites like YouTube, advertisers have little control or knowledge about where their ads are being played. 

Therefore, it is highly critical for advertisers and publishers to educate themselves on brand safety issues.

What do you Understand by Brand Safety?

Brand safety is the technique of preserving a brand’s reputation and preventing it from appearing in highly dangerous circumstances like hate speech, terrorism, illegal drugs, piracy, obscenity, death/injury, etc. 

The basic purpose of brand safety in online advertising is to associate the brand with good, authoritative, and non-confrontational content. To eliminate unwanted or incorrect brand connections, primitive tactics such as term banning and URL blocklisting were utilized to achieve success in this attempt. 

Why Brand Safety in Digital Advertising is Important?

Many people believe that advertising is separate and apart from the content of the page where it appears. However, this is not the case!

Consumers connect brands with the content around which they are displayed and as an implicit endorsement of such content. A bad implicit endorsement might have long-term consequences for the safety of the brand.

Following are some of the reasons why brand safety is vital in digital advertising:

1. Maintaining a Good Reputation of the Brand

This is essential to the company’s success and prosperity. When advertisements appear alongside real content, consumers are more inclined to interact with the brand.

Consumers also believe that it is the brand’s responsibility to place itself among the top-quality content.

According to a survey, the majority of polled customers claimed they would quit using a brand if it showed next to fake news or objectionable content. 

2. Affecting the Performance of Digital Marketing Campaigns

Furthermore, associations, whether favorable or bad, have a direct influence on the efficacy of your digital marketing activities. Using a brand safety provider gives consumers the image of quality and dependability, which leads to greater real interest.

3. First Impression is the Most Lasting Impression

While a well-established brand may not incur significant ad revenue losses from a single occurrence, a smaller business requires reputable sources to create credibility.

Brand safety in digital advertising should not be underestimated. It has an impact on the brand’s reputation and, as a result, ad income and sales.

Who Decides What is “Safe” or “Unsafe”?

There are many organizations that are striving to define brand safety procedures. Among them are the most popular organizations, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Media Rating Council (MRC).

These trade groups, in collaboration with brand safety vendors, set guidelines and best practices for publishers, advertisers, and agencies to follow to maintain a healthy supply chain, and thus protect them from placing their ads on any content that is not safe. 

They provide the foundations to guarantee that the publisher’s inventory is accessible, complies with privacy standards, and follows brand safe advertising best practices for placement. Similarly, advertisers have brand authenticity and restricted material for ad standards.

Ensuring 360 Degree Brand Safety in Advertising with Mirrors by Silverpush

Mirrors by Silverpush keeps brand safety as the top priority and through its AI-powered in-video key context solution delivers brand safety controls without killing your reach, tackles the problems of over-blocking, and provides online brand safety for advertisers.

The deeply trained proprietary AI models identify custom-defined unsafe contexts like celebrities, actions, objects, and scenes in a streaming video. These videos are classified into many levels of video content, including smoking, adult, violence, wrecks, arms, terrorism, and others.

Along with this, it also focuses on brand suitability through text & sentiment analysis, engagement metrics, and organic influence at the video level. 

What happens when you are watching a video of a food blogger and an Uber Eats ad pops up? Will you click on the ad? The chances of this event are very high! The reason behind this is higher the relevancy of an ad served, the higher the chances of an engaged audience resulting in conversion. With the announcement of the ban on third-party cookies by major global companies like Apple, Firefox, and Google; ad-tech companies are striving to find new ways to display their ads without hindering users’ privacy. This is where contextual targeting steps in! 

Before we move forward to explain the need for contextual ads and why it is gaining popularity these days, let me first walk you through their meaning, and how relevant ads are important for your campaigns.  

What is Contextual Targeting?

Contextual targeting or advertising refers to the placement of a display ad on websites that are directly related to the product being offered in the ad. 

Let’s understand this with an example. Have you ever come across a banner ad displaying flight bookings on a page offering tour packages in a country? If yes, you have experienced what contextual advertising is!

Simply put, in contextual advertising, the content of the ad is closely tied to the content of the site/page. It’s an old and simple strategy that wasn’t super popular earlier because its performance was lower than the ads that targeted contextual audiences using cookies.

Soon, it became the most dominant form of online advertising. 

What are Relevant Ads?

According to Google, relevant ads or keyword relevance refers to how closely an advertising campaign matches a user’s search, based on the correlation between keywords, ads, and post-click landing pages. Relevant ads have the power to capture a user’s attention three times more effectively. 

Additionally, contextually relevant ads have a greater likelihood of appearing in higher positions, generating more clicks, and leading to higher success rates for advertisers’ campaigns. Therefore, prioritizing the relevance of ads can be an effective strategy to increase the effectiveness of ad campaigns and drive greater ROI.

Problem With Behavioural Targeting Methods

The difference between contextual and audience-based targeting comes down to intention. Contextual targeting is intended to increase user engagement by displaying ads that are relevant to the content being consumed, while behavioral targeting relies on users’ past browsing behaviors and interactions to serve personalized ads.

Personalized ads can sometimes creep out users who are uncomfortable with brands tracking their browsing history and habits. In fact, 66% of consumers have expressed discomfort with businesses and brands tracking their browsing history to serve them personalized ads. 

By prioritizing contextual targeting over behavioral targeting, advertisers can create a more positive and comfortable user experience, while still delivering effective advertising messages that resonate with the user’s interests and needs.

Statistics Highlighting the Importance of Contextual Targeting

With privacy being at the top of the mind for advertisers, the importance of contextual advertisement and the relevancy of ads has never been more important!

1. According to reports and interviews with many people, the global market for Contextual Advertising estimated at US$199.8 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$562.1 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 13.8% over the analysis period 2022-2030.

2. 49% of US marketers surveyed are using contextual marketing today.

3. Context is so powerful that 49% of brand marketers are looking to contextual targeting advertising to replace cookies.

4. Nearly 70% of consumers feel ads are more likely to be recalled when they appear next to relevant information.

5. 7 out of 10 viewers have said that consumer impression of an online ad and the brand linked with it is influenced by the content surrounding it.

6. When companies provide contextually appropriate ads, almost two-thirds (65%) of customers have a more favorable perception of those brands.

Why Should You Choose Contextual Targeting?

Contextual targeting is a demanded tool for companies that have helped them target their segmented audience group at the right time, moment, and platform.

About 65% of respondents said they would be more tempted to buy from online ads relevant to the web page they were currently viewing. Compared to this, only 35% said they would be tempted to purchase from an ad based on the content they had viewed in the last month.

Some of the benefits of contextual targeting that caused the new rise of contextual advertising are:

1. Unlike behavioral advertising, which requires users’ personal information, contextual targeting relies on less personal information. This makes it a secure and desirable option for most businesses that must adhere to privacy requirements such as GDPR.

2. Contextual advertising is less disruptive than typical banner ads since they are particularly targeted at an audience who is interested in the content of the page/video.

3. Unlike traditional advertising strategies, contextual advertising is cost-effective and does not hurt the advertisers’ pockets.

4. Contextual ad targeting is the most effective way to increase product sales by achieving its primary goal of reaching the targeted demographic. This occurs as a result of a good study on keywords, keyword phrases, and the application of AI technology.

5. When people visiting the websites see ads that are relevant to the content, the product’s brand recognition increases. This in turn leads to larger audience engagement and improves the company’s income through increasing sales.

How does Contextual Advertising Work?

Now, here comes the real deal! Here, we have explained the workings of contextual advertising and the methodology behind it. It generally involves the process of contextual targeting through a demand-side platform that will place your ads on platforms that match the allocated parameters. 

This is how the process works:

1st Step: Choose the Parameters for Contextual targeting

Keyword selection is an important step in this process. You need to target keywords, as well as topics and phrases to the Display Network ad groups. At first, you can start broad like ‘Autos & Vehicles’ and then can get more specific like ‘Trucks & SUVs’, or ‘Commercial Vehicles’, etc.

This is done to precisely target your topic and sub-topics. As per the research done by Google, each campaign should use 5-50 keywords, including negative keywords to help the network match your ad to website content.

2nd Step: Google Analyzes the Pages

Once you place an order, Google analyzes the pages to the web page which matches your ad with the most relevant content. In case, you target keywords in the same ad group, your content is displayed first when Google selects where to show your ads.

3rd Step: Ad placement is done Contextually

After Google analyzes your ad, the display network will find the placement of your ad contextually. For example, when keywords, as selected by you, match the central theme of a website,  or the concept of that site, your ad is then shown up on that website.

Third-Party Cookies Out, Contextual Advertising In

Consumers worldwide are becoming more informed and public and governmental demands are increasing on the advertisement industry to restrict or limit the gathering of user data. 

As a result, cookie-based ad targeting is becoming increasingly difficult, and many internet browsers are now taking steps to limit cookie use.

With GDPR and CCPA legislation requiring greater use of personal data and privacy protection, there is an increase in demand for contextual targeting.

The best part about contextual advertisements is that they do not require any personal information from consumers to target them. Instead, they analyze session data, such as a user’s current webpage, to establish the individual’s intentions and interests. Interpretative data is obtained from the user’s activity.

Brand Safety and Suitability – Important Part of Contextual Targeting

According to a study, 43 percent of customers have stopped doing business with a brand in which they have lost trust.

Brand safety and suitability are critical for maintaining a brand’s reputation in the digital advertising space. In today’s digital world, customers are quick to lose trust in brands that fail to ensure brand alignment, which can result in losing clients. It is, therefore, essential to protect the brand at all costs.

To ensure brand safety, digital marketers, agencies, and media need to implement effective brand safety policies. These policies should aim to prevent the brand’s ads from appearing next to harmful or inappropriate content online.

One way to achieve this is through context-based controls that target safe, acceptable, and brand-building content. Digital marketers should prioritize brand suitability to protect the brand’s reputation and build a positive brand image in the minds of their target audience.

To help achieve this, Silverpush’s contextual targeting solutions can be a valuable tool. Silverpush’s solutions use advanced algorithms to analyze and understand the context of a web page or video and determine its suitability for a particular brand. This helps ensure that the brand’s ads appear only on appropriate content and not on content that could damage the brand’s reputation.

Silverpush – Placing Ads in Contextual Moments

With third-party cookies being phased out, it has become even more important for ad-tech companies to find better ways to engage with customers, the alternative to this is contextual targeting! 

Know Mirrors 

Silverpush’s flagship product, Mirrors is an AI-powered contextual targeting solution that focuses on serving personalized ads to the audience in a completely brand-safe environment. Initially, it was available on YouTube, now its contextual and brand-safe solutions are available on the OpenWeb and social platforms as well. It enables the processing of large volumes of data at speed, with better context, at a higher scale, and improved targeting efficiency. 

How Mirrors Can Help in Reaching Your Relevant Audience?

Mirrors’ AI-powered technology identifies key contexts like celebrities, brands, objects, actions, and other factors for a nuanced level of targeting at the video level. Its unique custom identifying capabilities ensure that reach is not duplicated, and a unified approach is followed for content-aligned ad placement, brand safety, and custom brand suitability.

It can block ad placements against unwanted, unsuitable, irrelevant, and harmful content.

These solutions can provide the highest accuracy to not let a single damaging ad placement pass through, by using word-by-word parsing of video content.  An example of this is its tie-up with IKEA, where it helped the company achieve CTR of 0.55% and 104% view rates with Mirrors. 

To know more about Silverpush and its AI-powered solutions, fill out the form on the right and an expert from our team will contact you soon.

One of the most difficult challenges when ensuring brand safety is deciding what’s “safe,” which is entirely personal and often favorably specific. A conventional brand may blocklist sites with inappropriate content, while a future-focused brand may find its actual audience in those same spots.

But, in this process advertisers might overlook the minute reality of brand protection today and skip truths about brand safety that they cannot afford to ignore.

Interesting Truths about Brand Safety

People are drawn to Controversial Topics

Brands can skip many opportunities when they blocklist sites or construct long keyword-blocking lists for suspicion of controversy. And increased demand among conservative brand marketers can push up pricing on sites deemed safe, even if those “ultra-safe” pages draw less traffic. Taking measures to ensure that a brand remains safe is important, but too many measures can be expensive and show lackluster outcomes. 

There’s no such thing as a Secure Website

There are a bunch of scenarios illustrating this fact—airline ads next to news reports about airplane crashes, candy ads preceding those about dental care and cavities, etc. Protection is about content and context, not URLs, so contextual understanding is important. It’s almost inevitable that every carefully filtered and selected site on a URL allow list could serve up more than one discomfiting matchup.

Read Also: Brand Safety and Brand Suitability – Do they Differ?

There are a lot of Gray Areas

There are many websites that all brands will want to bypass in the Wild West of the World Wide Web. But the vast plurality of web addresses, or URLs, offer a mixture of excellent and inappropriate content. As a result, guiding the enormous ocean of questionable content needs detailed descriptions of every brand and its audiences to decide what sinks into the thumbs-up category.

Equally significant, the same practice needs to happen for each campaign and every advertisement. An ad featuring many raised hands emerging next to a report on advances in prosthetic limbs is cringeworthy, but other ads might be just fine. 

Change is Consistent

This fact seems more accurate than ever. And the internet is the zone where transformation is immediately noticed, captured, and spread. That means your brand safety tool must be competent in developing in real-time. Otherwise, today’s perfect brand strategy may be risky or hopelessly out-of-date by tomorrow. Because let’s face it: going viral is not always helpful.

Video Rules

As phone usage peaks and more internet-connected TVs enter every home, video advertising will rise. According to a study, online video traffic is anticipated to double over the next few years, making it a medium no advertiser can afford to miss.

Until now, no proper brand safety tools exist for video content—especially “in-stream.” After multiple examples of big brands’ ads on videos that featured fierce or hate-filled content, advertisers have every right to be careful in order to keep a brand’s reputation safe.. 

Using a Machete is Silly When a Scalpel will do

Just as avoiding video suppresses vulnerability and hurts consumer acquisition, URL blacklists and allow lists limit views and transformations. The same is valid for out-of-the-box filtering methods, even if that permits some personalization. Likewise, any fixed solution that doesn’t help fluid growth slowly hacks away at meaningful views and restricts compounding dollars. 

Conclusion:

Marketers require brand safety methods that help them eradicate concerns while also developing new audiences. While evolution brings opportunity, a necessity of brand safety has become really crucial to keep a brand’s reputation unharmed. 

Read more of our blogs in order to learn how to effectively protect your brand online.

It’s not just viewability and ROI that brands demand while buying ad inventory, they want brand safety and suitability too.  The unprecedented days experienced during the Covid-19 times have forced advertisers to think about brand suitability, brand safety & precise targeting as well.

As much as advertisers want to see their campaigns running on the most relevant content, they don’t want it at the cost of them appearing next to unsafe content. 

This is when the importance of brand safety and suitability comes into play.

Does Brand Safety and Suitability Differ from Each Other?

The answer to the question is No. Brand safety and suitability are not different from each other,  brand suitability is just the evolution of brand safety.

What is Brand Safety? 

Brand safety is the practice of preserving a brand’s reputation and preventing it from appearing in potentially harmful circumstances like hate speech, terrorism, illegal drugs, piracy, obscenity, death/injury, etc. 

For example, any brand might not want their ads to get displayed next to breaking news about the war. 

With brand safety, the primary goal is to associate the brand with good, authoritative, and non-confrontational content. To be successful in this endeavor, primitive measures like keyword banning and URL block listing were used to avoid unwanted or improper brand connections.

What is Brand Suitability?

Brand suitability takes brand safety to the next level. It is more than ensuring that the brand’s reputation isn’t disrupted by the content around it. 

More importantly, it is based on understanding the underlying meaning of content as well as the precise context of what is on the page.

For instance, if you are a publisher in the banking industry. Your inventory is ideal for banks to display their advertisements. However, if reports about financial wrongdoings begin to make the press, the same banks will avoid placing advertisements in such articles.

However, avoiding the full website for advertising might harm the advertiser’s effort. This is where keyword blacklisting comes in handy for filtering out articles that contain ‘risky’ news.

Why Brand Safety and Suitability are Important?

Both brand safety and brand suitability are ever-evolving and play a huge role in preserving a brand’s reputation within the digital advertising realm.  

Whether it is digital marketers, agencies, or publishers, all have prioritized brand safety procedures. This is crucial to not lose your customers as a result of poor brand alignment.

According to a report, 43% of customers have stopped working with a brand in which they lost trust. Following are the reasons why you must protect brand safety and suitability at all costs. 

1. Protecting Brand Reputation: When ads are placed next to inappropriate or controversial content, it can damage a brand’s reputation. For example, if a luxury brand’s ad is placed next to a story about a celebrity scandal, it can make the brand look like it is associated with that scandal.

2. Avoiding Legal Risks: In some cases, brands can be held liable for the content that their ads are placed next to. For example, if a brand’s ad is placed next to hate speech, the brand could be sued for promoting hate speech.

3. Ensuring Compliance with Industry Regulations: Many industries have regulations that govern where ads can be placed. For example, the financial industry has regulations that prohibit ads from being placed next to content that is considered to be gambling or investment advice.

4. Improving Campaign Performance: When ads are placed in the right context, they are more likely to be seen and remembered by consumers. This can lead to improved campaign performance, such as increased brand awareness and sales.

In addition to these reasons, brand safety and suitability are also important for protecting consumers. When ads are placed in the right context, consumers are less likely to be exposed to inappropriate or harmful content. This can help to create a safer and more enjoyable online experience for everyone.

Brand suitability bridges the risk-opportunity gap by providing context-based controls that allow digital marketers to target safe, acceptable, and brand-building content.

Challenges of Brand Safety and Brand Suitability

Brand safety is concerned with preventing the loss of trust between a brand and a customer. This is due to the fact that without trust, revenue, brand equity, and customers’ interests are either reduced or eliminated.

A transparent digital advertising brand safety vendor partnership is the solution to this problem. 

Advertisers must understand that the brand safety approach used for their digital advertising initiatives works at the speed of culture. This can help in absorbing new issues as they arise and does not over-block information or allow unsafe/inappropriate content to pass through.

This happens mostly during keyword blocking and domain-level allow and block listing. Because of over-blocking, many keywords that have different meanings, and URL domains that house information on a broad variety of topics get sidelined. 

When it comes to brand suitability, many businesses fail to execute it successfully due to the inability to find a comprehensive solution.

According to a recent survey, 49 percent of marketers have encountered brand suitability failure, 54 percent have faced consumer hostility, and 44 percent have lost revenue because of it.

Mirrors By Silverpush – A Blend of Brand Safety And Suitability 

Mirrors by Silverpush focuses not only on brand safety but also on context-relevant brand suitability. Its AI-powered in-video context key contexts identification delivers brand safety controls without killing your reach and tackles the problems of over-blocking.

The deeply trained proprietary AI models identifies custom-defined unsafe contexts like faces, actions, objects, and scenes in a streaming video. These videos are classified into many levels of video content, including smoking, adult, violence, wrecks, arms, terrorism, and others.

Along with this, it also focuses on brand suitability through text & sentiment analysis, engagement metrics, and organic influence at the video level.