#brandsafetytools

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.

Brands spend millions daily on programmatic advertisements with the belief that the ads are shown to genuine users on authentic websites. The truth is that an increasing number of this inventory does not cater to any readership, rather to bids. The advent of artificial intelligence has led to the creation of content farms that produce articles purely based on the objective of getting advertised. 

The term used for such content is referred to as AI slop and poses one of the most significant challenges to media quality and brand safety in digital advertisement today. 

Recently, advertisers raised concerns when their ads on Spotify were found appearing alongside sexually explicit audio content. The issue wasn’t the platform but the association.

These brands never intended to be associated with such content. The ads were placed through automated digital advertising systems designed to maximize reach and efficiency. Yet, the brands got associated.

This is exactly what happens to brands in the digital advertising ecosystem. Ads today travel across thousands of websites, videos, and platforms through automated systems. While brands carefully plan their messaging and targeting, they don’t always have visibility into where their ads finally appear.

Yes, you read it right. Your ads often get placed next to kids’ content.

And the concerning part? Your brand safety filters don’t identify these placements as unsafe, because technically they aren’t. What they are, however, are brand-unsuitable placements.

It is a systemic gap in how traditional brand safety tools classify content and demographic targeting that affects more campaigns than most advertisers realize.

Recently, advertisers raised concerns when their ads on Spotify were found appearing alongside sexually explicit audio content. The issue wasn’t the platform but the association.

These brands never intended to be associated with such content. The ads were placed through automated digital advertising systems designed to maximize reach and efficiency. Yet, the brands got associated.

This is exactly what happens to brands in the digital advertising ecosystem. Ads today travel across thousands of websites, videos, and platforms through automated systems. While brands carefully plan their messaging and targeting, they don’t always have visibility into where their ads finally appear.

Recently, advertisers raised concerns when their ads on Spotify were found appearing alongside sexually explicit audio content. The issue wasn’t the platform but the association.

These brands never intended to be associated with such content. The ads were placed through automated digital advertising systems designed to maximize reach and efficiency. Yet, the brands got associated.

This is exactly what happens to brands in the digital advertising ecosystem. Ads today travel across thousands of websites, videos, and platforms through automated systems. While brands carefully plan their messaging and targeting, they don’t always have visibility into where their ads finally appear.

“If I block risky keywords and categories, my ads won’t appear next to unsafe content.” That’s the belief many brands operate on today and it’s a dangerous oversimplification.

Keyword blocking was a good approach when internet was a simple place where URL based tracking was enough. Today, consumer associate brands with the kind of placement they are appearing. Therefore, the context and sentiment analysis of the content is perennial, where keyword blocking as a technique fails.

The challenge has grown with the rise of AI slops, massive volumes of low-quality, auto-generated content created at scale. These pages often look legitimate, avoid obvious risky keywords, and slip past basic filters, increasing the risk of ads appearing next to misleading or low-quality content. When your ads appear in such environments, viewers often assume your brand is endorsing or even funding that content, directly impacting perception and trust.

Imagine this: your audience associates your brand with inappropriate content that you never had the intention of funding.

Recently, advertisers raised concerns when their ads on Spotify were found appearing alongside sexually explicit audio content. The issue wasn’t the platform but the association. Source: Storyboard18 These brands never intended to be associated with such content. The ads were placed through automated digital advertising systems designed to maximize reach and efficiency. Yet, the brands got associated.

This is exactly what happens to brands in the digital advertising ecosystem. Ads today travel across thousands of websites, videos, and platforms through automated systems. While brands carefully plan their messaging and targeting, they don’t always have visibility into where their ads finally appear.