Guide
A beginner’s guide to brand safety: How to build brand-safe campaigns
Brand safety measures help protect your brand’s reputation by reducing the risk of association with content that isn't brand-safe. Read our beginner's guide to understand what you may need to know as an advertiser.
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Brand safety measures help protect a brand’s reputation by reducing the risk of association with content that isn't brand-safe. Advertisers consider brand safety when creating online ad campaigns to help maintain trust with their audiences. According to a 2024 study from IAS, 82% of consumers say it’s important to them that the content surrounding online ads is appropriate.1 In order to preserve audience relationships, advertisers think about brand safety to prevent their ads from appearing on webpages, apps, streaming TV, podcasts, and in other places containing sensitive content, products, and services.
Here we will introduce the basics of brand safety and walk through the steps for how you can build brand-safe campaigns.
What is the difference between brand safety and brand suitability?
The concept of brand suitability is related to brand safety. Brand safety is about avoiding inappropriate content, and all audiences generally agree upon what falls into those categories. Brand suitability, on the other hand, is unique to an individual brand. Brand suitability is about matching your ads to content that aligns with your particular values, identity, tone, and other subjective qualities.
For example, a vegan brand may not consider an app about hunting and fishing a suitable placement for their ad, even though hunting and fishing aren't inherently objectionable topics to everyone. A website that is very casual and humorous in tone may not be brand-suitable for a company whose brand voice is more serious.
Brand safety is about protecting your brand from harm. Brand suitability is about supporting and developing your specific brand identity by understanding which types of content resonate with your brand, while avoiding associations with content that doesn’t fit with your brand.
How to build brand-safe campaigns
Here are some steps to consider while building brand-safe advertising campaigns.
1. Identify your brand story and values
In order to protect your brand when advertising, it’s important to first define what kind of content is suitable or unsuitable for your brand. For example, alcohol-related content may not be suitable for some brands, but alcohol brands may have no issue with advertising alongside this kind of content.
Identifying your priorities will help you focus your efforts on what matters most to your brand.
2. Choose an established programmatic provider
A key to reducing risk in programmatic advertising is to choose an established demand-side platform (DSP). High-quality inventory sources will help you avoid many of the common types of risky content. Your advertising technology (adtech) providers can be your allies in guarding your brand; ask them about what protections they have in place to ensure brand safety.
3. Make use of inclusion and exclusion lists
Use your available targeting options to determine inventory inclusion and exclusion. Your inclusion lists may contain trusted apps and sites or specific topics and keywords that are relevant to your brand. Use exclusion lists to prevent your ads from showing up on untrustworthy domains or inappropriate keywords.
4. Keep brand safety top of mind
Brand safety is not a one-time checklist item, but instead is an ongoing process. Brands must regularly assess potential threats to their brand safety. Look for tech providers who offer transparency and rigorous quality standards, as they will automatically block egregious content. Keep your inclusion and exclusion lists updated. Monitor your brand perception and research your audiences to ensure you understand how they view your reputation and brand values. Vigilance is a long-term investment in your brand safety.
Explore more topics related to brand safety
Amazon DSP inventory policies
Amazon Ads is committed to providing customers with access to quality ad inventory via Amazon DSP. Read our full Amazon DSP inventory policies.
Content adjacency policies for Amazon DSP
We take a variety of measures to prevent your ads from appearing on webpages, apps, streaming TV, and podcasts containing sensitive content, products, and services. Read our full content adjacency policies for Amazon DSP.
If you have limited experience, contact us to request services managed by Amazon Ads. Budget minimums apply.
1 IAS, The State of Brand Safety, Jan 24, 2024.