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Brands know that the social media landscape is rife with opportunity. With 97% of U.S. consumers actively using social media platforms, this environment offers an unparalleled opportunity to reach consumers where they spend a significant portion of their time.
The numbers speak for themselves: nearly 9-in-10 consumers have engaged with an ad on social media within the past year. This level of interaction highlights the immense potential for brands to not only reach their target audience but also to drive engagement and conversions through carefully crafted campaigns. Social media platforms also provide the unique ability to create personalized and dynamic ad experiences, allowing brands to tailor their messaging to specific consumer segments, leading to better business results.
The social media struggle
While social media platforms offer unparalleled access to a vast audience, they also present significant hurdles. The dynamic and often unpredictable nature of social media, especially during sensitive periods like election seasons, can make it difficult for advertisers to maintain control over where and how their ads are displayed.
The rise of misinformation and AI-generated content adds another layer of complexity, making it harder for advertisers to ensure that their messages are seen in a suitable, trustworthy context. In fact, consumers say misinformation is the number one type of questionable content that consumers want to avoid on their social media feeds, with AI-generated content coming in at number three. So not only can adjacency to misinformation and AI-generated content hurt a brand’s credibility, consumers also simply don’t want to come across that content.
These challenges mean that advertisers must be more vigilant than ever, carefully managing their campaigns to avoid potential pitfalls that could harm their brand. Ensuring that ads appear in brand-safe and suitable environments is no longer just an option — it’s a necessity in a landscape where consumer trust can be easily undermined by misleading or controversial content.
Why brand safety and suitability matter more than ever
Brand safety and suitability go far beyond merely avoiding inappropriate content. It’s about ensuring that your brand’s message is consistently delivered in a context that aligns with your values and resonates positively with your audience.
The stakes are high—35% of consumers hold brands responsible for ads appearing near unsafe content, underscoring the importance of careful placement. Additionally, 82% of consumers have encountered questionable content in their social media feeds that they’d prefer to avoid, highlighting the growing challenge of maintaining a safe and trustworthy brand presence online. As the volume of unsafe content on social media continues to increase, the responsibility on brands to prioritize safety will only intensify.
Failure to do so can lead to decreased consumer trust and a negative impact on your bottom line, making brand safety an essential component of any successful digital marketing strategy.
3 steps to keep your brand safe on social
1. Employ advanced AI-powered prevention solutions
Advanced AI brand safety and suitability tools are essential in the fight against misinformation and harmful content on social media. These solutions can analyze vast amounts of data in real-time, detecting and flagging content that could pose a risk to brand reputation. It’s important for advertisers to rely on the most granular brand safety and suitability technology powered by AI that can measure social media content frame-by-frame and aligned to the industry-standard 12th category for misinformation.
By integrating AI-driven brand safety and suitability tools into your strategy, you can automate the identification of unsafe content, allowing you to act swiftly and decisively before any damage is done. This proactive approach not only protects your brand but also ensures that your advertising dollars are spent in environments that won’t hurt brand performance.
2. Reallocate ad spend for optimal impact on social media
Regularly evaluating your ad spend is essential to ensure that your investments are yielding the desired results. This involves more than just monitoring basic metrics like impressions and clicks; it requires a deep dive into viewability, invalid traffic, brand safety, and brand suitability metrics.
By analyzing these factors, you can identify areas where your ads are performing well and areas that may need adjustment. For instance, if a particular platform or channel shows high levels of invalid traffic or low viewability, it may be wise to reallocate your budget to more effective environments. This not only maximizes the return on your investment but also reinforces your commitment to maintaining a safe and suitable brand presence on social media.
3. Leverage measurement and optimization platforms for custom insights
Ensuring that your ads appear in contexts that are both relevant and safe is a key component of maintaining brand integrity on social media. Measurement and optimization partners like IAS can offer in-depth analysis of ad placements, including insight on viewability, invalid traffic, and brand safety, helping you understand where your ads are appearing and how effective they may be to your intended audience. Going a step further, trusted measurement and optimization partners have the ability to provide custom brand suitability metrics and graphs tailored to your brand that allow you to take action more effectively.
Third-party measurement and optimization partners go beyond social media to help you navigate the complexities of other advertising channels, including emerging media formats like gaming, retail media, digital audio, and more, providing guidance on how to maintain brand safety and suitability across campaigns.
Safeguard and scale on social with IAS
Not all social media ads are created equal. IAS’s latest research into brand safety on social media, “The State of Social,” provides invaluable insights into how consumers’ perceptions of and interactions with brands are influenced by the content surrounding ads on social media. Understanding these preferences allows advertisers to craft campaigns that align with consumer expectations, increasing the likelihood of superior advertising results.
The conversation around social media’s influence is more critical than ever. Its ability to shape consumer perceptions, rapidly spread information, and provide unique advertising opportunities makes it an indispensable tool for modern marketers. As social media platforms continue to evolve, understanding and leveraging these changes will be essential to driving successful campaigns.
Download The State of Social to discover:
- How misinformation and AI-generated content on social feeds impact ad performance
- What kinds of ads consumers are interacting with on social media
- What types of ad adjacencies drive purchase intent and brand awareness
