Brand Suitability: Ensuring Your Ads Align with Safe and Relevant Content

The days of digital advertising being about getting your ads in front of as many eyeballs as possible are long gone: Savvy marketers know that context matters to their ideal clients just as much as reach. That’s where brand suitability enters the picture.

For context: Remember when real-time bidding (RTB) became the shiny new toy everyone clamored to play with? Unfortunately, the focus of RTB was on who was seeing the ads, ignoring where those ads were showing up. Unfortunately, this didn’t end well for many brands, who found out the hard way that their ads were appearing in questionable places online. Some of these were mildly embarrassing hiccups, but others were five-alarm PR nightmares. In short, brands overcorrected on safety measures when they should’ve taken a more precise, balanced approach to brand suitability.

What Is Brand Suitability and Why Is It Important?

Think of brand suitability as your brand’s personal advertising matchmaker in the digital world. It ensures your ads appear alongside content that not only aligns with your brand values, but also enhances your message. A luxury watchmaker, e.g., probably doesn’t want their ads appearing next to articles about counterfeit imitations. That’s not just because it’s unsafe but, more to the point, it’s unsuitable for their premium positioning in front of potential discerning luxury clients.

Brand Safety vs. Brand Suitability

These terms get used interchangeably, but they actually mean different things. Brand safety is your security guardrail: It protects your brand from appearing alongside overtly harmful content like hate speech or violence, per the Brand Safety Institute.

A prime example of a breach in brand safety came on X (formerly Twitter) in 2023, when ads mistakenly ran alongside child sexual abuse content. As a result, major advertisers slashed their ad spend on X because they deemed it too risky, tanking its ad revenue by almost half (46.4%) between 2022 and 2023 — from $4.5 billion to $2.2 billion.

It’s not uncommon to find unsafe ad placement, either: A 2023 GumGum study found 20% of all ad breaks during children’s programming on video streaming apps showed at least one inappropriate ad, including ads for gambling, unhealthy food, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals.

On the flip side, brand suitability is more like your brand’s best fit. It enables you to find the perfect environments that match your brand’s tone, values and marketing goals, ensuring potential customers have a clearer idea of your brand’s identity.

The Importance of Brand Suitability in Today’s Media Landscape

With social media ingrained into consumers’ lives, brands should expect their audience to hold them accountable for where their ads appear. A single screen grab of your ad next to questionable or harmful content can make your company go viral like wildfire — and not in a good way.

While you can’t always avoid disasters, focus on finding your brand’s sweet spot in the digital ecosystem so it has the best chance of resonating with your ideal clients. This in turn helps you meet (or even exceed) marketing objectives at a time when both perception and metrics matter.

Guidelines for Assessing Brand Suitability

To assess brand suitability, dial into the ideal content environments for your brand’s message. The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) provides a comprehensive framework for measuring and assessing brand suitability, but here are some key considerations as you evaluate the right homes for your ads:

• Content themes and tone: Does the content align with your brand values?
• Audience engagement: Are you reaching your target audience in contexts where they’re receptive to your message?
• Cultural sensitivity: How do different audiences interpret or perceive the content placement?
• Platform credibility: Does the advertising platform align with your brand’s standards, or does it fall short? Could this impact your brand as collateral damage?

How to Balance ROAS With Brand Safety and Suitability

When marketers talk about maximizing return on ad spend (ROAS), there’s a bit of contradiction at play. Implementing strict brand suitability and safety controls might reduce your potential reach and lead to higher costs but, on the other hand, these higher standards could lead to more long-term brand value and campaign effectiveness.

Think of it this way: Would you rather have your ad seen by a million random viewers or by 100,000 viewers who are ready to engage (and even transact) with your brand?

Rather than simply avoiding unsuitable content, modern contextual targeting helps identify high-performing environments where your ads will land better with your target audience. For example, a B2B software company might find that their ads perform better alongside industry analysis pieces in a trade publication rather than general tech news, even though both are considered “brand safe.”

Going viral is a great vanity metric, but unless all those impressions and views result in organic engagement or leads that convert to transactions with your brand, all those extra eyeballs don’t necessarily equate to success or positive ROAS.

5 Ways to Track Brand Suitability

Effective brand suitability tracking starts with a clear strategy tailored to your brand’s specific values and risk tolerance, while maximizing reach and performance. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to track brand suitability:

1. Establish Custom Suitability Parameters

Start by defining what suitability means for your brand. This involves:

• Creating tiered risk categories specific to your brand.
• Differentiating between content types that must be avoided versus contextual evaluation.
• Developing product-specific guidelines for various brand offerings.
• Aligning suitability settings with campaign objectives and target audience sensitivities.

2. Implement Multifaceted Measurement

Effective tracking boils down to monitoring multiple factors at the same time. The World Federation of Advertisers recommends tracking these key metrics:

• Content categorization data: Track what percentage of impressions appear alongside different content categories.
• Contextual sentiment analysis: Measure the emotional tone of surrounding content.
• Brand lift studies: Assess how different content environments impact audience brand perception.
• Performance metrics by context: Compare conversion rates and engagement across different content types.

3. Deploy Technology Solutions

With the help of specialized tools to scale suitability tracking across channels, you can streamline measurement efforts. Some of these brand suitability tech solutions include:

• Contextual intelligence platforms that analyze page content in real time.
• Unified dashboard systems that aggregate suitability metrics across channels.
• Pre-bid filtering tools that evaluate placement suitability before bidding.
• Custom API integration with major platforms for streamlined reporting.

4. Create Continuous Feedback Loops

Brand suitability isn’t static, so tracking systems have to be dynamic and flexible, too. Consider updating suitability parameters at least quarterly based on performance data. Feedback loops might include:

• Regular performance reviews comparing suitable versus unsuitable placements.
• A/B testing of different suitability settings to find the right balance.
• Cross-functional review meetings with brand, performance, and legal/compliance teams.
• Automated alerts for unexpected content syncs or performance changes.

5. Benchmark Results Against Industry Standards

Compare your suitability performance against relevant benchmarks. For instance, the Media Rating Council now provides industry standards and guidelines for content-level brand suitability measurement. To accurately gauge how your brand’s content suitability stacks up against industry standards, you’ll need to track:

• Suitability violation rates compared to industry averages.
• Performance impact in comparison to competitors.
• Reporting consistency across different measurement partners and platforms.
• Improvement on your own historical baseline metrics.

AI and Brand Suitability Technology

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly changing how we analyze and measure brand suitability. It’s also changing the way advertisers ensure their content appears in the right contexts. According to Mediaocean’s H1 2025 Advertising Outlook Report, 63% of marketers say generative AI technology is the top consumer tech and media trend in their line of work.

AI-powered brand suitability tech moves beyond simple keyword blocking to track sentiment, imagery, context, and even cultural nuance at scale. These tools also offer sophisticated content classification that addresses the limitations of traditional safety measures.

Still, they’re not without risk: As with anything to do with AI, it’s vital to maintain a level of human oversight to ensure you’re getting the results you need.

Key Takeaways

Brand suitability goes beyond basic brand safety measures to ensure your ads appear in environments and contexts that amplify your brand message. The right placement strategy balances reach with relevance. Modern analytics tools and AI make it easier than ever to maintain brand suitability at scale. Investment in brand suitability pays off with heightened engagement and positive brand perception.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the “dirty dozen” in advertising?

The “dirty dozen” traditionally referred to the 12 categories of content that most brands consider unsafe for advertising, but that’s since been expanded to 13 categories, according to the AAAA. This includes war, obscenity, drugs, tobacco, adult content, arms, crime, death/injury, online piracy, hate speech, terrorism, spam, and fake news.

How does brand safety work?

Brand safety works through a combination of technology monitoring tools and human oversight. AI platforms can scan content for inappropriate themes, while verification partners monitor placements and provide regular reports. The key to success is creating a customized framework that reflects your brand’s unique requirements and risk tolerance.