A new study has again highlighted issues around brand safety and digital advertising, suggesting $898 million ($1.2 billion) in programmatic ad spend is still appearing alongside unsafe content.
The research from Contextual Outcomes Engine 4D – which is a division of Silverbullet – and AI company Factmata found that brand safety tools are still missing a small percentage of unsuitable content, resulting in a significant amount of advertising spend going towards unsafe content.
Testing found that 0.71 per cent of the $US126.5 billion spent programmatically in 2020 went to unsuitable content, resulting in $US898 million in wasted spend.
Specifically, 0.42 per cent of this spend was on content with high levels of hate speech, according to the study.
The study used A/B testing to test a campaign with no brand safety filters applied versus one with brand safety applied.
To avoid the risk of misplaced advertising, the study recommends advertisers look to diversify their brand safety tools and be aware of the nuances involved in terms of context.
