Meta is making it easier for advertisers to understand and control what content their ads are placed next to.
The social media company has partnered with third-party verifier Zefr to provide independent reporting on the context in which ads appear on Facebook Feed.
The two companies will work together to develop a tool that measures and verifies the suitability of adjacent content to ads in Feed, with the goal of starting with small scale testing in the third quarter of this year and moving to limited availability in the fourth quarter.
"The future of the ad industry is moving towards transparent and accurate measurement for brand safety and suitability in complex environments, based on the GARM [Global Alliance for Responsible Media] standards," says Zefr co-founder and co-CEO Rich Raddon.
"Zefr is thrilled to partner with Meta to develop the first suitability measurement product for Feed, giving advertisers deeper transparency into their content adjacencies across Meta."
World Federation of Advertisers, GARM Initiative lead Rob Rakowitz has welcomed the partnership by Meta, saying it gives advertisers post-campaign transparency for Feed, which has been difficult to measure.
“In our quest to eliminate harmful content from ad-supported digital media, we need controls on where ads appear and measurement to verify the accuracy of those placements,” Rakowitz says.
Meta has also been working on additional tools to give advertisers control over where their ads are shown.
The company previously announced it’s building content-based suitability controls to address concerns that advertisers have of their ads appearing adjacent to content that is not suitable for their brand preferences.
It has also been working closely with GARM as it develops these controls, which will be aligned with the GARM Suitability Framework.
The company has begun scoping and building these new controls for Facebook and Instagram Feeds focused on primarily English-speaking markets, with plans to test in the second half of the year before rolling out more broadly in early 2023.
Throughout 2023, Meta will expand placement coverage to include Stories, Reels, Video Feeds, Instagram Explore and other surfaces across Facebook and Instagram, as well as expanding to additional languages.
"Providing advertisers control over the content their ads appear next to is incredibly important work for us, and to our commitment to the industry via GARM,” says Meta AUNZ agency director Ellie Rogers.
“We’re excited with the progress we are making towards building content-based controls for Feed and are excited to start development with Zefr on third-party Feed verification. It will take time but it’s the right work to do.”
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