Another contributing factor, according to Pixability’s Duffy, is that there was a hyper-focus on brand safety in recent years that’s just beginning to let up. Advertisers aren’t saying that brand safety doesn’t matter anymore, he explained, but that there was such a swing toward brand safety that the industry lost sight of other concerns, like audience engagement.
“Brand safety is important, but it should not be at the cost of of having engagement with our audiences,” Duffy said.
Beyond the ranking, Pixability’s survey asked media buyers to assess the risks associated with turning off third-party, pre-bid brand safety measures like inclusions and exclusions. Respondents said they’d expect most of their ads would still hit the intended audience regardless of whether they used a third-party tool.
The survey also asked buyers to choose whether suitability or performance are more important to the advertisers or if they aim to balance the two objectives. A majority (70%) of respondents said they try to strike a balance between suitability and performance.
