Brand Suitability Updates: Third-Party Verification and Content-Based Controls for Feed

Meta for Business Blog 

Announcements · March 17, 2022

Following our announcement in November, we’re providing updates on our work with third-party partners to develop brand suitability verification for Feed, as well as more details on our content-based controls for Feed.

Our Community Standards keep the platform safe by defining what is and is not allowed on our platform. However, we understand that businesses may have specific preferences above and beyond our Community Standards around how their ads appear next to certain content.

Third-Party Brand Suitability Verification in Feed

After an extensive vetting process, we’ve selected Zefr as the initial partner for providing independent reporting on the context in which ads appear on Facebook Feed. We will work together to develop a solution to measure and verify 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,” said Rich Raddon, co-founder and co-CEO of Zefr. ​“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.”

This is an opportunity to build solutions that will give advertisers a better understanding of the types of content that appear adjacent to their ads, helping them make informed decisions to reach their marketing goals.

This solution will complement our existing third-party brand safety measurement offerings. As we reach limited availability with Zefr, Meta will work toward having the brand suitability integration opportunity open to all badged partners.

“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,” said Rob Rakowitz, GARM Initiative Lead, World Federation of Advertisers. ​“Meta and Zefr’s partnership is a welcomed step that gives advertisers and agencies post-campaign transparency for Feed – a format that has been hard to measure for some time. This is a welcomed cornerstone for more work to come, and we are excited to see two GARM members address marketplace needs for transparency and accountability together.”

Content-Based Feed Controls for Businesses

Across Meta, we are designing suitability controls to give advertisers control over where their ads are shown.

We previously announced our commitment to build 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.

We have been working closely with GARM as we develop these controls, which will be aligned with the GARM Suitability Framework.

We have 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. Over the course of the next year, we 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.

“With this announcement, Meta is demonstrating its commitment to core goals of both OMG’s CASA (Council for Accountable Social Advertising) initiative, and GARM — giving advertisers control over — and insights into — where their ads appear,” said Ben Hovaness, SVP Marketplace Intelligence, Omnicom Media Group. ​“It’s a significant step forward in assuring a transparent and brand-safe environment for advertisers to connect with their customers.”