Brand safety across ad platforms and placements
A people-based approach to advertising
Advertising on the Facebook family of apps and services is people-based, meaning ads are served to individuals based on our understanding of their personal preferences. By putting people at the core of our ads, we can help marketers reach the right people and grow their businesses. When we get it right, everybody wins: people get the relevant experiences they expect, businesses grow, and our platforms thrive as a positive community. Across our platforms we help to connect 2.7B people with over 140M businesses and every person has a unique experience based on our understanding of their likes, follows, engagement, etc. The enforcement of our community standards and guidelines, which determine what content is and is not allowed on our platforms, ensure this remains a safe space for both people and businesses. We understand the importance of businesses being able to have visibility and control over the types of environments where ads appear, so we offer reports, tools and controls that allow you to decide where your ads can deliver.
Advertiser controls
To help ensure brand safety, all publishers and content creators must adhere to our Community Standards and Community Guidelines, which include policies that prohibit hate speech, violence, or similarly extreme content. We also have Partner Monetization Policies, Content Monetization Policies and Audience Network Policies that provide guidance around the types of publishers, creators, and content that can earn money with Facebook advertising. Additionally, you can use the following controls to decide where your ads can appear.
Available at:
Controls are available at business, ad account, and campaign level so that advertisers can choose the right level to protect their campaigns.
Overview
Overview page provides you with a single source view of your brand safety settings. You can now see how your ad accounts are using different brand safety controls, starting with inventory filter. You can also learn more about all the policies and enforcement, such as Community Standards, in the education section.
Placement opt-outs
You can opt-out of specific placements to avoid showing ads in places e.g. Instant Articles or Messenger. This can be done by selecting the “Edit Placements” option in the Placements section of the ad create flow.
Available at: campaign level
Inventory filter
You can set inventory filter options for your ad accounts in Business Manager, or for your individual ad set in the “exclude content and publisher” section of Ads Manager. Just select which option best suits your advertising needs. Standard (default) and Limited inventory filters give fewer delivery options and narrow your audience.
Available at: ad account, and campaign
Block lists
For in-stream video, Audience Network, and Instant Articles, you can block ads from running on specific publishers by uploading a list of Pages, websites, and/or apps in Business Manager. Block lists will apply across platforms, but you will need to block all surfaces of a publisher (domain, app, and Facebook Page), to ensure delivery is completely blocked.
Available at: business, ad account, and campaign
Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams
For in-stream video, your ads can now appear in Facebook live streams from a select group of approved Gaming Partners. You can exclude Gaming Partner live streams directly in Ads Manager.
Available at: campaign level
Reporting
Publisher list
Prior to running your campaign, you can review a complete list of publishers where your ads could run across in-stream video, Instant Articles, and Audience Network.
Available at: N/A (this is a list of all potential publishers, and is not linked to an advertiser)
Delivery reports
Once a campaign is live, you can view the top publishers in Business Manager or Ads Manager or download a report to see where your ads actually appeared.
Available at: business, ad account, and campaign (available in Ads Manager only)
Placements
News Feed & Instagram Feed
Feed style ads can appear on Facebook and Instagram on both mobile and desktop (Facebook only) devices.
Platforms: Facebook, Instagram
Placement opt-out
Inventory filter
Block lists
Publisher list
Delivery report
Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams
Marketplace
You can help your business reach more people where they're shopping when you create an ad for Marketplace. People can see your ad when they use the Facebook app on their phones to shop on Marketplace. Your ad appears with other relevant products and services on Marketplace, so customers interested in your business can click to your website or app for more information. Ads in Marketplace will display a Sponsored label. Ads in Marketplace will also appear in News Feed. It's not currently possible for an ad to only appear in Marketplace.
Platforms: Facebook
Placement opt-out
Inventory filter
Block lists
Publisher list
Delivery report
Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams
Right hand column
Right hand column ads are shown in right-side columns across Facebook and will only appear to people browsing Facebook on desktop.
Platforms: Facebook (Desktop)
Placement opt-out
Inventory filter
Block lists
Publisher list
Delivery report
Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams
Ads in Instagram Explore
Instagram Explore is an opportunity for advertisers to reach new audiences who are looking to discover something new. After tapping on a photo or video in Explore, people may begin to see ads as part of their browsing experience just like in Instagram Feed.
Platforms: Instagram
Placement opt-out
Inventory filter
Block lists
Publisher list
Delivery report
Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams
Ads in Facebook Search Results
These ads appear with a “Sponsored” label next to relevant search results in general search on Facebook and Marketplace search. These ads give the opportunity to reach people who are searching for relevant products and services at that specific moment in time. Advertisers who use automatic placements and/or select the Facebook Search Results placement will have the potential to deliver ads in general search on Facebook and Marketplace search.
Platforms: Facebook, Marketplace
Placement opt-out
Inventory filter
Block lists
Publisher list
Delivery report
Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams
Messenger
Facebook Messenger ads are served to the individual; they are not contextually aware of the personal messaging content surrounding the ad. People can see Messenger ads in the home tab of their Messenger mobile app. When they tap on an ad, they will first be sent to a full-screen view of the ad with a call-to-action. Once they tap on the call-to-action, they will be sent to the destination chosen during ad creation, which can be your website or a Messenger conversation. The best way to include Messenger ads in your campaigns is to use Automatic Placements. This selection will allow Facebook’s ad auction to optimize delivery for the best placement, and deliver more efficient campaign results.
Platforms: Messenger
Placement opt-out
Inventory filter
Block lists
Publisher list
Delivery report
Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams
Stories
Ads in stories use a full screen vertical format to create an immersive experience. Advertisers can upload photos and videos with filters, text overlays and drawing tools. Similar to Feed ads, Stories are displayed based on content the individual viewer chooses to follow. Ads in Stories are full screen, and appear between people’s stories, never within a multi-frame story. A cube-swipe interface indicates when a user is moving to a new account’s content.
Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger
Placement opt-out
Inventory filter
Block lists
Publisher list
Delivery report
Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams
In-stream
In-stream video ads on Facebook allow advertisers to reach their audience within video content (pre-roll or mid-roll) uploaded to Facebook by a select group of publishers and creators that have met our partner monetization policies, including select Gaming Partner live streams and Watch on Facebook. You have the option to deliver in-stream ads in videos.
Platforms: Facebook
Placement opt-out
Inventory filter
Block lists
Publisher list
Delivery report
Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams
Instant Articles
Instant Articles is a tool designed for publishers to distribute fast, interactive articles to their readers in the Facebook mobile app. Instant Articles are simply the articles already in people’s News Feed, made faster and more engaging to provide a better experience for reading content on mobile. Publishers may choose to place ads within their Instant Articles, enabling you to reach your audience using the same people-based targeting.
Platforms: Facebook
Placement opt-out
Inventory filter
Block lists
Publisher list
Delivery report
Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams
Audience Network
Audience Network uses Facebook’s people-based marketing to help you extend campaigns to sites and apps beyond Facebook, so you can reach more people, in more places, and drive more results. Depending on your objective, Audience Network ads can appear in a variety of placement types, including native/banner/interstitial, rewarded video, and in-stream video.
Our Business Integrity Team reviews every publisher to ensure they adhere to Facebook policies including Community Standards, Platform Policies, and Audience Network Policies.
Platforms: Audience Network
Placement opt-out
Inventory filter
Block lists
Publisher list
Delivery report
Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams
Summary of advertiser controls across ad platforms and placements
Placement / platform | Placement opt out | Inventory filter | Block list | Publisher list | Delivery Report | Exclude Gaming Partner Live Streams |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Feeds |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Marketplace |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Right Hand Column |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Explore |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Ads in Search |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Messenger |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Stories |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
In-stream |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Instant Article |
|
|
|
|
| N/A |
Audience Network |
|
|
|
|
| N/A |
FAQs
- Community reporting: We depend largely on the community to report when they see policy-violating content. Our global community plays an essential role in enforcing our standards
- Human review: Specially trained representatives from our Community Operations team review flagged reports and remove content that violates our Community Standards. They review millions of reports every week in more than 40 languages, 24/7.
- Automated Tools: We use tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) to help our systems scale. With a community the size of the Facebook platforms, it’s essential we use automation in order to scale enforcement.
Partner Monetization Policies (PMP) and Content Monetization Policies (CMP) detail:
- Which publishers can earn money on their content by showing ads in what type of content (e.g., videos, articles, apps)
- What types of individual pieces of content from those publishers can show ads
In order to earn money on our platform, we have laid out clear standards that require publishers to comply with our Community Standards, Payment Terms and Page Terms, in addition to publishing quality content and developing an established presence. If a publisher violates these terms, they are ineligible to show ads. Learn more about Partner Monetization Policies here.
Using publisher delivery reports, you can download a list to see where ads actually appeared. Learn more here.
Use inventory filter: you can prevent your ads from appearing alongside sensitive content by selecting the most appropriate inventory filter for your brand. You can also use this in conjunction with a block list if you also have specific domains, Page, and/or app URLs in which you do not want your ads to deliver.
Use block lists: you can upload a list of specific domains, Page, and/or app URLs in which you do not want your ads to deliver. You can also use this in conjunction with inventory filter to prevent your ads from appearing alongside sensitive content based on your brand preferences.
You can create a block list containing up to 20% of total available website domains, Facebook page URLs, and/or app store URLs. A block list can be applied at a business, ad account, or ad-set level. Learn more about how to upload and apply a block list.
New publishers are not blocked unless they’ve been added to a block list. The “New to List in Last 30 Days” column in the publisher list helps you identify these so block lists can be updated accordingly.
DoubleVerify, OpenSlate and Integral Ad Science (IAS) are the first companies to be certified in our new Brand Safety capability of the Facebook Business Partners program. The capability recognizes companies offering proprietary solutions that can help Facebook advertisers review content options and control where their ads will appear across our contextual placements.
- DoubleVerify provides marketing measurement software, data and analytics that authenticates the quality and effectiveness of digital media for the world's largest brands and media platforms. Current Brand Safety product offerings on Facebook: Block list management for In-Stream and Audience Network.
- OpenSlate is a global measurement and analytics company focused on providing advertisers with brand-suitable targeting solutions on digital video. Current Brand Safety product offerings on Facebook: Block list management for In-Stream.
DoubleVerify, OpenSlate and IAS can review the publisher list on a daily basis, and create and maintain block lists for their clients to prevent ads from delivering on specific Pages, apps, and sites. Nb. block list limits are the same via third parties as they are direct with Facebook.