• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 6, 2020

Pinterest will now authenticate the viewability of ads on its platform for advertisers.

On Monday, the visual search engine announced a partnership with DoubleVerify, which supports a software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics. The partnership also allows the visual search engine to identify digital ad fraud and sophisticated invalid traffic across its platform.

The capabilities will initially launch as part of a closed beta, according to the companies, with general availability to follow.

Confirming viewability rates and creating a bot-free and fraud-free environment is the concern of all, especially in a time of crisis. Publishers have been paying close attention to content, specifically related to COVID-19. The news has generated huge volume in site traffic and comments, according to Dominick Miserandino, CEO at The Inquisitr.

Verifying the visibility of an ad, as well as ensuring the site is fraud-free, is always important. To run a good publication, Miserandino said, a publisher must be as sensitive to the reader as the advertisers.

“We’re considering the content in relation to the hypersensitivity of the reader,” he said. “We have blocked ads in the past we thought would be concerning to the reader, but we have yet to have to do this with any related to COVID-19. We see it happening on some networks.”

DoubleVerify also supports bot-free and fraud-free viewable ads for Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitter. It helps advertisers avoid running ads next to articles that are believed to be unsafe for the brand.

In January, DoubleVerify announced Facebook certification for its platform to support Brand Safety capability within its Marketing Partners (FMP) program.

The two companies have worked together since 2017, but the certification expands brand safety across Facebook’s in-stream video inventory, Instant Articles and Audience Network. This is done through an API that lets DoubleVerify centralize setups and management, as well as automate blocklists updates to Facebook.

DoubleVerify’s integration with YouTube dates back to January 2017, when the companies announced that advertisers could measure the quality of their video ads across YouTube properties, including YouTube Reserve and YouTube Auction inventory.

The DoubleVerify Authentic Impression suite began providing YouTube advertisers with third-party metrics on the quality of their video media buys across mobile, desktop and over-the-top platforms.