• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, April 16, 2021

It has been an ongoing struggle for advertisers working with Google, YouTube and other online publishers to avoid having their ads run next to content they don’t agree with, with themes ranging from political to environmental.

This week, Google introduced Google Ad dynamic exclusion lists to help brands avoid showing ads near content they want to avoid. The feature will become available in the coming weeks.

“Every brand has clear benchmarks that they’re striving for, and company values that they want to preserve,” wrote Alejandro Borgia, Director, Ads Privacy & Safety, in a post. “We’re committed to helping advertisers achieve both.”

Google’s push into dynamic ads began with designing creatives, and now it will support identifying content on a page or website, so advertisers have greater control over where their ads run.

It has become more important for brands to tune into how consumers are feeling. Earlier this week, The 614 Group announced its Brand Safety: 2021 Topline Perceptions study, which analyzes brand safety for all audiences. 

The findings show that two demographics — affluent adults and those in senior-level management positions — have heightened concerns about brand safety in comparison to the general U.S. population. Just as important to marketers, these groups are more likely to allow those concerns to impact buying behavior.

Advertisers can create the dynamic-exclusion lists, which update seamlessly and continuously over time.

Once advertisers upload a dynamic exclusion list to their Google Ads account, they can schedule automatic updates as new web pages or domains are added. This ensures that their exclusion lists remain effective and up-to-date.

Google AdSense for publishers also has strict requirements for websites and content. For example, its policies prohibit publishers from running ads on content that promotes violence or discrimination, illegal activity and sexually explicit or graphic images, Borgia notes.

Publishers' policies are continually updated to reflect emerging issues or threats affecting the digital advertising ecosystem, such as misinformation or harmful health claims around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Google published its Ads Safety Report in March 2021, noting that in 2020, Google enforced and removed ads from 1.3 billion publisher pages in 2020, up from 21 million in 2019.

It also stopped ads from serving on more than 1.6 million publisher sites with pervasive or egregious violations.