Facebook has not had an easy year. After a number of data breach scandals last year, the social media giant is now facing criticism for its political ad policies. Facebook has declined to fact-check political ads, which has been criticized by a number of government officials.
This issue has also raised concerns about Facebook’s overall advertising platform. Many brands have felt they don’t have as much control over where their advertisements are placed as they want. It appears Facebook is finally addressing these issues.
On Wednesday, the company announced an array of new test features aimed at protecting brands on the platform. These tools will allow companies to have more control over where their ads run.
The biggest change is that Facebook now allows publishers to create whitelists. Previously, advertisers could only create blocklists. This meant that companies could signal what sites and content it wasn’t comfortable running ads next to. However, it was extremely difficult for brands to include everything. By shifting to whitelists, brands can now tell Facebook exactly what sites, videos, apps and content it feels comfortable running ads on.
The whitelists will cover Facebook advertising on third-party apps and in-video ads, as well as content-specific videos. In addition to whitelists, Facebook announced they are offering improved ad delivery reports and a new safety partner, Zefr.
These new tools build off the one’s Facebook currently offers such as:
- Controls over where ads appear when shown within publisher or creator content
- Publisher lists so advertisers know where their ads might appear before running
- Publisher delivery reports so brands understand where their ads actually ran
- Block lists to prevent ads from delivering on specific publishers
- Inventory filters to choose the type of content brand want associated with their business
Advertisers will likely welcome these changes. Many have been wary of running certain types of ads on Facebook out of fear that the brand would appear alongside unsavory content. Although the social media company had worked to clean up content, the risk was always there.
Despite the ever-growing list of mishaps and scandals, Facebook is not feeling the strain. The company is reporting more profit than ever. Facebook has a growing market share in the social media industry. Brands really have no choice but to advertise on the platform, but these new tools may help them feel better about that.