The Media Rating Council has given accreditation to Meta’s policies and approaches to ad placement across its ad products.
“In August 2020, we committed to undertaking and releasing independent, third-party assessments of our brand safety and suitability solutions. This accreditation from the MRC comes after an extensive audit conducted by independent CPA auditors engaged by MRC that reviewed the brand safety policies, controls and processes we have in place to ensure a safe and suitable advertising environment on our platforms.”
The MRC brand safety accreditation process includes five key elements:
- Site Context
- Geo-Targeting
- Ad Placement
- Competitive Separation
- Fraud Detection
The MCR audit ensures that platforms adhere to these standards and, apparently, Meta does. MCR has pointed out Meta’s Partner Monetization Policies, Content Monetization Policies and brand safety applied to Facebook In-Stream Video and Instant Articles in desktop, mobile web and mobile in-app.
“Meta is a leader when it comes to safety and integrity in the tech space, and our goal is to continue to raise the bar for the industry by creating safe environments. We will continue our commitment to transparency so people can hold us accountable and businesses can feel confident about partnering with us.”
The problem is, these aren’t the things Meta is most notable for doing wrong. Meta’s ad system has other issues in ad delivery at present, with Apple’s ATT data privacy prompts interrupting its ability to deliver ads to target audiences. It’s important to note that the MCR’s assessment looked at Meta’s machine learning elements (AI), which are becoming a bigger part of its ad targeting process.
Will the MRC accreditation provide additional assurance for ad partners that their ads are indeed reaching the audience that Facebook’s Business Manager platform? Yes. Will that assurance be built on a solid foundation in actual practice? You can decide based on your own user experience.
This hasn’t been a good year for Meta’s ads business. Perhaps this MCR accreditation will help bring brighter days for the platform in 2023. Meanwhile, Meta continues to add more controls for placement and brand security so be extra cautious if you plan to utilize ads on the platform.
