As a Muslim business owner, you are wary of where your ads will be placed. As an advertiser, you do not want to have your ads placed on websites that do not comply with Islamic norms. That’s why most of you have chosen to work with Muslim Ad Network.
However, ad placement can also go wrong when your ad is inappropriate for the content on that site. You may get away with it if it ends up being funny, but when the content is sensitive, things can turn bad real fast.
The strength of online advertising is its ability to target consumers with relevant advertising that appeals to their needs. That’s how it works at its most basic level, but what happens when targeting becomes way too relevant. Well, that happens too and it looks like the ad placement below:
Yep, that’s a funeral and cremation ad showing up on a video that is reporting on an explosion.
The problem of ad placement errors is not one that began with online advertising. It happened and still happens a lot in print advertising too. Sticking with funerals and death, here is another good example of an ad placement that went wrong in print media:
Context can make or break your ad performance. Avoid blind buying formats on ad exchanges and real-time bidding (RTB). Yes, you will get a good amount of impressions at a chosen price. However, these buying strategies also increase the chances of your ad getting a bad page placement. That defeats the purpose of the ad. To be completely honest, the issue of brand safety is dangerously overlooked when using RTB.
When your ad shows up on a page with content that outlines the opposite of what you intend, that impression can contradict the intended ad message. I am sure you have seen those fast-food ads appearing next to blogs about obesity.
It’s obvious why an ad engine labels the content as appropriate. Obesity articles usually mention food and diet.
So big brands like McDonald’s get it wrong too. It just goes to show how difficult it is to target around context while maintaining brand safety at all levels. Fortunately, you don’t have to blindly buy ad placements, both technology and experts here at MAN can help you with targeting efficiently.
Some campaigns may be more sensitive to the issue of bad placement than other campaigns. Still, as targeting technology becomes more available, you need to be aware of the potential issues that may arise.
Not every campaign requires special safety filters, but at MAN we feel it’s important for every targeting campaign to employ some level of brand safety to avoid your brand getting in deep water with your audience.
Here are some things to consider for your Muslim brand when looking to buy ad space:
- Take time to think of potential harmful placements. Brainstorm double meanings and misinterpretations that could impact your campaign(s).
- Determine the goal of the campaign and follow that up with the right level of targeting.
- Every type of targeting, whether semantic or behavioral targeting, have different levels of built-in safety.
- Targeting in a way that actually benefits your brand is more than simply pairing the ad and a Muslim consumer.
- Context is a crucial component in that equation, but leveraging context comes with its own set of challenges.
At Muslim Ad Network, we have helped dozens of brands reach millions of Muslims worldwide in a safe environment. If you are serious about avoiding the pitfalls of bad placement for your ads, go ahead and start advertising to Muslims today.
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