TikTok Supports Brand Safety with New Category Exclusion and Vertical Sensitivity Tools

TikTok has unveiled two new tools aimed at enhancing brand safety for marketers on its platform.

Announced during the Beyond Brand Safety summit, these features are designed to allow advertisers to automatically ensure their ads appear next to content that aligns with their brand values.

Category Exclusion Tool

The first of these tools, category exclusion, enables brands to proactively avoid advertising next to potentially sensitive content across several specific categories.

These include gambling and lotteries, violent video games, combat sports, and youth-targeted content. This tool allows marketers to customize their content filters according to their specific needs, ensuring that their advertisements do not appear alongside content that could harm their brand’s integrity or fail to comply with regulatory standards.

Vertical Sensitivity Tool

The second tool introduced by TikTok is vertical sensitivity, which places ads in brand-safe environments within 11 specific verticals.

These verticals cover a broad range of interests and industries including pets, beauty, food, fashion and retail, travel, financial services, technology, automotive, gaming, professional services, and entertainment.

Both tools are integrated into the TikTok Inventory Filter platform, which was first launched in July 2022. This platform allows advertisers to choose from expanded, standard, or limited content selections for their ads.

In addition to its own tools, TikTok has been collaborating with third-party service providers like DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, and Zefr since May 2023.