YouTube Earns MRC Brand Safety Accreditation for Fifth Year

YouTube Secures Fifth Consecutive MRC Brand Safety Accreditation

YouTube has earned the Media Rating Council (MRC) brand safety accreditation for its in-stream ads for the fifth year running. This accreditation provides continued assurance to advertisers about the safety of their video ad placements on the platform.

The MRC accreditation signifies that YouTube's ad system, including its controls and metrics, has been independently audited and approved. This audit covers the platform's ad systems and processes, ensuring compliance with industry standards.

Accreditation indicates that the Service complies with: (1) the Minimum Standards for Media Rating Research and the Enhanced Content Level Context and Brand Safety Guidelines published by the MRC; the Ad Verification Guidelines published by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and MRC; (2) the procedures described in Google’s answers to the MRC questionnaire; and (3) the procedures described in procedure manuals and textual materials included in reports of the Service.

Source: MRC

This reaffirms Google's commitment to maintaining robust brand safety systems on YouTube. It also ensures compliance with relevant industry guidelines, offering advertisers recourse if these systems fall short of benchmarks.

The MRC accreditation also certifies the effectiveness of YouTube's inventory filters. These filters ensure brand-safe ad placements based on advertiser-selected content suitability criteria.

Over the years, we’ve expanded advertisers' ability to choose where their ads run, and we’ve made sustained investments in policy and enforcement to ensure ads don't run alongside brand-unsafe content. As part of the accreditation process, the MRC assessed our AI-powered enforcement systems, our teams of human reviewers, and the policies that determine which videos are eligible to run ads.

Source: YouTube

This endorsement of Google's ad systems offers peace of mind to YouTube advertisers. However, it's important to note that the MRC audit focuses on documented systems, not real-time application. With increasing integration of AI into ad placement, practical application could deviate from documented parameters.