Zefr and Meta brand suitability verification and new advertising control tools now available

Zefr, a Los Angeles-based company that enables organizations to measure brand suitability, has announced that its third-party brand suitability verification solution for Facebook Feed is now available. 

Meta and Zefr have been working together over the past year to build an independent AI-powered solution to report the context in which ads appear on Facebook Feed. 

Zefr’s artificial intelligence (AI) product, Atrium, assesses video, image, text and audio to label Feed content based on the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) suitability standards, including its newest category, which is misinformation. GARM is an initiative established by the World Federation of Advertisers to address harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetization via advertising.

Zefr’s solution lets advertisers verify the suitability of content near their ads to help them make informed decisions in order to reach marketing targets. Using artificial intelligence, advertisers will be able to measure, verify, and understand the suitability of content against their ads, allowing for more control over their campaigns. 

Advertisers will have full access to their Facebook Feed verification via Zefr’s Atrium dashboard, which provides transparency into the GARM standards across platforms such as the Facebook Feed, TikTok and YouTube, the announcement revealed. 

“Zefr has led the industry in AI powered measurement solutions and we are so pleased to see Meta taking a leadership position with AI-driven solutions. This combination of AI powered controls and measurement around the GARM standards now gives advertisers full control and confidence with brand safety and suitability on Facebook Feed. By partnering with Meta, we’re applying our AI to give advertisers more transparency into the content adjacent to ads in their campaigns,” said Rich Raddon, co-founder and co-chief executive officer of Zefr. 

Meta and Zefr first partnered in March last year to to monitor and report the context in which ads appear on Facebook. The companies worked together to verify that ads only appear next to suitable content. Meta and Zefr began small-scale testing this idea last year.

In addition, Meta has also announced new inventory filters for Facebook and Instagram Feeds that are now rolling out to advertisers in English and Spanish-speaking markets.

These filters allow advertisers to choose from the following three settings to control the type of monetizable content that can appear above and below an ad:

• Expanded inventory: This is the default setting and shows ads next to content that adheres to Meta’s  Community Standards and the  monetization eligibility criteria.
• Moderate inventory: For advertisers who want to take a moderately conservative approach, this filter excludes content that may be considered high risk, in alignment with the GARM Brand Suitability Framework.
• Limited inventory: For advertisers who want to take the most conservative approach, this filter will remove content that may be considered both high and medium risk.

Later in 2023, Meta says it will expand these controls to support additional languages and make them available to more advertisers in other countries. The company also has plans to test the controls on Reels, Stories, Video Feeds and other surfaces across Facebook and Instagram.