Brand safety is Tiktok’s highest priority for the billions of people who use its platform. The social network has invested in technologies, policies, products, features, and people to make its platform safe for everyone using it. Last year, the company received its Tag Brand Safety Certification Seal.

Now TikTok has introduced an Inventory Filter tool that will ensure that brands and advertisers manage their In-Feed Ads better. It’s a move that has already taken effect in 25 countries and is available in more than 15 languages globally. 

Tiktok Inventory Filter is an innovative brand safety and sustainability solution that works by giving advertisers and brands control over content appearing next to their ads on the For You pages of its users. The implementation and success of this new tool serve as a milestone for Tiktok’s brand safety and sustainability, and also as a foundation technology for future advertising on the platform

How Tiktok Inventory Filter Works to Ensure Brand Safety

The TikTok Inventory Filter provides a rigorous Ad content filtration before it’s available for users. It works on Intellectual Property Policy, Community Guidelines, and Terms and Conditions to ensure Ads are relevant where they appear on the platform. 

Safety on the platform is crucial for retaining users and generating leads for prospective subscribers. The Tiktok Inventory Filter targets ad service providers who prioritize safety. That’s why it’s embedded in the TikTok ads manager to give advertisers more control over their ads. 

Advertisers can now post ads without worrying about associating with any potentially offensive content that could harm their reputation 

The Three-tier Inventory Access

The Inventory Filter grants advertisers three-tier access, Limited, full, and standard, to video inventory through sophisticated machine learning technology. All the tiers conform to TikTok’s policies and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) Brand Safety and Suitability Framework. 

TikTok Ads Manager allows advertisers to select a preferred tier during the Ads campaign setup. 

The Inventory Filter organizes user-generated content by analyzing images, text, and video to assign them to an appropriate tier. Every tier has videos evaluated following standard (like GARM) based risk levels:

• Floor Content: any content that does not follow TikTok’s Terms of Service, Intellectual Property Policy, and Community Guidelines.
• High-Risk Content: content that romanticizes a person or things.
• Medium Risk Content: entertainment or fictional portrayal of mature themes.
• Low-Risk Content: content that depicts mature themes educationally.

The Inventory Filter determines the kind of videos to avoid from a particular tier through the categorization processes above and then classifies the content according to its maturity themes:

• Full Inventory: Removes any Floor content that fails to conform to the Community Guidelines and some High-Risk content. However, content that has some mature themes may have adjacent Ads appearing. 
• Standard Inventory: Removes both Floor and High-Risk content. Most brands may get Ads appearing next to appropriate content.
• Limited Inventory: Removes all the content risk levels, and Ads will always appear without limitations of maturity of themes.

The Inventory Filter machine learning capability ensures that TikTok brand safety is guaranteed.

Tiktok Inventory Filter Proven Success in Brand Safety

Several leading brands embraced TikTok’s Inventory Filter during its testing period and registered significant results. Most reportedly hit the 95% – 99% “safe delivery rates.”The platform partnered with Zefr to allow brands to get an independent third-party determination of their TikTok brand safety and content suitability according to GARM standards.

“Global advertisers continue to prioritize brand safety and suitability controls without constraining campaign performance and reach from legacy approaches like keyword blocklists. As a TikTok Brand Safety and Suitability measurement partner, Zefr is encouraged by TikTok’s continued innovation and commitment to safety. With the release of Inventory Filter advertisers can exert even more control on their content adjacency on the platform.”- Rich Raddon, Zefr co-founder and co-CEO.

Unilever is among the leading global companies that Zefr undertook the Ads campaign and reported 99.9% returns on both the Safe Delivery and the Brand Safe Rates. “Brand Safety and Suitability are top priorities for Unilever, and we thoroughly evaluate any new advertising channel to ensure our ads show up in the right environment. The TikTok Inventory Filter’s adjacency controls provided us with an added level of confidence, and we were pleased to see the efficacy of the solution with Zefr reporting Brand Safety Suitability rates of 99.9%.” – Vivian Genachi, Personal Care Media Manager for Brazil, Unilever. 

Future Plans for TikTok Brand Safety and Suitability

TikTok aims to offer the best user experience and brand safety to its users through innovative ways. It’s expanding the Inventory Filter by adding more campaign objectives. It seeks to boost efficacy by increasing the response rate to emerging and existing trends in the industry. It also plans to standardize brand safety and suitability on all Ad products, e.g., Branded Mission and TikTok Pulse. 

Bottomline

TikTok is committed to maintaining high standards for advertisers’ brand safety and suitability through the Inventory Filter. Brands use the tool to choose where their Ads appear on the platform. The Inventory Filter gives brand advertisers access to a three-tier video inventory. TikTok plans to expand the capability of the Inventory Filter to attain maximum brand safety and suitability.