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Economic uncertainty is pushing marketers to prioritize performance channels and results, even if that means sacrificing brand safety in the process, according to research from Advertiser Perceptions. While 71% of marketing professionals say they are adopting brand safety approaches this year to combat disinformation and support credible journalism, that figure is seven points lower than 2024.
Further, 21% of marketing executives have no plans to align marketing efforts with any social issues, up five points from 2024. Seventy percent agree that advertising in a legitimate news environment has a positive or neutral impact on the vast majority of consumers, a five-point drop from the year-ago period.
“What we see from advertisers is they go with what they know,” said Stuart Schneiderman, executive vice president of business intelligence at Advertiser Perceptions.
Advertiser Perceptions’ “Trust in Advertising” report includes responses from 300 members of the company’s priority Ad Pros community. The online survey was administered between Feb. 3 and Feb. 8 to U.S.-based professionals who work at agencies or brands with a minimum advertising spend of $1 million over the course of the year. Sixty percent of respondents worked for agencies, while 40% came from the brand or marketer side. Approximately 30 different product and service categories were represented.
While marketers this year appear more lax, that doesn’t mean they have abandoned brand safety altogether. It remains one of the top reasons marketers pull back on spending, tying for the top spot with subpar campaign performance (41%). The reputation of a media company was another major reason advertisers decided to cut spending (38%).
Marketers don’t want to intentionally put their brands at risk. However, a little risk may be necessary in the quest for optimization. Of survey respondents with an explicit made-for-advertising (MFA) website policy, 33% believe it is okay to include them in buys in order to extend reach and boost metrics. Only 19% believe MFA spending should be reduced to zero and 47% aim to minimize the sites.
Maintaining a manual exclusion list can be expensive and time consuming. Only 12% of survey respondents are advertising on a manually selected inclusion list in 2025, down from 16% in 2024.
Updating exclusion lists could be a task which falls to artificial intelligence, according to Schneiderman.
