Block advertisers and categories

Keep advertiser domains, IAB ad categories and sensitive categories such as gambling off all your channels, with a written confirmation of every change.

Brand Safety is your block list. Anything on it never runs on any of your channels. Use it to keep out competitors, categories that don't suit your audience, or an advertiser you have had a problem with.

Steps

1. Open Brand safety.
2. Under Advertiser domains (one per line), list the brand domains to block, such as competitor.com. You can list up to 500.
3. Under Sensitive categories, tick what you never want to show, such as gambling, alcohol or dating.
4. Under IAB ad categories, tick categories by name. Use the search box to find one. Ticking a top-level category blocks everything under it. For a code that is not listed, type it in Other IAB code and select Add. You can block up to 200 codes.
5. Select Save. The page tells you the time by which the block is in force on every channel.

Saving replaces your lists. Anything you untick or remove is unblocked.

Written confirmation

Every save that changes something is confirmed in writing. Owner, admin and manager seats get a notice in the app and an email listing everything now blocked, who changed it, when it was saved and the time by which it is in force (a minute after the save at the latest). The page shows when the lists last changed and by whom. Nothing is sent when a save changes nothing.

How the match works

• Domains. An advertiser is blocked when its brand domain, or the website on its account, matches a listed domain. A listed domain also blocks its subdomains. Enter the plain domain; it is stored as the registered root domain.
• IAB categories. The codes are from the IAB Content Taxonomy 1.0, shown next to each name. A parent code blocks everything under it, so IAB7 also blocks IAB7-12.
• Sensitive categories cover what the IAB categories cannot say: 1.0 has no code for gambling, crypto, prescription drugs or misleading offers. Advertisers declare these themselves, at signup or later, and LtvAdx staff can correct a declaration. An advertiser that has declared none is blocked only when its brand domain or IAB categories match. Alcohol, tobacco, adult content and dating also have IAB 1.0 codes, shown under each box: an advertiser with one of those codes is blocked too.

An advertiser whose campaign picks one of your channels by name is told when it saves, if your block list refuses it.

Where the block applies

• Campaigns from LtvAdx advertisers on every channel you own, including ads stitched in by SSAI.
• Outside DSPs you connect on My DSPs or that LtvAdx offers your inventory to. See the next section.

It does not apply to your own direct campaigns, because you choose those yourself.

Outside DSPs and sensitive categories (Beta)

An outside DSP's ad comes from an advertiser LtvAdx has never checked, so ticking any sensitive category turns on four checks for outside DSPs on all your channels. Children's channels get them for every category, without anything ticked.

• *Before the bid.* Your blocked domains and categories go out with every bid request. Categories use the IAB Content Taxonomy 1.0 codes and the IAB Ad Product Taxonomy 2.0 codes, shown under each box. Ad Product 2.0 has codes for gambling, crypto and prescription drugs that 1.0 lacks. Misleading offers have no code in either, so DSPs cannot be told about that one before they bid.
• *When the bid comes back.* A bid is refused if it names neither what it advertises (an IAB category) nor the advertiser's domain. It is also refused if the category it names is one you block, or if LtvAdx staff have listed its advertiser's domain under a category you block.
• *The ad itself.* An outside ad runs on your channels only once LtvAdx staff know it: they have approved that ad, or reviewed its advertiser's domain. A new outside ad is refused while it waits for review. Staff watch the video and record any sensitive category they find, so an approved ad still stays off channels that block that category. Nothing checks the video automatically yet: the review is done by people.
• *DSPs that don't say.* A DSP buyer seat that keeps sending ads for restricted brands without naming the category is kept off every channel with sensitive blocks. Only LtvAdx staff can let it back.

So with a sensitive category ticked, expect fewer outside ads at first, while new ads wait for review. Channels without any sensitive category and not for children are unchanged.

Good to know

• Children's channels already exclude alcohol, dating and adult advertisers without anything on this page. See Add a channel.
• Political and issue advertising is set on the Political Ads page. Brand Safety shows what it is set to and links there; there is no second switch here.
• The setting to allow advertisers' audiences on your channels is on Inventory, not here.
• Owner, admin and manager seats can save. Other seats can see the settings but not change them.
• If a domain can't be read as a domain, the save fails and names it, for example *Not a domain: …*. Nothing is saved until every entry is valid.