Protecting the Brand, Powering Performance

The challenge

As digital advertising becomes increasingly automated, brands are grappling with a loss of control - particularly when it comes to where their ads appear. Performance Max (Pmax) campaigns, while powerful, offer little visibility into ad placements by default. This industry-wide lack of transparency has raised serious concerns around brand safety, wasted ad spend, and diminished campaign effectiveness. For agencies and advertisers alike, manually reviewing thousands of placements to ensure quality and relevance is not only inefficient - it’s virtually impossible at scale.

T&P recognized these growing risks firsthand. They needed to gain control over ad placements on their Pmax campaigns to both protect brand integrity and drive better performance for their internet service provider (ISP) client. Without a scalable way to evaluate and manage placements, the team faced an uphill battle balancing safety with efficiency.

The solution

Squared.io’s placement exclusion tool, part of the Protect suite of features, provided the team at T&P with a complete list of all ad placements across the Pmax campaigns. But it didn’t stop at visibility - Squared.io leveraged generative AI to assign a “Brand Safety Risk Score” to each site, app, and video, enabling the team to quickly assess and act on problematic placements.

With just one click, they were able to block hundreds of websites, mobile apps and YouTube videos at the account level.

The feature also provided automated protection by excluding placements with the highest risk scores, removing the worst offenders without manual intervention. This not only safeguarded the brand - it saved the team hours of labor-intensive work.

The results

With the help of the placement exclusion tool in Squared.io, T&P restored control over their Pmax campaigns and delivered tangible business results. The outcomes were impressive:

• CPC: -63%

• Clicks: +41%

• CPA: -37%

Beyond the numbers, T&Pm also reinforced their clients brand reputation by ensuring their ads appeared only in high-quality, relevant environments - a win for both performance and trust.