Contextual Advertising and Targeting Insights | Peer39 Blog

What’s Working in Ad Quality Controls Right Now

Written by Dannalyn Prado | Feb 6, 2026 4:48:36 PM

As ad quality continues to dominate the digital conversation, one thing is clear: the most effective strategies increasingly prioritize CTV and greater control. While CTV quality has taken center stage, many of the same risks advertisers first encountered on the open web now show up in new forms across channels. From combatting Made for Advertising (MFA) fraud to refining targeting with program-level signals, advertisers are getting smarter and Peer39 is helping them lead the way.

Winning Strategy: Pre-Bid Program-Level CTV Controls

Today’s top-performing advertisers are leveraging Peer39’s program-level data to bring precision and transparency to CTV buying. They are:

  • Targeting by genre, mood, actor, or description
  • Excluding content with safety concerns such as violence, drugs, and divisive news
  • Using post-bid analytics to optimize campaigns mid-flight

These tools allow brands to control outcomes without limiting scale.

MFA: A Foundational Quality Signal

MFA is most commonly associated with the open web and display advertising, but it represents a broader quality problem: inventory that drains performance while adding little to no real value. Before advertisers could effectively address fake or misclassified environments in CTV, they first had to solve for MFA on the web.

Peer39’s automated detection blocked nearly 13% of display impressions flagged as MFA for a major transportation advertiser, resulting in a 3x lift in conversions once exclusions were applied.

The same quality-first framework used to eliminate MFA on the open web now underpins how Peer39 identifies and filters low-quality and misclassified inventory in CTV environments.

Safe from Fake: Raising the Bar for CTV Quality

As CTV inventory continues to scale, Fake CTV Content remains a persistent risk across the open exchange. According to Peer39’s Q4 2025 CTV Benchmarks, campaigns using Peer39 maintained 2.5% exposure to Fake CTV Content, compared to 25% across the open exchange.

By applying the Safe from Fake Content pre-bid category alongside program-level controls, advertisers significantly reduced exposure to non-CTV and misclassified inventory without sacrificing reach or performance.

Roadmap to Better Ad Quality

  • Start with Peer39’s always-on suitability and keyword filters
  • Add CTV program-level controls for precision at scale
  • Analyze post-buy data via Peer39 Analytics dashboards to refine strategy
  • Automate improvements with contextual categories and sentiment layers

Final Thought

What’s working now is what’s measurable, scalable, and built directly into the media buying workflow. From the open web to CTV, advertisers that treat quality as a system rather than a channel-specific fix are seeing stronger performance and greater transparency. Peer39 gives advertisers the controls they need to protect quality, reduce waste, and bring true transparency to CTV today and as the ecosystem continues to evolve.