Our YouTube Ad Safety Promise is that certain types of content can’t be monetized for ads on YouTube and Google video partners: we’ll automatically apply exclusions to prevent your ads from showing on the most controversial content, such as terrorist acts, nudity, and recent sensitive events. Regardless of the category exclusions you select, your ads will be excluded from showing on content that isn’t appropriate for any advertiser.
The category exclusion settings described below are meant to give you additional control and help you exclude types of content that, while in compliance with our policies, may not fit your brand or business. While content exclusions are done to the best of our ability, we can’t guarantee that all related content will be excluded.
Category exclusion settings
You can use the following advertiser-level brand suitability controls for your YouTube & partners line items.
Content categories
Content categories provide an extra layer of control over the inventory your YouTube ads show on by letting you opt out of categories of sensitive content that don’t align with your brand or the message of your campaign. No matter which option you select, we’ll automatically apply additional exclusions to prevent your ads from showing on the most controversial content.
You can select from the following three categories. You can also view more details below about what content types are included and excluded in each category.
- Expanded categories (advertiser-level default): All line items use this category by default. This option lets you show ads across all inventory on YouTube and video partners that meet our standards for monetization. This option may be an appropriate choice for brands that want maximum access to the full breadth of videos eligible for ads, including, for example, videos that have strong profanity in the context of comedy or a documentary, or excessive violence as featured in video games.
- Standard categories: This option lets you show ads across a wide range of content that’s appropriate for most brands, such as popular music videos, documentaries, and movie trailers. The content you can show ads on is based on YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines that take into account, for example, the strength or frequency of profanity, or the appropriateness of subject matter like sensitive events. Ads won’t show, for example, on content with repeated strong profanity, strong sexual content, or graphic violence.
- Limited categories: This option lets you show ads on a reduced range of content that’s appropriate for brands with particularly strict guidelines around inappropriate language and sexual suggestiveness - above and beyond what YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines address. The videos accessible in this sensitive category meet heightened requirements, especially for inappropriate language and sexual suggestiveness. For example, your ads will be excluded from showing on some of YouTube’s most popular music videos and other pop culture content across YouTube and Google video partners.
Content category details
YouTube Ad Safety Promise
Your ads will automatically be excluded from showing on the following types of content, no matter what content category setting you choose.
| Content | Expanded categories | Standard categories | Limited categories |
| Profanity in the title or thumbnail image, or profanity used repeatedly or throughout | Excluded | Excluded | Excluded |
| Full nudity, exposed nipples, animal mating, sexual abuse, or sexual content in the thumbnail | Excluded | Excluded | Excluded |
Content showing abusing, buying, making, selling, or finding drugs |
Excluded | Excluded | Excluded |
| Content discussing terrorism or sensitive current events like war, death, or tragedy | Excluded | Excluded | Excluded |
Profanity
| Content | Expanded categories | Standard categories | Limited categories |
| Light profanity used in a non-hateful, comedic or artistic way | Included | Included | Included |
| Moderate profanity used in a non-hateful, comedic, or artistic manner, or a music video with frequent profanity | Included | Included | Excluded |
| Strong profanity used throughout or at the very beginning of the video in comedy, documentary, news, or education | Included | Excluded | Excluded |
Sexualized content
| Content | Expanded categories | Standard categories | Limited categories |
| Romance, kissing, limited clothing in non-sexual settings, or general discussions of relationships or sexuality | Included | Included | Included |
| Limited clothing in sexual settings, sensual dancing, moderate sexually suggestive behavior, or a music video containing sexual content | Included | Included | Excluded |
| Blurred nudity, focus on sexual body parts, focus on sex as a topic, discussions about sex acts, implied or display of sex acts or sex toys without visible contact or nudity | Included | Excluded | Excluded |
Violence
| Content | Expanded categories | Standard categories | Limited categories |
| Mild violence or injury without showing blood or graphic content | Included | Included | Included |
| Violence or graphic content in video games, comedy, or music videos | Included | Included | Included |
| Focus on blood, gore, and excessive violence in video games, animal violence, or animation; sports, accidents, pranks, or “fails” with serious injury; blood shown in body modification or medical procedures | Included | Excluded | Excluded |
Drugs
| Content | Expanded categories | Standard categories | Limited categories |
| Content with humorous references, education, music, or statements without glorifying or promoting drugs | Included | Included | Included |
| Drug consumption, fabrication, and distribution in the context of music, comedy, news, education, or documentary | Included | Excluded | Excluded |
Hurtful language
| Content | Expanded categories | Standard categories | Limited categories |
| News, documentary, or education content with words that could be considered biased, demeaning, or hate speech against a race, religion, gender, or other group | Included | Excluded | Excluded |
Content theme exclusions
Content theme exclusions help to prevent your ads from showing on videos, websites, or apps related to specific themes that may not suit your brand like religion, politics, or video games that feature mature content. Content theme exclusions apply to YouTube, Demand Gen, and Google Video Partner inventory. You can access content theme exclusions under “Brand safety”, within the Targeting rules of your Display & Video 360 advertiser.
- Content Suitable for Families: Content that's suitable for families to view together, including Made for Kids videos on YouTube.
- Games (fighting): Video games that simulate hand-to-hand fighting or combat with the use of modern or medieval weapons.
- Games (mature): Video games that feature mature content, such as violence, inappropriate language, or sexual suggestiveness.
- Health (sensitive): Health content that people might find sensitive or upsetting, such as medical procedures or images and descriptions of various medical conditions.
- Health (source undetermined) YouTube only: Health content from sources that may provide accurate information but aren’t as commonly cited as other, more well-known sources.
- News (recent): News content that's been recently announced, regardless of the themes or people being reported on.
- News (sensitive): News content that people might find sensitive or upsetting, such as crimes, accidents, and natural incidents, or commentary on potentially controversial social and political issues.
- News (source not featured): News content from sources that aren’t featured on Google News or YouTube News.
- Politics: Political content, such as political statements made by well-known politicians, political elections, or events widely perceived to be political in nature.
- Religion: Content with religious themes, such as religious teachings or customs, holy sites or places of worship, well-known religious figures or people dressed in religious attire, or religious opinions on social and political issues.
Other content types
You can exclude specific content types so that your ads don’t run on those content types. This can help you avoid types of content that don’t fit your needs or that your customers don’t visit.
- Embedded YouTube videos: Video that web publishers find on the Display Network, then publish on their own site.
- Live-stream videos: Video of live events streamed over the internet.
Advertiser level brand suitability controls
Advertiser-level brand suitability controls let you set exclusions that apply to YouTube & partners line items across your entire Display & Video 360 advertiser. This means that at the advertiser level, you can select content categories, other content types, or excluded themes and they’ll automatically apply to all of your YouTube & partners line items.