Programmatic advertising is prevalent in online advertising. However, it offers managers limited control over the type of website where the ad appears, resulting in brand safety issues. Aware of the risk that ads may potentially display on websites of poor quality (nonpremium websites), managers have developed strategies to reduce this risk. Due to the lack of empirical insights, these strategies are based on “gut feeling” and depend on campaign type (branding versus performance) and brand type (premium versus nonpremium). Our research addresses this void and analyzes website quality effects for premium and nonpremium brands in branding and performance campaigns. Our results show that effects, indeed, vary depending on campaign and brand type, but not in ways that managers might expect. When a branding ad appears on a nonpremium website, attitudes towards the ad and the brand deteriorate, but only for premium brands. In contrast, website quality does not affect awareness for either type of brand. When a performance ad appears on a nonpremium website, it generates fewer clicks; this effect is stronger for premium brands. Overall, these findings enrich our understanding of the consequences of programmatic advertising and highlight the crucial role of website quality dependent on campaign goal and brand type.

程序化广告在在线广告中很普遍。但是，它为管理人员提供了对显示广告的网站类型的有限控制，从而导致品牌安全问题。意识到广告可能会在质量差的网站（非优质网站）上展示的风险，管理人员制定了降低这种风险的策略。由于缺乏经验见解，这些策略基于“直觉”并取决于活动类型（品牌与绩效）和品牌类型（优质与非优质）。我们的研究解决了这一空白，并分析了优质和非优质品牌在品牌推广和绩效活动中的网站质量影响。我们的结果表明，效果确实会因活动和品牌类型而异，但不会以管理者期望的方式变化。当品牌广告出现在非优质网站上时，对广告和品牌的态度恶化，但仅限于高端品牌。相比之下，网站质量不会影响任何一种品牌的知名度。当效果广告出现在非优质网站上时，它产生的点击次数较少；对于高端品牌，这种影响更大。总的来说，这些发现丰富了我们对程序化广告后果的理解，并强调了网站质量取决于活动目标和品牌类型的关键作用。