Preventing bad ads is a challenge for publishers and platforms of all sizes and verticals. It’s an issue that hits publishers where it hurts most: audience trust in their brand. Nearly 46% of publishers surveyed report that poor ad quality significantly affects the lifetime value of their visitors. To understand the impact of bad ads, we surveyed dozens of publishers across sectors of the publishing industry to assess the existing challenges they face, in terms of brand suitable ads, and the future they envision for their digital properties. Despite these challenges, publishers view advertising as a means to sharpen their brand image within their sectors, with their readers, and advertisers they’d like to attract to the properties. This bodes well for the industry as a whole. 60% of publishers say ad quality differentiates their brand within their sectors and 80% say brand suitability increases reader/ user trust in a site.