Integral Ad Science (IAS) has launched the IAS Election Lab, an initiative designed to provide advertisers with actionable insights during the 2024 global elections.

The lab is led by a team of specialists from IAS Research and Insights, Data Science, and Brand Safety, who aim to address marketers' concerns about avoiding misinformation and controversial content during political events.

The IAS Election Lab's research has already highlighted some key findings. It has found that news-related misinformation tends to increase during high-profile news events. Furthermore, ads placed next to risky political party content had a 66% lower success rate and a 29% higher cost per conversion. Similarly, ads adjacent to news-related misinformation had a 53% lower success rate and an 8% higher cost per conversion.

The lab also discovered that negative sentiment political party impression traffic spiked in tandem with salient political events. During the 2020 presidential election, IAS observed that more than three in four consumers believed online advertising would play a significant role in determining the election outcome.

CEO of IAS, Lisa Utzschneider, said: “As election season intensifies, marketers must be increasingly mindful of the content that they run adjacent to, which could range from misinformation to undesirable subject matter that may not be brand safe or suitable,” she said. “The IAS Election Lab is committed to using the power of data science to help brands navigate the risks and opportunities that the elections will bring and provide actionable insights to ensure marketers can focus on performance.”