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Google Display Network: Placement Exclusions Guide

Placement exclusions let you prevent your Display ads from showing on specific websites, apps, YouTube channels, or content categories. This protects brand safety and reduces wasted spend on low-quality placements. Regularly review your placement reports and exclude sites with high impressions but z

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Quick Summary

Placement exclusions let you prevent your Display ads from showing on specific websites, apps, YouTube channels, or content categories. This protects brand safety and reduces wasted spend on low-quality placements. Regularly review your placement reports and exclude sites with high impressions but zero conversions, mobile app placements (which often generate accidental clicks), parked domains, and any sites inappropriate for your brand.

Process Flow

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Step-by-Step Guide

Follow these 4 steps to complete this guide

1

Why Placement Exclusions Matter

The Google Display Network spans over 2 million websites and 650,000 apps. Not all of these placements are high quality. Without exclusions, your ads may appear on low-quality content farms, children's games (generating accidental clicks), or sites that do not align with your brand.
2

How to Exclude Placements

Go to your Display campaign > Content > Placements. Click 'Where ads showed' to see which sites displayed your ads. Review the data — look for placements with high impressions, high spend, but zero conversions. Select underperforming placements and click 'Exclude.'
3

Common Exclusions to Add Immediately

Mobile apps: Exclude the 'adsenseformobileapps.com' placement or use the app category exclusion to remove all mobile app placements. These frequently generate accidental clicks from children and game players.

Content categories: Exclude sensitive content categories in campaign settings — error pages, parked domains, below-the-fold placements (if available), and any content categories irrelevant to your business.

Specific low-quality sites: Build an exclusion list of known low-quality sites over time and apply it to all Display campaigns.

4

Using Shared Exclusion Lists

Create shared placement exclusion lists at the account level (Tools & Settings > Shared Library > Placement exclusion lists). Apply these lists across multiple campaigns to save time and ensure consistency.

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