Ad filtering settings for bidding ad sources

You can decide whether you'd like to apply the Google Ads network policy and your blocking controls to a specific bidding ad source.

In this article:

• How ad filtering for an ad source works
• Set ad filtering for an bidding ad source
• How ad filtering affects blocking controls
• Understand the impact of ad filtering

Google Ads network policy covers prohibited content, prohibited practices, restricted content and features, and editorial and technical standards. Google Platform programs policies is always applied and covers more general concerns, such as malware and illegal behavior.

Blocking controls help you control the ads that appear in your apps.

How ad filtering for an ad source works

When you turn on ad filtering for an ad source, the Google network policies and your blocking controls are always applied to ads from that ad source. This can result in better quality ad content for your app users, but may result in less ad revenue because more bids are rejected or filtered before they reach the real-time auction.

When ad filtering is turned off, the enforcement of the Google network policies and your blocking controls is relaxed. This makes it easier for bids from this bidding source to reach the real-time auction, which means a potential increase in demand and ad revenue. Note that this may result in ads in your app that fall below certain content, editorial, and technical thresholds.

Note: Ad filtering only applies to ad units that are added to mediation groups. If you turn off ad filtering, it  only affects ad requests that match a mediation group. 

Set ad filtering for an bidding ad source

1. Sign in to your AdMob account at https://admob.google.com.
2. Click Mediation in the sidebar.
3. Click the Bidding sources tab.
4. Select the ad source you’d like to update.
5. Click Settings.
6. Click the toggle to turn on or off the ad filtering setting. 
7. Click Save.

Note: Some bidding ad sources have not yet enabled the ad filtering toggle. We are in the process of adding support for all bidding ad sources. Check back later if your ad source does not have the toggle enabled.  

How ad filtering affects blocking controls

When ad filtering is turned on, it works together with your blocking controls to ensure better quality ad content for your app users. If you turn off ad filtering, your blocking controls are also turned off. This affects the following blocking controls:

• Ads blocked in the Ad review center
• Ads blocked by general category, sensitive category, advertiser URL, and ad network
• Blocked app install ads
• Maximum ad content ratings

Note: Your CPRA settings and EU user consent settings are not affected by turning ad filtering on or off.

Understand the impact of ad filtering

If you change your ad filtering setting, you can monitor the impact by using your bidding report. Review the following metrics to better understand how your selection is impacting your performance:

• Bids in auction: The number of bids submitted by the ad source that participated in Bidding auctions. This may decrease if you turn on ad filtering.
• Bids in auction (%): The percentage of bids that participated in bidding auctions. This helps you compare how many times an ad source submitted a bid to how many requests your app sent to the ad source.
• Earnings: Compare your earnings with or without ad filtering to understand how it’s impacting your revenue.