Ad blocking FAQs

Here are some common questions you may have about ad blocking.

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How it works

What do I have to do to enable ad blocking? Is re-tagging required?

No re-tagging is required. Enabling ad blocking requires two main steps:

1. Choose or upload flagged domain lists in Campaign Manager 360 Verification. Then apply them to your campaign (or the parent advertiser or account).

2. In Campaign Manager 360 Trafficking, enable ad blocking in the campaign properties. Now Campaign Manager 360 will only serve transparent pixels to flagged domains for this campaign. If you want to serve your own unbranded content (such as PSAs) to flagged domains, set up "creative bundles" in your advertiser properties.

Will ad blocking work for my traffic outside the U.S.?

If ad blocking is enabled for your account, it is available for all your traffic globally.

How many domains can I add to my flagged domain list?

You can add a total of 1000 domains or subdomains to each list.

Can I disable ad blocking on one of my accounts?

Yes. Open the site properties anywhere in your Campaign Manager 360 account, such as in your campaign or advertiser. Then uncheck the Allow ad blocking checkbox under "Verification settings." This will disable ad blocking on the account for all campaigns and advertisers in your account.

Do this if your publisher prohibits ad blocking, or if you don't want to use ad blocking on a particular account.

Supported uses

Which ad types are supported?

Ad blocking is not supported for: click trackers, tracking ads, or impressions served to mobile in-app environments.

In general, the mobile in-app environment doesn't have any referrer URLs. So most of the Verification monitoring or blocking doesn't apply to mobile in-app. Mobile web is supported the same as desktop web.

Is ad blocking available for Campaign Manager 360 only, or can I block pre-bid in Display & Video 360?

Regardless of the ad blocking beta, as of today Display & Video 360 users who use Campaign Manager 360 can block pre-bid with flagged domain lists and content classifiers.

What about pre-bid blocking in GDN?

GDN users can do pre-bid blocking with flagged domains and classifiers set in Verification. The only exception is if a single GDN ad group is mapped to multiple Campaign Manager 360 placements from different networks; in this case, GDN doesn't know which Verification settings to use.

Can I block based on geo and classifiers?

We currently support blocking on domain lists, geo, and standard (but not custom) classifiers.

Can I block ads based on URLs?

Ad blocking is available for domains, but not specific URLs.  You can block a site like 'example.com', but not 'example.com/aSpecificPage.html'

When your ad is blocked

If I use internal redirect tags, what happens when my ad is blocked from a flagged domain?

Internal redirect tags are used to serve Campaign Manager 360 ads on sites that use Google Ad Manager or other Campaign Manager 360 products.

If internal redirect tags cannot deliver an ad because your ad is blocked, Campaign Manager 360 does not send a brand-neutral alternative. Instead, Campaign Manager 360 leaves the impression available to Google Ad Manager so that it can show another ad from a different advertiser.

What reporting is available?

• Report Builder: View clicks and impressions on brand-neutral ads and brand-neutral creatives in your standard reports. Add the "brand-neutral" filter for both creative type and ad type in Report Builder.

• Verification: View the number of blocked impressions for each flagged domain in your list. Display blocked impressions by choosing them on the "Columns" drop-down on the Overview page.) During the beta release we will only block on domains. We’re developing additional blocking capabilities.

• Active View and event tags (not supported): Active View and event tags are not supported for brand-neutral content. This means that for impressions on flagged domains, you cannot capture Active View metrics or log information for vendors with event tags.

What will people see if my ad is blocked?

By default, Campaign Manager 360 sends transparent pixels. People do not see anything at all. The placement is transparent, so it has the same background color as the rest of the page. There is no sign any content is missing.

Fees

If I use this feature to verify my ad serving, is there any extra cost?

Ad blocking does not cost anything extra.

Do I pay ad serving fees for blocked impressions?

Yes. You pay for serving when there is a serving request. For most ad types, a serving request is still made, so you're still charged the ad serving fee. Video is an exception to this - blocked video impressions are free! In addition, if your ad is serving in the programmatic space through Display & Video 360 it's blocked before you’ve bid on it, so there are no serving costs.

Why are blocked video impressions free?

This has to do with how videos are served. When a video ad is blocked, the publisher never actually makes a call for the ad. Since the publisher doesn’t choose to call the ad, there’s no serving request, no impression gets counted, and there’s no “blocked” impression in reporting. Because of this, there is no ad serving fee incurred.