Exclude specific webpages and videos

To help you reach more potential customers, your ads will now show on content that matches any of the topics, placements, or Display/Video/Search keywords you target. For example, if you targeted “bikes” as a topic and “cycling” as a Display/Video/Search keyword, your ads will show on content that matches either.

You’ll also notice contextual targeting simplified into a single page in Google Ads, so you can manage all content targeting types (Topics, Placements, Display/Video keywords, and Exclusions) in a single view. The new page can be found in the “Content” section under Campaigns on the left-side navigation menu.

Starting in March, 2024: Account level placement exclusions will now also apply to the Search partner network. With this launch, websites on the Search partner network will be excluded if an advertiser adds exclusions at the account or manager account level. This will impact all campaign types that serve ads on the Search partner network, including Performance Max, App, Search, Shopping, and Smart campaigns in the account.

Targeting and exclusion controls for mobile Display have been simplified to make it easier to reach the growing base of mobile users.

Content exclusion (“G-mob mobile app non interstitial” exclusion) has been replaced by simplified device targeting options of computer, tablet, and mobile.

You can control which publishers or types of content your ads appear on using:

• Topics
• Device targeting: computer, tablet, mobile
• App category
• Individual app exclusions via placement exclusions for mobile apps, and individual website exclusion
• Content exclusions

Just as you can target placements in the YouTube, Search Partner Network, and Display Network to show your ads – like specific pages, sites, mobile apps, and videos – you can also exclude placements where you don't want your ads to show. You can exclude websites or domains that are inappropriate for your brand or are ineffective in promoting the sale of your products or services.

Types of placements you might exclude

• Certain specific placements that don’t fit your brand.
• Placements where your ads are showing, but not performing well.

Example

A travel agency has an ad group that features family camping packages and targets topics like Hiking & Camping. The agency notices that some of their ads are showing on automatic placements that are relevant to the topic but are not family-focused. They can exclude those placements from the ad group.

Exclude placements from your campaign, ad group, or account

You can exclude placements from specific ad groups and campaigns from the "Placements" page. Excluding placements allows you to prevent your ads from appearing on specific websites, videos, apps, or other placements. This can be helpful if you don't want your ads to appear on content that is not relevant to your target audience, or if you want to avoid appearing on placements that might have a negative impact on your brand.

To exclude placements for a campaign:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Audiences, keywords, and content drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Content.
4. Click Exclusions.
5. On the right hand side, click Edit Exclusions.
6. Choose whether you’d like to exclude placements at the Campaign, Ad group, or Account level.
   • You can exclude placements by URL, app ID, video ID.
   • You can exclude placements for all ad formats, including text ads, image ads, and video ads.
   • (optional) To exclude multiple URLs, select Enter, and enter the URL(s) you'd like to exclude.
7. If you’ve selected “Use placement exclusion list”, select an existing placement exclusion list.
8. After you’ve entered your exclusions, click Save.

You can also edit exclusions through Content suitability.

1. Select the "Tools" menu on the left-hand side.
2. Select ”Content suitability”.
3. Under “Advanced settings”, select ”Excluded placements”.
4. Choose an option from the drop down for specific exclusions. You can choose to exclude placements based on:
   • Individual placements: Enter specific URLs, apps, or video IDs of the placements you want to exclude.
   • Categories: Choose categories of placements to exclude, such as "sensitive content" or "violent content."
   • Content labels: Exclude placements based on their content labels, such as "gambling" or "alcohol."
5. (Optional) For more specific targeting, you can use the search bar to find and exclude placements based on keywords, phrases, URLs, or video IDs.

Note: Excluding placements applies to all ad groups within your campaign unless you specify otherwise. Excluded placements can impact your targeting reach and may limit your ad exposure. You can view and manage your excluded placements at any time by following the steps above.

How to add your exclusion URLs

There are different types of URLs for different types of properties. From mobile apps to specific product pages, each type of property has a specific address format. Expand the sections below to understand how to enter the addresses for each type of placement.

Formatting placement exclusions for sites

There are several methods for excluding placements: by domain, subdomain, path name, or individual pages, but not multi-level domains. In general, excluding domains will prevent your ads from appearing on any page on or within that domain, while entering subdomains or paths will only prevent your ads from appearing on any page on or within that subdomain or path, respectively. Note that exclusions for subdomains, subsites and subpages do not work on the Search Partner Network.

Example

Cheryl’s company sells organic household cleaning products, and she would like to show their ads only on closely related placements. She targets a popular product review website, and adds a site exclusion for the website paths about food gadgets and home appliances so that her ads don’t appear on those pages. By refining where her ads appear, she can show them to the most interested potential customers.

The format of each entry on your site exclusion list determines how Google Ads filters sites. Here are some examples of how to exclude domains and format these exclusions:

Level	Exclusion
Top-level domain name	example.com Use this format if you'd prefer that your ads be excluded from a particular domain and its subdomains, directory names, individual pages, and so on. Ads won't appear on example.com, www.example.com, www1.example.com, www.example.com/stuff, www.example.com/stuff/page.html, or placement.example.com	Acceptable
First-level subdomain	www.example.com Ads won't appear on www.example.com or www.example.com/stuff Ads may show on www1.example.com or placement.example.com	Acceptable
First-level subdomain	placement.example.com	Acceptable
Single directory name	www.example.com/stuff Ads won't appear on www.example.com/stuff or www.example.com/stuff/page.html Ads may show on www.example.com	Acceptable
Single directory name	example.com/stuff	Acceptable
Second directory name	www.example.com/stuff/extra Ads won't appear on www.example.com/stuff/extra or www.example.com/stuff/extra/page.html Ads may show on www.example.com or www.example.com/stuff	Acceptable
Multi-level subdomains	www.placement.example.com Ads may only be excluded from this specific subdomain	Not recommended
Individual page	www.example.com/index.html	Acceptable

Due to the dynamic nature of the Display Network, we can't guarantee that you'll exclude 100 percent of related pages when you exclude a category. In our tests, however, we've found that excluding a category reduces exposure to related pages by approximately 90 percent.

Exclude individual apps from Display campaigns

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Audiences, keywords, and content drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Content.
4. Click Exclusions.
5. Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the term “Exclusions”.
6. Click Placements.
7. Click the pencil icon .
8. Select Add placement exclusion.
9. Under “Exclude from,” select Campaign.
10. Click Select a campaign and select the campaign you’d like to exclude apps from.
11. Click Enter multiple placements.
12. Do one of the following:
    • To exclude iPhone apps:
      • Find the iTunes ID for the app you want to exclude. The iTunes ID appears at the end of the app’s iTunes URL. For instance, the ID in red is the “MechaHamster” app’s iTunes ID:
        • https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mechahamster/id1286046770.
      • Enter “mobileapp::1-” followed by the iTunes ID. For example, if you want to add the "MechaHamster" app as a placement exclusion, enter mobileapp::1-1286046770.
    • To exclude Android apps:
      • In the Google Play Store, find the app you want to exclude, and then copy the app’s package name (the last part of the URL after “id=”). For example, for the app “MechaHamster,” copy the section of the URL that appears in red below:
        • https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.fpl.mechahamster
      • In the field for entering placements in Google Ads, enter “mobileapp::2-” and paste the URL you just copied. Using the example from the previous step, the exclusion for the app “MechaHamster” would look like this:
        • mobileapp::2-com.google.fpl.mechahamster

Excluding parked domains

Parked domain sites are part of the Search Partner Network, which can be excluded from the Network using content exclusions.

Note: Starting in October 2024, new Google Ads accounts will be automatically opted out of serving ads on parked domains. This means your Search and Performance Max campaigns in new accounts that are opted into the Search Partner Network won't appear on parked domains by default. If you'd like your ads to appear on parked domains, simply navigate to the content suitability settings within your new account and opt in.

Note

Excluding placements is different from removing them. When you exclude placements, you’re blocking your ads from showing there. When you remove placements you’re targeting, your ad could still show there based on other targeting methods you have in your ad group – like keywords or topics.

Schedule automated uploads of placement exclusion lists

Scheduling automatic updates to placement exclusion lists saves time on list management and ensures that placement exclusion lists in Google Ads stay up-to-date and stay in sync with list sources. Advertisers, learn how to download a list template and schedule your placement exclusion lists. List providers, learn how to create and test exclusion lists for your advertisers to use.

For advertisers

Schedule your exclusion list by linking a placement exclusion list in a supported file format in Google Ads. This list source will be pulled periodically to manage your exclusions within Google Ads. It can be maintained by you or a third-party list provider that you trust. Schedule uploads to your placement exclusions to ensure that your exclusion list automatically updates to reflect updates made on the external source file.

Instructions to download a template & schedule a placement exclusion list

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click the Shared library drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Exclusion lists.
4. Click the plus button .
5. Click Schedule a list
6. If you don’t have a list source already created by you or your trusted list providers, click View templates to view supported templates and download your file, which can be added to and saved. Review a sample file by downloadng this CSV. (Learn more about how you can exclude placements at the account level.) Exclusion types supported:
   • Sites
   • Mobile Applications
   • YouTube Channels
   • YouTube Videos

Note: Exclusions are subject to shared placement exclusions list limits. Learn more about Google Ads targeting limits

8. Once you have a list source saved in the correct file type, you can schedule automatic uploads of placement exclusions reflected in the list source.
   1. Enter the “Schedule name”.
   2. Enter the "List name”, which will appear as the name in the “Placement exclusion list” columns.
   3. In the “Source” drop-down menu, select how the file will be delivered
      • Google Sheets
      • HTTPS
      • SFTP
   4. Ensure that the file is public or that you provide the permissions to access the file
      1. Google Sheets must be public or you will need to share it with the Google Ads account you see listed when you select “Google Sheets” as the “Source” and then click Link an existing sheet.
      2. HTTPS / SFTP may require credentials (username / password). If required, enter the username and password to access the file.
         Note: If you select SFTP and get a "File not found" error, try placing a double-slash ("//") between the file path and name. For example: SFTP://sftp.mysite.com/exclusions.csv
   5. Use the “Frequency” and “Time” fields to choose how often and when the source you selected should be uploaded and applied to your placement exclusions.
   6. Click Save.
   7. Ensure that your source file uploaded correctly by checking that it’s in the “Placement exclusion list” column on the Placement exclusions page that you navigate to from the Tools menu. It may take up to 10 minutes for the list to appear.
9. To cancel or modify your scheduled placement exclusions, follow these instructions:
   1. Click the Tools icon .
   2. Under “Bulk Actions”, select Uploads.
   3. Click the Schedules tab.
   4. Hover over the colored dot to the left of the scheduled item in the “Schedule” column.
   5. You can choose to “Enable”, “Pause” or “Remove”.
   6. You can also edit by clicking Edit in the “Actions” column.

Note:

• If you’re using a file created by a trusted list provider, ensure that the file is in the supported format so that it uploads correctly.
• As long as uploads are scheduled, any exclusions in the source file will continuously be uploaded to your list. You’ll want to update the source file directly or work with your third-party list provider to update the source file.
• Once the exclusion list is created, you'll apply the placement exclusion list to a campaign to begin excluding placements.

For list providers

Create an exclusion list for use by your advertisers by downloading a supported external file source in Google Ads. Once scheduled by your advertisers, this list source will be pulled from to manage exclusions within Google Ads, and the list can be maintained by you. Your advertisers can schedule uploads using your placement exclusions file.Their lists will automatically update to reflect changes made to your source files.

Instructions to download a file template & test a placement exclusion file

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click the Shared library drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Exclusion lists.
4. Click the plus button .
5. Click Schedule a list
6. Click View templates to view supported file types and templates and download your file, which you’ll use to build placement exclusion lists. Review a sample file by downloadng this CSV. (Learn more about how you can exclude placements at the account level.) Exclusion types supported:
   • Sites
   • Mobile Applications
   • YouTube Channels
   • YouTube Videos
     Note: Exclusions are subject to shared placement exclusions list limits. Learn more about Google Ads targeting limits
7. Once you have a list source saved in the correct file type, test that your exclusion file is formatted correctly by uploading to your account.
   1. Enter the “Schedule name”
   2. Enter the “List name”, which will appear as the name in the “Schedule” and “Placement exclusion list” columns.
   3. In the “Source” drop-down menu, select how the file will be delivered.
      • Google Sheets
      • HTTPS
      • SFTP
   4. Ensure that the file is public or that you provide the permissions to access the file
      1. Google Sheets must be public or you will need to share it with the Google Ads account you find listed when you select “Google Sheets” as the “Source” and then click Link an existing sheet.
      2. HTTPS / SFTP may require credentials (username / password). If required, enter the username and password to access the file.
      3. These permissions also apply to any advertisers who receive access to your file
         Note: If you select SFTP and get a "File not found" error, try placing a double-slash ("//") between the file path and name. For example: SFTP://sftp.mysite.com/exclusions.csv
   5. Use the “Frequency” and “Time” fields to choose how often and when the source you selected should be uploaded and applied to the advertiser's placement exclusions.
   6. Click Save.
   7. Ensure that your source file uploaded correctly by checking that it’s in the “Placement exclusion list” column on the Placement exclusions page that you navigate to from the Tools menu. It may take up to 10 minutes for the source file to appear.

Best practices:

• Before sharing a file with advertisers, it’s best to schedule your list with your own account and test that the file is being uploaded correctly. Keep this schedule running for a few days to test that your updates are being uploaded.
• Keep in mind that lists are subject to the standard shared placement exclusion limitation of 65,000 exclusions maximum per list. Note that advertiser accounts are subject to additional exclusion limits based on their targeting usage. Learn more about Google Ads targeting limits
• Work with advertisers on making permanent changes to lists directly on list source files, since advertisers cannot make permanent changes to scheduled lists from Google Ads.

Related links

• Learn other ways to exclude by keyword, topic, demographic group, or site category options.
• Learn how to exclude entire categories of websites based on their content.