Google Ads placement exclusions: levels, lists, apps and limits

Google Ads placement exclusions stop your ads from showing on specific websites, mobile apps, YouTube channels or YouTube videos. You can set them at the account level, where they cover every campaign in the account including Performance Max and Demand Gen, or at the campaign and ad group level for Display and Video campaigns, and you can group them into shared lists that several campaigns use at once.

They are the bluntest brand-safety and waste-control tool in the account: a named list of places you never want to pay for. This guide covers where exclusions apply, the difference between the levels, how lists work, how to find the placements that actually served, how to handle apps, how exclusions differ from content suitability settings, and the limits you will run into.

What placement exclusions are and where they apply

A placement is any location where a Google ad can appear outside Google Search results: a website or a single page on it, a mobile app, a YouTube channel or a YouTube video. A placement exclusion tells Google Ads not to serve your ads there, whatever other targeting would have matched.

Exclusions affect inventory on the Google Display Network, YouTube and Google video partners. Since March 2024, account-level exclusions also apply to the Search Partner Network, which means they reach Performance Max, App, Search, Shopping and Smart campaigns when those serve on partner sites. They do not affect ads on Google Search results pages themselves, because Search is not treated as a placement.

Excluding a placement is different from removing one. If you targeted a site and then remove it from your targeting, your ads can still appear there through audiences, topics or optimised targeting. Only an exclusion blocks it.

Display campaigns

Display campaigns support exclusions at campaign, ad group and account level. Google is moving Display campaigns into Demand Gen as Google Display Network campaigns: a migration tool began a phased rollout in June 2026, new Display campaigns will later be created only inside Demand Gen, and remaining eligible campaigns will eventually be migrated automatically. Placement exclusions are supported in Demand Gen, but campaign-level content suitability exclusions block migration and have to be moved to the account level first.

YouTube and Video campaigns

Specific YouTube channels and videos can be excluded at campaign or ad group level in Video campaigns, and at account level through content suitability. YouTube TV channels can also be excluded at account level.

Demand Gen

Demand Gen manages content exclusions at the account level. Topic and placement exclusions are not generally available at the campaign or ad group level, so an account-level exclusion or list is the way to keep Demand Gen ads off a site or channel.

Performance Max

Performance Max placement exclusions are managed at the account level. Anything on the account-level exclusion list applies to every Performance Max campaign in the account, along with every other campaign.

Account-level vs campaign-level exclusions

The two levels do the same job with different reach, so the choice is mostly about scope.

Setting account-level exclusions

1. Open the Tools menu and choose Content suitability.
2. Go to Advanced settings and find Excluded placements.
3. Enter a URL, or search for a channel, video or app. Leave out "www." so the exclusion covers subdomains and subpages. To paste many at once, choose Enter multiple placements.
4. Save. New exclusions typically take effect within 12 hours, and you can confirm the change in the account's Change history.

An account can hold up to 65,000 account-level placement exclusions, separate from the exclusions in lists, campaigns and ad groups.

Setting campaign or ad group exclusions

1. In the Campaigns menu, open the "Audiences, keywords, and content" drop-down and choose Content.
2. Select Exclusions, then Edit exclusions.
3. Choose the level: Campaign, Ad group or Account.
4. Enter placements by URL, app ID or video ID, or choose "Use placement exclusion list" to attach an existing list.
5. Save. A campaign-level exclusion applies to every ad group in that campaign.

All levels add up: a single ad group can carry at most 128,000 placement exclusions in total, counting account, list, campaign and ad group exclusions together.

A sensible split: put places you never want any ad on (inappropriate sites, known junk apps) at account level, and keep campaign-level exclusions for placements that are fine for one campaign but wrong for another, such as a children's channel that suits a toy brand's awareness campaign but not its B2B wholesale campaign.

Placement exclusion lists

A placement exclusion list is a named, shared set of exclusions that you build once and attach to many campaigns. Editing the list updates every campaign that uses it, which is the main reason to prefer lists over pasting the same domains into each campaign.

• An account can have 20 shared placement exclusion lists, each holding up to 65,000 exclusions.
• A manager account can create 3 placement exclusion lists of up to 250,000 exclusions each. These apply only at account level to the accounts beneath it, which suits agencies or groups that keep one brand-safety baseline across many accounts.
• Scheduled lists can be fed from a file. Changes have to be made in the source file, because permanent edits to a scheduled list cannot be made inside Google Ads, and a new scheduled list may take up to 10 minutes to appear.

Lists work best when each one has a single purpose, for example "apps with accidental clicks", "sites unsuitable for the brand" and "channels outside the target audience". Purpose-built lists are easier to review and easier to detach from one campaign when a decision changes.

How to find placements that served

Exclusions should come from evidence, not guesses. Google Ads shows where ads actually appeared.

The Where ads showed report

For Display, Video and Demand Gen campaigns, the Where ads showed report lists the placements that served, with the usual performance columns. A practical review routine:

1. Pick a date range long enough to have meaningful clicks, such as the last 30 or 90 days.
2. Sort by cost, then by clicks.
3. Look for placements with spend and no conversions, unfamiliar domains, apps with unusually high click-through rates (often a sign of accidental taps) and channels whose content does not fit the brand.
4. Check the unfamiliar ones before excluding. A placement with a strange name can be a legitimate local publisher.
5. Add confirmed exclusions to the right list or level, then note the date so you can compare before and after.

The Performance Max placement report

Performance Max has its own placement report. Open Report editor under Insights and reports and choose the predefined Performance Max campaigns placement template, or build a custom report with the Performance Max placement attribute as a row and Impr. as a column. This report shows impressions per placement, not conversions, so it is a brand-safety check rather than a performance tool. Placements are grouped into types such as webpage, mobile app and YouTube video, and a Google Owned and Operated row combines impressions from Google's own properties. If the report looks thin, the campaign may simply be serving mostly on channels where placements do not apply, such as Search.

Excluding apps and app categories

Mobile apps are excluded with an app ID in a fixed format:

• iOS apps: mobileapp::1- followed by the App Store ID, for example mobileapp::1-1286046770.
• Android apps: mobileapp::2- followed by the package name, for example mobileapp::2-com.google.fpl.mechahamster.

The App Store ID is the number at the end of an app's App Store URL, and the Android package name is the id value in its Google Play URL.

Content suitability's Advanced settings also let you exclude categories of placements as well as individual ones. Category exclusions are useful for cutting broad groups of inventory, but they are not airtight, so some related placements can still get through. Review the Where ads showed report after adding a category exclusion and add individual exclusions for anything that slipped past.

Before excluding all apps, check whether apps are actually costing you. For some products, app inventory converts; for others it mostly produces accidental taps. The decision should come from your own placement and conversion data.

Content suitability settings vs placement exclusions

Placement exclusions block named places. Content suitability settings block kinds of content wherever it appears. They live on the same Content suitability page and work together.

• Inventory type. Three levels: Maximum (all inventory, with highly sensitive content automatically excluded), Moderate (excludes strong profanity, dramatised violence and sexually suggestive themes) and Limited (excludes more sensitive content, including moderate profanity, and may limit reach). It applies to YouTube, the Display Network and Google video partners, but not to App or YouTube Sponsorship campaigns; YouTube Sponsorship campaigns run on Moderate inventory automatically.
• Excluded content types. Live streaming videos, YouTube videos embedded on other websites, and below-the-fold placements (Display only).
• Content labels. DL-G, DL-PG, DL-T, DL-MA and Not yet labeled, for the Display Network and Google video partners. YouTube ads stopped using digital content labels from September 2024. Selecting every label stops the campaign from running.
• Excluded content keywords. Up to 1,000 at account level, to avoid content about specific terms.

Use suitability settings for the broad rule ("nothing with strong profanity") and placement exclusions for specific places that pass those rules but still do not suit you.

Limits and what cannot be excluded

• Google-owned domains. URLs on a Google domain, such as mail.google.com, cannot be added as placement exclusions.
• All of YouTube. You cannot exclude youtube.com as a whole as a campaign-level placement, particularly for Performance Max.
• Country domains are separate. example.com and example.co.th need their own exclusions.
• Subdomains on search partners. Leaving off "www." covers subdomains, subsites and subpages on Display, but subdomain, subsite and subpage exclusions do not work on the Search Partner Network.
• Search results. Placement exclusions do not stop ads on Google Search itself. Use negative keywords for that.
• Counts. 65,000 account-level exclusions, 20 lists of 65,000, and no more than 128,000 exclusions applying to any one ad group.
• Timing. Allow up to about 12 hours before judging whether an exclusion is working.

Every exclusion also narrows the inventory available to automated bidding. A long list built from a few days of data can remove placements that would have converted given time, so base exclusions on enough spend to be meaningful.

Placement exclusions in the Thai market

Most of the mechanics are the same in Thailand, but a few details change how you review placements:

• Thai domain names and transliteration. Thai publishers may use romanised names that look unfamiliar in a placement report. Open the site before excluding it, since a strange-looking domain may be a large local news or lifestyle portal.
• .co.th and .com versions. Some brands run both. Because each country domain needs its own exclusion, add both versions when you want a site gone.
• Thai-language YouTube channels. Channel names may be in Thai script. Exclude by channel rather than by guessing from a title, and check a few videos to confirm what the channel actually publishes.
• Mobile-heavy inventory. Where most impressions come from phones, app placements can make up a large share of Display and Demand Gen delivery. Review the app rows in the placement report regularly, using the mobileapp:: formats above for any you exclude.

FAQ

Do placement exclusions work on Performance Max?

Yes, Performance Max placement exclusions are managed at the account level, and account-level exclusions apply to every campaign in the account, including Performance Max. Use the Performance Max placement report to see where those campaigns served.

How many placement exclusions can I add in Google Ads?

An account can hold 65,000 account-level placement exclusions plus 20 shared lists of up to 65,000 each. No single ad group can have more than 128,000 placement exclusions applied from all levels combined.

Can I exclude Gmail or other Google properties?

No, URLs on Google-owned domains such as mail.google.com cannot be added as placement exclusions. In the Performance Max placement report, impressions on Google's own properties are combined into a Google Owned and Operated row.

How long do placement exclusions take to work?

New placement exclusions typically take effect within 12 hours. You can confirm the change was saved in the account's Change history.

What is the difference between placement exclusions and content suitability?

Placement exclusions block specific named sites, apps, channels and videos, while content suitability settings block types of content wherever they appear. Most accounts need both: suitability for the broad rules and exclusions for specific places.

Placement hygiene is ongoing work rather than a one-time list. The display advertising team at Relevant Audience refines placements and creative weekly, the YouTube ads service connects every campaign to proper conversion tracking, and the wider Google Ads management service covers Performance Max and Demand Gen accounts. If you want a second look at where your ads are showing, that is a good place to start.