How to Use Google Ads Account-Level Placement Exclusions: A Step-by-Step Playbook

Hook: Stop Wasting Budget on Bad Inventory — Centralize Your Blocks

If you manage large accounts or run automated formats like Performance Max and Demand Gen, you know the pain: campaign-level exclusions are tedious, error-prone, and never comprehensive. Google’s January 2026 rollout of account-level placement exclusions fixes that — but only if you use it as part of a disciplined, measurement-first workflow. This playbook shows where to implement exclusions, which placements to block first, and how to measure the real impact across campaigns.

The 2026 Context: Why Account-Level Exclusions Matter Now

Late 2025 and early 2026 cemented two advertising realities: Google is rolling out more automated inventory (Performance Max, Demand Gen, expanded YouTube formats) and advertisers need centralized guardrails to protect ad inventory quality and brand safety. On January 15, 2026, Search Engine Land reported Google’s new capability to apply placement exclusions at the account level — a direct response to advertiser demand for fewer management headaches and stronger cross-campaign controls.

“Once a placement is excluded at the account level, Google Ads automatically prevents spend on those websites, apps, or YouTube placements across all eligible campaigns.” — Search Engine Land, Jan 15, 2026

In short: automation scales reach and conversions, account-level exclusions scale guardrails. Combine them correctly and you keep the upside of automation while reducing leakage to low-quality inventory.

Executive Playbook Overview

This playbook is organized into four executable phases you can run this week:

1. Discover — Find problematic placements using reports and data.
2. Triage — Apply temporary campaign-level blocks and validate.
3. Deploy — Move proven exclusions to an account-level placement list.
4. Measure & Maintain — Test impact, iterate, and automate detection.

Phase 1 — Discover: Where to Look First

Start with data. The most reliable place to find placement candidates is the Where Ads Showed report. Use these data sources and queries:

• Google Ads "Where ads showed" (placements) segmented by campaign and asset type (Display, YouTube, Discovery, Performance Max).
• Analytics & engagement: landing page bounce, session duration, goal completion in GA4 or server-side analytics.
• Third-party signals: IVT alerts from ad verification vendors, brand-safety scores, and publisher quality lists.
• Financial thresholds: list placements by spend and CPA over a recent period (14–28 days).

Sort placements by spend then by conversion performance. Low-spend, low-impact placements are less urgent. Focus first on placements that have:

• Spent >1% of account spend in the lookback window
• CPA > 150–200% of account average (or conversion rate < 50% of account avg)
• CTR < 0.2% combined with low viewability or high bounce rate
• High invalid traffic or flagged by verification partners

Quick Discovery Checklist

• Pull placements for last 14–28 days, filter by spend > 0.5% of account spend.
• Flag placements with CPA > 2x, CR < 0.5x account CR, or CTR < 0.2%.
• Cross-reference with brand-safety categories and IVT alerts.

Phase 2 — Triage: Block Fast, Validate Faster

Don’t push everything to the account level at once. Use a staged approach:

1. Apply campaign- or ad-group-level exclusions to isolate impact quickly. This is reversible within the campaign scope.
2. Monitor for 7–14 days to validate whether conversions, CPA, CTR, and ROAS improve or whether spend shifts to other placements.
3. If the triage block improves CPA without a meaningful drop in conversions, mark it as a candidate for account-level exclusion.

Why triage first? Automation-driven campaigns (especially Performance Max) reallocate spend dynamically. A campaign-level exclusion gives you a controlled experiment to ensure exclusion removes bad inventory, not simply displaces conversions to other channels without benefit.

Phase 3 — Deploy: Create and Manage Account-Level Placement Lists

Once a placement proves consistently harmful, move it to an account-level exclusion list. Follow best practices for naming, scope, and governance.

Where to implement

• Google Ads UI: Shared Library > Exclusions (or the new Account Exclusions area following the Jan 2026 update).
• Google Ads Editor: For bulk uploads and offline editing—handy for large lists.
• Google Ads API: Use shared negative placement lists to automate syncing from your quality-control pipeline.

Naming & Structure

• Use a consistent naming convention: "AL-Exclusions-BrandSafety-YYYYMM".
• Separate lists by reason: BrandSafety, IVT, AppQuality, LowPerformance, YouTubeChannels.
• Limit each list to a single rationale — it makes audit and rollback easier.

Migration Flow

1. Confirm triage results (7–14 days).
2. Export validated placements to a CSV.
3. Create an account-level placement exclusion list in Google Ads and import CSV.
4. Document change in change log (who, why, when) and label the list accordingly.

Which Placements to Block First — A Prioritized List (Practical)

Start by blocking categories that historically deliver low-quality traffic or brand risk. Below are prioritized categories and concrete examples of the types of placements to exclude first.

Priority 1 — High-Risk & High-Spend Offenders

• Placements with high spend and CPA > 2x account average.
• Domains flagged by verification partners for IVT or policy violations.
• YouTube channels or playlists with historically low viewability and high drop-off.

Priority 2 — Brand-Safety & Content Risks

• Adult, extremist, or gambling adjacent content (unless you target those verticals).
• User-generated pages with unpredictable context or toxicity risk.
• Free streaming/illegal content aggregators.

Priority 3 — App & Low-Quality Publisher Types

• Single-function apps (flashlight, ringtone, wallpaper) known for high CTR but low conversions.
• Ad-heavy gaming apps that serve interstitials with poor viewability.
• File download portals, torrent or warez sites.

Priority 4 — Strategic Blocks

• Competitor-owned websites or channels (protect brand bidding strategies).
• Countries or regions where you don’t convert or where fraud risk is high.

Measuring Impact Across Campaigns — Metrics & Methods

Exclusions are only as valuable as their measurable impact. Use a three-tier measurement approach: immediate signals, lift analysis, and long-term effectiveness.

Immediate Signals (Day 0–14)

• Spend shift: Did spend move to other placements? Monitor daily spend by campaign.
• Viewability & CTR: Look for improved viewability and stable-or-increasing CTRs.
• Conversion volume: Short-term dip is expected if the exclusion cut poor but high-volume placements; track conversion trend line.

Lift Analysis (Day 14–42)

• Compare CPA, ROAS, and conversion rate for two comparable windows: pre-exclusion and post-exclusion.
• Use a control set of campaigns (that kept the placement) or create randomized audience/campaign experiments where possible.
• Key thresholds: aim for CPA improvement >10–20% without meaningful loss in conversion volume; if conversion volume drops >20%, investigate displacement.

Long-Term Tracking (Month 2–6)

• Monitor account-level KPIs and compare quarter-over-quarter for sustained CPA and ROAS improvements.
• Watch for behavioral shifts: automation may find new inventory; run monthly placement audits.
• Integrate with your attribution solution (GCLID, Ads Data Hub, or your server-side analytics) to measure downstream LTV changes.

What to Report

• Placement exclusions added (list & reason), date added, and who approved.
• Baseline vs post-exclusion: spend, impressions, conversions, CPA, ROAS, viewability, invalid traffic percentage.
• Net impact on overall account conversions and cost per conversion.

Example: A Realistic Case Study (Composite of 50+ Accounts)

Situation: A national e‑commerce brand ran Performance Max across search, display, and YouTube. In a two-week audit we found 12 placements (mostly apps and streaming domains) that accounted for 6% of spend but produced 0.4% of conversions and a CPA 3x higher than account average.

Action: We triaged by applying campaign-level exclusions to the impacted Performance Max campaigns for 14 days. CPA fell 18% and conversions were down 6%. We moved the list to an account-level exclusion, labeled it AL-Exclusions-App-Stream-202601, and monitored.

Result (90 days): Account CPA improved 12% and ROAS rose 8%. Conversions normalized within 30 days as automation reallocated budget to higher-quality inventory. Quarterly maintenance removed 3 domains that recovered; 2 more were added.

Takeaway: Short controlled triage + rapid deployment to account-level exclusions preserved campaign volume and improved efficiency.

Automation & Governance: Keep Lists Manageable

Automation helps keep exclusions current. Build lightweight automations:

• Daily script that flags placements with 7-day spend > X and conversion rate < Y.
• Weekly review workflow that pushes validated flags to a staging CSV for human review.
• Monthly sync that imports approved staging CSVs into account exclusion lists via Ads Editor or API.

Governance tips:

• Document the owner and review cadence for each exclusion list.
• Keep lists segmented by rationale to speed audits and rollbacks.
• Archive lists annually and maintain a change log for compliance purposes.

Common Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them

• Over-blocking: Blanket exclusions can reduce scale. Use staged deployment and review conversion impacts.
• Not measuring displacement: Automation reallocates spend — measure holistically, not placement-by-placement.
• Poor naming & governance: If you can’t explain why a placement was blocked, don’t add it. Keep reasons and owners auditable.
• Relying only on UI: For large accounts, use Editor or API for reliable, auditable bulk changes.

Advanced Strategies (2026 & Beyond)

As the industry moves toward privacy-first measurement and more automation, account-level exclusions become part of a broader control fabric:

• Integrate verification signals: Feed IVT and brand-safety signals into your exclusion workflow using Ads Data Hub or your DMP/warehouse.
• Use propensity models: Use historical placement-level conversion propensity to predict future leakage and preemptively exclude risky placements.
• Combine with audience-level controls: Exclusions are one dimension; use audience exclusions (e.g., negative custom segments) to further refine who sees ads on acceptable placements.
• APIs & CI/CD for exclusions: Treat exclusion lists like code — test in staging accounts, deploy via automated releases, and maintain version history.

Checklist: What to Do This Week

1. Pull a placements report for the last 28 days and filter by spend >0.5% of account spend.
2. Flag placements with CPA > 2x and CTR < 0.2% for triage.
3. Apply campaign-level exclusions for 7–14 days and monitor results.
4. Create account-level exclusion lists for validated placements and import them to Google Ads.
5. Set a monthly audit schedule and assign list owners.

FAQ

Will account-level exclusions reduce Performance Max performance?

Short term, you may see spend reallocation and temporary conversion dips. In our experience, disciplined triage and gradual deployment avoid material performance loss and typically improve CPA and ROAS after 2–6 weeks.

Can I automate adding placements to the account-level list?

Yes. Use Ads Editor for bulk imports or the Google Ads API/shared negative placement lists for automated workflows. Always keep a human-in-the-loop for final approval.

How often should I audit account-level exclusions?

Monthly for active lists, quarterly for archival review. Immediate re-check after any big strategy change (new markets, new product launches, or when you change automated bidding strategies).

Final Takeaways

• Account-level placement exclusions are not a panacea. They are a powerful control that needs data-driven triage and governance.
• Stage, validate, deploy: Triage at campaign level, validate impact, then move proven blocks to account-level lists.
• Measure holistically: Check for displacement effects, monitor automation reallocations, and tie exclusions to conversion and LTV metrics.

Call to Action

Ready to stop wasting budget on low-quality placements? Download our customizable account-level placement exclusion CSV template and a 30-day audit script, or book a 30-minute audit with our PPC team to get a prioritized exclusion list for your account. Click here to schedule — we’ll show the exact placements you should exclude first and the measurable impact to expect in the next 30 days.

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