What Are Content Exclusions in Google Ads and Account-Level Exclusions?

Content exclusions in Google Ads are a feature that allows you to exclude certain types of websites and content from displaying your ads. This ensures that your ads are shown to the right audience and that your advertising budget is used efficiently.

Account-level exclusions are settings that let you exclude specific categories of websites or keywords across your entire Google Ads account, not just at the campaign level. This allows for easier account management by providing more control and avoiding duplicate exclusions.

Why Use Content Exclusions in Google Ads?

Google Ads campaigns can be costly, so it’s essential to use your budget as effectively as possible. Utilizing account-level exclusions can help you achieve better results by enabling you to exclude irrelevant keywords, locations, and thematic categories that might lower your campaign’s performance.

In addition, content exclusions help prevent your ads from appearing on websites that could negatively impact your brand image. For instance, if your company sells luxury products, you may not want your ads to appear on sites that offer low-quality or counterfeit versions of your products.

What Account-Level Exclusions Should You Implement?

• Geographic exclusions: These allow you to exclude ads from displaying in certain regions or countries. This way, your ads are only targeted at regions where your business operates.
• Site exclusions: You can exclude specific websites where your ads shouldn’t appear. This could include sites with inappropriate content or competitor websites.
• Keyword exclusions: This lets you exclude particular keywords that aren’t beneficial to your ad campaign. For example, keywords that don’t drive enough clicks or are too costly.
• Time-based exclusions: These allow you to restrict ads from showing during certain hours or days of the week, focusing your advertising on times when potential customers are most active.
  
  

How Do Account-Level Exclusions Impact Ad Performance?

Adding the right exclusions can significantly improve your ad performance by:

• Enhancing targeting accuracy: Exclusions help you focus more on your target audience, increasing the likelihood that your ads reach the right users.
• Reducing costs: By using exclusions, you avoid spending money on clicks from users who aren’t interested in your products or services.
• Increasing ad efficiency: Limiting ad placements in inappropriate locations allows for better use of your ad budget and helps focus on more valuable advertising channels.
  
  

Exclusions in Practice

How do you add an exclusion list to your Google Ads account? Once logged in, navigate to the „Tools and Settings” section, then go to „Placement Exclusion Lists” where you can add a new list.

Using exclusions in Google Ads is one of our best practices in campaign management. At Yetiz, our exclusion list contains over 900,000 entries, allowing us to optimize our clients’ ad budgets as much as possible. We maintain this list monthly, adding new exclusions and keeping it up to date.

Keep in mind that over time, some exclusions may become „blocked” – for example, if a YouTube account disappears, it will no longer be possible to exclude it. In such cases, the system will inform you that the exclusion is „unknown.”

We also analyze the ad accounts of our new clients to see where their ads are displayed. We often notice similar patterns worth addressing:

• Cartoons: Parents, often the target of ads, sometimes hand their phones to their children who watch cartoons. Unfortunately, these clicks are often accidental or attempts to skip the ad.
• Games: On both Android and iOS, many free-to-play games are ad-driven, and developers often hide the “x” button in creative ways, leading to accidental clicks.
• YouTube: We carefully select the channels where ads are shown, often excluding gaming channels, cartoons, and content in certain languages on YouTube.
  
  

A Custom Exclusion List for You

Want to make your campaigns more effective? Start with the best practice of using an exclusion list! We’ve prepared a list of 5,000 entries for you—a great starting point if you haven’t used one before, or an excellent addition to your existing strategy.

The contact form previously available is now inactive. If you’d like to receive the 5,000-entry exclusion list, feel free to contact us directly.