What is It?
The Account-Level Placement Exclusion tool is an optimization that allows you to exclude the low-performing placements at an account level, thereby mitigating wasted spend. These exclusions apply to all campaigns, including Performance Max.
Operating on a Rule Engine strategy, this tool suggests excluding low-performing placements at the account level based on some pre-defined rules (which are completely customizable).
It also offers insights into the potential wasted ad spend linked to these placements.
You have the option to review and apply the suggestions manually and/or automate the process if the conditions make sense to apply to your account regularly.
Why Use It?
Excluding non-converting placements from an account helps prevent your ads from showing up on these placements on the Display network or YouTube, overriding any campaign-level placement targeting. It helps you reduce wasted ad spend on them, thus conserving your valuable budget for campaigns with greater potential.
Account-level placement exclusions are a great solution especially for campaign types like Performance Max and Smart Display campaigns, as Google doesn't support excluding placements at a campaign level or through a negative list for them. Plus, the tool offers the option of customizing the rules and automating this activity, saving you a ton of time and money.
You can read more about how account-level placement exclusions work here.
Understanding the Results and Filtering Suggestions
The tool shows you non-converting placements along with key performance data and other information like “Placement Type” to give you greater insight into the suggestions. You can use the left menu to filter your results by “Placement Type” for easier analysis.
Click on “View Strategy” and add it as a Rule Engine strategy to your account. You’ll then be directed to the “Conditions” page where you can view/edit the conditions involved in the strategy and save your preferences for future use.
Once satisfied with the suggestions shown, you can exclude them from your account using the “Apply Suggestions” option or even choose to export the results into a spreadsheet to review them at your convenience.
Automating the Process
In case this is an optimization you plan to perform regularly, we recommend that you "automate" the Rule Engine strategy to save time.
You also have the option to just receive email notifications or the results populated in a spreadsheet during each automation run and not allow the system to apply changes automatically, till you gain confidence in the system-generated results.
Important Notes
Limits - As detailed in Google's support page, you can enter a maximum of 20,000 placement exclusions at a time, and a total of 65,000 placement exclusions per account.
URL Limitations - Please note that any URL associated with a Google domain (for example, youtube.com and mail.google.com) can't be added as placement exclusions.
Use Cases
Prevent Wasted Spend from Non-Converting Placements
Problem: Some placements on the Google Display Network generate clicks but no conversions. Excluding them individually across multiple campaigns can be time-consuming
Solution: The tool highlights placements that receive high click volume but no conversions and provides performance metrics for review. After you confirm the suggestions, you can exclude these placements from your entire account with a single action.
This prevents your ads from appearing on low-performing placements and reduces wasted spend.
Managing Placements for Performance Max Campaigns
Problem: Your account contains a large number of placements across different formats such as mobile apps, websites, and YouTube channels.
Solution: The tool allows you to filter placements by “Placement Type” directly from the results panel. By analyzing placements within each category, you can quickly identify trends such as underperforming mobile apps or low-quality websites and take action accordingly.