Campaign vs Account-Level Placement Exclusions: Which Should You Use and When?

Stop chasing rogue placements. Use the right exclusion level — and stop leaking budget.

Marketers in 2026 manage more automation, more channels, and less tolerance for wasted spend. The recent rollout of account-level placement exclusions in Google Ads (announced Jan 15, 2026) changed the trade-offs between centralized control and campaign-level precision. This article gives clear decision rules, scenarios, and step-by-step workflows so you know when to use campaign exclusions and when to apply exclusions at the account level.

Bottom line first (inverted pyramid)

Short recommendation: Use account-level exclusions as your primary safety net for brand-sensitive inventory and global blocklists (spammy apps, fraudulent domains, or known unsafe YouTube channels). Use campaign-level exclusions for performance tuning, reach experiments, and situational exceptions (new markets, experimental creatives, or client-specific preferences).

This hybrid approach preserves broad inventory control without killing reach or undermining automated formats like Performance Max, Demand Gen, or YouTube. Read on for rules-of-thumb, scenarios, and an operational checklist you can implement this week.

Why this matters in 2026

Three contextual shifts make the exclusion decision urgent now:

• Automation dominates. Google’s Performance Max and Demand Gen formats take inventory-wide signals and optimize across channels. Exclusions are often the only precise manual guardrail left.
• Centralized controls are available. As of Jan 15, 2026, Google Ads supports account-level placement exclusions across Display, YouTube, Performance Max and Demand Gen — solving scale and consistency problems that once forced manual, campaign-by-campaign blocks.
• Privacy and measurement changes. Cookieless tracking and probabilistic attribution shift optimization into aggregated signals; preventing low-quality placements protects signal quality and reduces noisy conversions.

Core trade-offs at a glance

Pick the wrong level and you either squander reach or introduce risk. Here are the core trade-offs:

• Account-level exclusions — Pros: scale, consistency, lowers brand-safety risk, faster operations. Cons: can over-block valuable inventory, brittle for nuanced tests, requires stricter governance.
• Campaign-level exclusions — Pros: surgical control, better for experiments, preserves reach for top-performing campaigns. Cons: operationally heavy, error-prone at scale, inconsistent across teams.

Decision rules: Which level to use and when

Use these practical rules to choose the right level. Treat them as guardrails you can implement immediately.

1. Brand-safety or legal risk? Use account-level. If a placement exposes you to brand damage, regulatory risk, or client reputation concerns, add it to an account-level exclusion list immediately. Example: extremist content, illegal activity sites, or apps with known fraud.
2. Repeat offenders across campaigns? Use account-level. If the same low-quality placement appears in three or more campaigns and produces poor performance (high CPA, low conversion rate), escalate to account-level.
3. Performance outliers confined to one campaign? Use campaign-level first. If a placement underperforms only for a specific creative, audience, or geo, exclude it at the campaign/ad-group level while you investigate.
4. New market or new creative test? Use campaign-level. Preserve reach and avoid accidentally blocking inventory that might perform well with new messaging or locales.
5. High automation (Performance Max/Demand Gen)? Prefer account-level guardrails. These formats can spend widely. Account-level exclusions provide predictable safety without repeatedly editing every campaign.
6. Client-specific rules? Use account-level per client account. If you manage multiple client accounts, keep a master account-level list for hard exclusions and campaign-level lists for client nuances.

Quick decision matrix

• Brand safety or legal: Account-level
• Cross-campaign repeat offenders: Account-level
• Single-campaign performance issue: Campaign-level
• Experimentation or new creative: Campaign-level
• High automation + scale: Account-level first, then refine

Four real-world scenarios and the right choice

Scenario 1 — Global brand-safety incident

Situation: A well-known YouTube channel publishes controversial content that could hurt brand perception across all ads.

Action: Add the channel to an account-level exclusion immediately. Notify stakeholders, then monitor impressions and reach. If the channel’s content is remediated and you want to re-test, allowlist it in a controlled campaign later.

Scenario 2 — Performance leak in one Performance Max campaign

Situation: A single Performance Max campaign shows rising CPA and low conversion quality. Placement reports identify several low-quality apps and niche websites consuming spend.

Action: Because Performance Max pools inventory, start with an account-level exclusion of the worst offenders to stop immediate waste. Simultaneously, create a temporary campaign-level block for more experimental placements while running a refined test that isolates signal changes.

Scenario 3 — Launching a new creative for a local market

Situation: You’re testing a hyper-local creative in one city and want maximal reach; you see a few low CTR placements but don’t want to cut reach before learning.

Action: Use campaign-level exclusions sparingly. Monitor performance for 30–45 days (or 1,000–5,000 impressions). Only escalate to account-level if placements show consistent poor conversion quality or risk.

Scenario 4 — Multi-client agency account with strict client lists

Situation: You manage ten client accounts with overlapping audiences. Several clients require the same blocked list for reputational reasons.

Action: Implement a standardized account-level exclusion list per client account. For shared exclusions, use a master list template and apply it across accounts to keep operations efficient and auditable.

How to build and manage account-level exclusion lists (operational checklist)

Implementing account-level exclusions effectively requires process, not just a single toggle. Use this checklist as your operational playbook.

1. Inventory audit: Export placement reports from Display, YouTube, and Performance Max for the last 30–90 days. Sort by spend, impressions, CTR, conversion rate, and CPA.
2. Flagging rules: Create automated flags in your analytics or BI tool: e.g., placements with CTR < 0.1% and conv. rate < 0.5% or CPA > 2x target are candidates for review.
3. Segment by risk: Separate placements into Brand Risk (legal/brand safety) and Quality Risk (poor performance). Always escalate Brand Risk to account-level immediately.
4. Whitelist check: Before blocking, run a quick cross-check against your top-performing campaigns to avoid blocking a placement that performs well for another creative or geo.
5. Apply account-level list: Use Google Ads account-level exclusions for Brand Risk and repeat offenders. Use descriptive naming and version control (e.g., Exclusions_BrandRisk_2026-01).
6. Document justification: Keep a human-readable log: placement, reason, metrics, owner, and review date. This supports audits and client transparency.
7. Review cadence: Monthly for Quality Risk, quarterly for Brand Risk (or sooner if incidents occur). Maintain a rollback plan for accidental overblocking.

Testing and measurement: avoid false conclusions

Exclusions change audience reach, which can change baseline metrics. Use these measurement best practices to avoid false positives:

• Use controlled experiments: For campaign-level changes, run an A/B split where one identical campaign includes the exclusion and the other doesn’t.
• Look at the right KPIs: Measure quality-adjusted metrics like revenue per impression, lifetime value signal, and post-impression conversions — not just last-click CPA.
• Watch for signal starvation: If you exclude large swaths of inventory from automation-heavy campaigns, performance can temporarily degrade as algorithms relearn. Expect a 7–14 day stabilization window.
• Attribution hygiene: Track changes in assisted conversions and attribution models. An exclusion can shift credit between channels; interpret short-term CPA swings with caution.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

Even experienced teams trip over a few repeatable mistakes. Avoid these:

• Over-blocking early: Blocking thousands of placements at account-level without testing can kill reach. Start conservative and escalate.
• No audit trail: Without documentation, you’ll forget why you excluded a placement and may restore harmful inventory later.
• One-size-fits-all lists: Not all campaigns have the same goals. Keep separate lists for top-of-funnel vs. bottom-of-funnel strategies.
• Ignoring mobile app fraud: App inventory can be a major source of invalid traffic. Use third-party verification and exclude offending apps at the account level.

Integration with other controls

Placement exclusions are part of a broader inventory governance system. Combine exclusions with:

• Content exclusions (sensitive categories, brand safety contexts)
• Placement bidding rules (bid down on less-trusted inventory instead of fully blocking)
• Third-party verification (IVT detection, viewability measurement)
• Creative-level guardrails (different creatives for different environments)

Case study: How a mid-market retailer cut wasted spend fast

In late 2025 we audited a mid-market ecommerce account running Performance Max and Display. The account was bleeding budget to low-quality apps and a set of niche YouTube channels. Here’s what we did:

1. Exported placement and conversion data for 90 days.
2. Set flagging rules: placements with CPA > 1.5x target and conv. rate < 0.3% were evaluated.
3. Applied an account-level exclusion list of 42 placements (apps and channels) for immediate brand-safety and waste reduction.
4. Kept campaign-level blocks for one experimental campaign to preserve reach while monitoring.
5. After 60 days, CPA dropped 18% and conversion quality improved — without meaningful loss in qualified traffic.

This outcome demonstrates the hybrid approach: account-level exclusions handled the urgent waste and brand risk, campaign-level controls kept experimentation alive.

Future-proofing your strategy (2026+)

As ad platforms evolve, your exclusion strategy must too. Consider these forward-looking practices:

• Automated alerting: Use scripts or platform APIs to flag unusual placement performance in real time.
• Dynamic exclusion tiers: Create tiers like Hard Block (brand safety), Soft Block (low priority), and Quarantine (retest after 30 days).
• Governance and access control: Limit who can add account-level exclusions. Use a change approval process to avoid accidental overreach.
• Cross-platform consistency: Maintain shared blocklists across Google Ads, DV360, and other ad platforms where possible.

"Account-level placement exclusions close a long-standing gap in inventory controls for automated campaigns. They give brands consistent guardrails without dismantling automation." — Google Ads rollout notes, Jan 15, 2026

Checklist: Quick playbook you can run today

1. Run a 30–90 day placement export for all campaigns.
2. Apply flagging rules (CTR, conv. rate, CPA thresholds).
3. Create two account-level lists: BrandRisk and RepeatOffenders.
4. Add urgent BrandRisk items to account-level immediately; add RepeatOffenders after cross-checking top-performing campaigns.
5. Use campaign-level exclusions only for tests and geo-specific exceptions.
6. Document all changes and set a 30/60/90-day review cadence.

Key takeaways

• Account-level exclusions are your fast, consistent safety net — especially important with Performance Max and Demand Gen in 2026.
• Campaign-level exclusions are essential for experimentation, localized control, and preserving reach while you learn.
• Use a hybrid approach, backed by metrics-driven flags, documented governance, and routine reviews.
• Expect a short learning window after applying exclusions; use controlled tests to validate impact.

Next steps — implement a practical pilot

If you manage multiple campaigns or clients, run this 30-day pilot:

1. Export placement data and run the flagging rules above.
2. Create an account-level BrandRisk list and add immediate blockers.
3. Pick one Performance Max campaign to monitor closely after the change.
4. Run a controlled campaign-level exclusion test in parallel to measure reach and CPA effects.
5. Review and decide: promote repeat offenders to account-level only after 1–2 cycles of evidence.

Call to action

Ready to stop wasting ad dollars on bad inventory? Start with our free 15-point exclusion audit template — it walks you through the exports, flagging rules, and the exact account-level lists to create. If you manage large accounts or agencies, book a complimentary review with our team and we’ll show where account-level exclusions will save you the most.

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