Excluding placements in the Google Display Network (GDN) isn’t just a hygiene tactic—it’s a strategic lever for improving ROI and campaign efficiency.

GDN Placement Exclusions

Google’s AI-driven placement algorithms are continuously improving. Right now, though, they still lack the nuance to fully understand brand suitability or the nuanced goals of a specific campaign. That’s why the proactive exclusion strategies we detail below are important.

Start by considering the context in which your ads appear. Certain websites or app categories—such as mobile games with accidental clicks or sensationalist news sites—may technically deliver impressions, but they rarely contribute to meaningful engagement.

Looking at your placement reports clues you into patterns that you can take action on: high impressions with low conversions, unusual CTR spikes, or bounce-heavy traffic sources. These indicators often point to placements worth excluding.

Audience intent is crucial. Even on high-traffic, reputable sites, your ad might not belong if the user’s mindset doesn’t match your offer. For example, placing a B2B SaaS ad on a recipe blog won’t align with user expectations, regardless of the domain quality.

Brands with international campaigns should also consider cultural and legal sensitivities. Some domains or categories might be legally acceptable in one country but damaging in another.

GDN exclusions aren’t set-and-forget. They’re part of a feedback loop. Make it routine—monthly at minimum—to review your placements and performance metrics. Couple this with developing your own dynamic exclusion list, informed by your brand’s specific needs, vertical trends, and prior campaign data.

Background on the Google Display Network

With more than a million websites across the globe, the sheer size of the Google Display Network is one of the main reasons why display and retargeting campaigns are such strong marketing tools. Spanning myriad topics and interests, reaching a target audience based on what matters to them has never been easier.

A high-performing campaign leverages the Google Display Network by serving highly targeted ads to users somewhere across the mammoth network of websites and publishers. Odds are, if a user is seeing a display or retargeting ad, they are seeing it on a website in the GDN.

However, there are thousands of websites with which brands do not want to be associated. This is why it’s a good idea for advertisers to consider blocking or excluding certain websites for placements of their ads on the Google Display Network.

Why Exclude Some Websites on the GDN?

It may seem counterintuitive that blocking placements on some websites would lead to better campaign performance, but there are instances where blocking placements can be extremely beneficial. There are two main reasons why advertisers should exclude websites on the Google Display Network.

1. Spammy, Inappropriate, or Unrelated Websites

Considering how large the Internet is, it’s pretty clear that no matter what a person is interested in, there is likely a large community and hundreds of websites dedicated to that interest. This covers a gamut of topics from the very wholesome to the very “adult.”

Advertisers probably don’t have the luxury to consider and evaluate every single website on the GDN. That would take hours. But serving ads on a spammy, inappropriate website (or one that’s just not very related to your brand) can have unintended consequences. For example, say a butcher shop sets up a display campaign, and several of its ads are placed on websites whose audiences are passionate about the vegan lifestyle and animal rights. Not a great match.

2. Saving Money on the GDN

Besides avoiding placements because of a mismatch for relevancy or inappropriate misrepresentations of a brand, the big reason for blocking placements on the display network is to save money. When targeting is dialed in and a retargeting campaign is set up correctly, advertisers can reduce costs by eliminating irrelevant websites.

Say that a SaaS software company runs a display campaign but they don’t exclude a whole ton of websites geared towards teenaged and college-aged gamers. These placements eat away at the ad budget, and they don’t contribute meaningful conversions to the campaign.

By eliminating a whole slew of such websites, advertisers leveraging the GDN can ultimately get more out of their campaigns with lower costs if they refine where ads are being placed.

How to Block Placements on the GDN

Seasoned digital marketers may know about website exclusions, but they can be easily overlooked by less-experienced users of Google Ads.

At the most basic level, placements can be excluded by opening your campaign in Google Ads and clicking on the “Placements” tab. From there, hover the mouse over the top navigation and click on the “Exclusions” tab.

Once in this new area, exclusions can either be selected by website, YouTube channel and video, app, or by entire app categories.

It’s important to keep in mind that Google Ads’ exclusion tools don’t cover every website worth excluding from a campaign, and there are thousands it will miss.

Using an exclusion list can be a mighty weapon for any digital marketer working inside the Google Display Network — one you’ll want to come back to over and over again.

The Definitive Website Exclusion List (Free Resource!)

For years, Google Ads professionals have either had to resort to creating their own exclusion lists or borrowing lists of URLs from fellow marketers.

The team at Direct Online Marketing has created the exclusion list to end all exclusion lists.

This list is the culmination of our two decades as an agency running campaigns for clients in Google Ads. (To supplement our internal list, we also took every list of website exclusions we could find online and compiled it all in the above Google Sheet.)

At a stunning 70,000+ website URLs, this list is quite comprehensive as it covers such categories as dating, mobile, gaming, quizzes, sports, and more. And hey, it’s free!

Because this list can be found as a shareable Google Sheet, we encourage you to share this with anyone who would find it useful.

Notes About High-Cost, Low-Performing Categories

If you’ve taken a look at our list, you’ve probably noticed how we broke out several website categories.

High-Cost, Low-Performing – One of our categories addresses a large number of high-quality and reputable websites and publishers (such as The New York Times, CNN, etc.). We’d generally recommend excluding or considering blocking placements on some of these sites for direct advertisers. The placements may make sense if you’re using GDN just for brand awareness and reach. Because exclusions can be a good method of keeping ad costs down, blocking placements on high-quality websites can help stretch budgets a lot farther.

Key Takeaways About Google Ads Placement Exclusions

• Excluding placements on spammy, inappropriate, or unrelated websites helps maintain brand integrity.
• Advertisers can exclude placements directly in Google Ads so that ads reach their intended audience.
• Blocking select websites can improve ROI by reducing wasted spend on placements that don’t convert.
• Direct Online Marketing offers a comprehensive list of over 70,000 website URLs for exclusion.

Final Thoughts

Using the behemoth Google Display Network is how marketers are finding success with display and retargeting campaigns, but not every website is a good opportunity for advertising. By leveraging our comprehensive list of websites to exclude ad placements, advertisers can easily avoid the negatives of placing ads on inappropriate websites and reduce costs associated with their campaigns.

For those of you who share our vision in making this list the best it can be, we thank you and welcome any submissions.

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Partner Agency before you reach out.

This article was updated to add additional information on April 21st, 2025.

The post Google Ads Placement Exclusion List for Google Display Network (Updated 2025) appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Location Targeting

Do you sell on a local level? Perhaps state-wide, nationwide or do you have a global reach? With Google Ads, you can target the following levels:

• Region
• State
• Congressional District
• City
• City Region
• Neighborhood
• Borough
• District
• County
• Municipality
• Postal Code
• Nielsen® DMA® Region
• Radius around a certain pinpoint
• Airport
• University

Location Exclusions

Have areas you don’t want to reach? Perhaps you know a certain zip code or state is just not profitable. Perhaps you have an agreement with your competition not to poach on their territory. Then, location exclusions can help you, well, exclude areas you do not want to reach. Similar to negative keywords, if a user is based in your excluded location your ads should not display to them.

Location Options

As a paid search advertiser, you also have options for how to target or exclude users. These options can help you expand or refine your targeted/excluded areas. You can target:

These options are also available for excluded locations. Again, depending on your budget and offering, you may want to tailor your setting in order to make the most of your ad dollars.

Location Targeting Best Practices

Below are just a couple reasons how to make the best use of location targeting. Please share your reasons or tactics in the comment section below this post.

• Budget: Keep in mind the budget you have to work with. If you’re on a limited budget (as most advertisers are) and you sell on a national level, you may want to consider advertising in areas you know are your top performers. Then, expand once you have success and more budget to put forth.
• IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications): Consider where your TV, radio, billboard, or print ads are showing and mimic those areas in your online advertising. This will help create a consistent presence for users who are searching online after seeing an offline ad.
• Segment by State: If you are advertising nationwide, consider putting each state in separately, instead of targeting the whole United States. This will enable you to see state-by-state performance, as well as increase or decrease bids on the state level. (See screenshot under Reporting, below.)
  • If you’re targeting multiple states within the U.S. they can be in the same campaign, unless you want/need different ad copy per state. In this case, you would want separate campaigns.
• Segment by Country: As a best practice, you should segment campaigns by different regions, more so when advertising to different countries. Here are a couple of scenarios:
  • If you market to different countries, you will want to create a separate campaign for each country. You can lump them together if the countries have similar psychographics (i.e. values, attitudes, interests, lifestyles), but for the most part, they should be separate, especially if you’re targeting different languages.

Reporting

Geo-location is very helpful, not just from a segmentation standpoint, but also from a reporting and analytic perspective. Organizing campaigns by geography is also beneficial since costs and competition can vary by market. This segmentation can help you see, at-a-glance, what’s working or not working, and optimize for that particular market.

Check out our comprehensive guide to location-based reporting in Pivot Tables: The Unsung Hero of PPC Performance Evaluation.

Also, if you’re still wondering whether PPC or SEO is the right choice for you, we can help with that, too:

Have anything to add? Want to share how you’re utilizing geo-targeting? We’d love to hear from you!

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Before taking our work remote for the time being, DOM team members had been working out of two offices — one in Wheeling, WV, the other in Pittsburgh, PA. So we know how to keep in touch even when we’re not working in the same place.

In fact, at the end of February, we launched our “Working From Home” Beta. In this new program, each one of us gets one day a month to work from home. Little did we know that just a week or so later, we’d all be working from home for a while.

A New Way to Work

All of a sudden, it felt like a scene out of Harry Potter, except where Lord Voldemort is COVID-19 making Harry (that’s me) feel alone and isolated from his friends. Luckily, this is another story. And working from home is less dramatic than the 8-movie saga. The first day was hard, but it got better by the end of the week.

When I started working from home, I realized I’d forgotten a few things at the office, things that I just miss having around and things that keep me accountable. I started a little mental list for the material things: my second monitor, my mouse, my notebook for notes (and doodles), my pens, and my headphones.

The material things were fairly easy to get (and management was even willing to buy us equipment and ship it to our homes if necessary). It took a couple of trips to the office for Mike Criswell and me to get everything I needed. Then my home set up was much better than day 1.

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These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Also, it was super important that I get three of my favorite desk accessories:

1. TIA Picture Holder — Nikki Powley got me this picture holder when I became a very proud auntie! The picture is of me with my two beautiful nieces on my graduation day from West Liberty University.
2. Coffee Mug — I drink coffee, then I exist. What I like most about this mug is that it has a hefty lid and keeps my coffee warm for a long time. And isn’t that saying cute?
3. A Good Onion — That’s a stress ball shaped like an onion. To learn more about the story behind our Good Onions, check out the Careers Page.  I figured the days ahead might be a bit rocky, so it’s nice to have a stress reliever on hand.

Besides the physical stuff, there’s also the personal. I missed my coworkers. There’s a camaraderie in the office that is natural among us just from working all in the same space: We’re our daily neighbors. I’ve come to realize, though, that that togetherness isn’t gone. Our virtual chat app blows up every day with client updates, challenges, and opportunities — but also with random conversations and hilarious oversharing about our new work environments.

Our Home Assistants

They have been on call too:

Auggie — Reviewing our Slack conversations.

Huey — Ready to start the day!

DOM Spotify Playlist

On our first Friday of working from home, we created “The Best Friday Playlist Ever” on Spotify. Some of us call it The Most Eclectic Playlist; that’s what makes it unique. Everyone shared their favorite songs, the ones that help them stay motivated. We’re thankful that someone added “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. We’ve continued to listen and will keep updating the playlist. So far it’s 6 hours long!

DOM Meetings

Nowadays, social interaction is more appreciated than ever. I’ve taken a few screenshots to share the joy:

A Hoodie Meeting

If you didn’t have a hoodie, you had to improvise.

PPC Meeting on St. Patrick’s Day

State of DOM

Working From Home Learnings

We’ve also been discussing the challenges of working from home. Here is some advice from the team:

• Dress like you are going to work — It can sound silly, because why do you need to dress up if you’re not going anywhere? But getting dressed as if you were going into work helps you get in the right mental space.
• Use video calls to communicate as much as possible – This will help you feel connected to coworkers and supervisors. Email and Slack are great, but seeing and hearing your workmates helps maintain those bonds in a more personal way. And remember to use good lighting and a nice background!
• Create your own routine — No matter how minutely or broadly you care to define it, write down a schedule and do your best to stick to it.
• Never underestimate the power of walks — If you are feeling stressed out or it’s hard to concentrate, go on a walk (close to home, down the hall, out in your yard, or walk your dog or cat). Get fresh air and you will feel better.

To everyone out there who is also adjusting to working from home, you are not as alone as it might seem that Lord Voldemort is trying to make you feel. We all are figuring out new ways to be productive and stay sane. Keep an open mind to new ideas. Practice understanding — of both others and yourself. And be kind, always.

The post Working From Home? DOM is On It! appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

“the action or process of causing a group of people to work together effectively as a team, especially by means of activities and events designed to increase motivation and promote cooperation.”

DOM’s Break It Ups

Here at DOM we took this definition to heart and designed our own weekly, 15-minute team activities called “Break It Ups.” The point of these activities is to get us away from our computer screens and clear our minds.  We have a standing event in our office calendar for Wednesdays at 2:40PM that reminds the whole office to pause and interact with our coworkers through fun activities.

Doing these Break It Ups helps the DOM team foster cooperation, motivation, and some healthy competition. They also give the team some time to relax and reenergize toward our work. We often feel more productive and eager to tackle our most difficult projects afterwards.

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Team Building = Team Bonding

We recognize that the team spends a large portion of their days at the office; Break It Ups are a great way to get to know the coworkers we spend all our time with. Since starting DOM Break it Ups, we have developed stronger connections between the branches of the office as well as our teammates.

Haley Steed from our Organic Team told FitSmallBusiness.com that our Break It Ups are “.. a great way to break out of our weekly routine, and really laugh and bond with our colleagues. While it may seem silly (…), it really helps create an air of camaraderie in the office.”

Activities have included:  Scattergories, seeing which team could build the biggest tower out of spaghetti and marshmallows, and even Cards Against Humanity.

Team Activity Favorites

A DOM favorite has been Pictionary where we compete in teams to guess what each other are drawing. We set a timer and if nobody guesses by the time is up, that team loses out on the round. We may or may not fight over which team gets the graphic designer on their team.

The back to back drawing contest also brought out a competitive edge in us which was able to distract us for a few minutes. One of our PPC managers, Leland Reed, said this about his experience participating in the back to back drawing contest:

“One of my favorite things we’ve done for Break It Up is the back to back drawing exercise. It was a great way to explore the trust we have in each other and also get our minds off of work, while still dealing with some problem-solving situations. It also doesn’t hurt that my team dominated the competition and ended up with an almost perfect drawing.”

We love trying new activities every week and are always on the lookout for new ideas. Please share your ideas with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram!

Looking To Grow? Idea Driven? Not A Jerk?
You Might Be A Great Fit For DOM.
Check Out Our Current Openings.

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