How to Apply Account-Level Placement Exclusions to Protect YouTube & Facebook Video Campaigns

Stop wasting ad dollars on unsafe or low-performing placements — protect YouTube & Facebook campaigns with account-level exclusions

If you manage video ads, you know the pain: campaigns spend quickly, automation optimizes for conversions, and suddenly your creative appears next to content that hurts brand trust or delivers terrible performance. In 2026, account-level placement exclusions are the fastest, most scalable way to enforce brand safety and inventory controls across YouTube and Facebook ads without breaking automated formats like Performance Max or Advantage+.

In this guide you’ll get step-by-step workflows, ready-to-use exclusion lists, platform implementation steps (Google Ads & Meta), and the exact metrics to watch after applying exclusions so you can measure impact and iterate.

Why account-level placement exclusions matter now (2026 context)

Late 2025 and early 2026 accelerated two trends that make account-level exclusions essential:

• Automation-first buying: Google’s Jan 15, 2026 announcement of account-level placement exclusions reflects advertiser demand for centralized guardrails as machine-learning campaigns (Performance Max, Demand Gen, Advantage+ formats) take larger budget share.
• Fragmented inventory and new formats: CTV/connected-TV and short-form video placements expanded in 2024–2026. These environments have different risk profiles; manual campaign-level blocking is no longer scalable.

Account-level exclusions give you a single source of truth: set it once, and it prevents spend across eligible campaigns. But they only work when paired with a disciplined exclusion strategy and measurement plan.

Common exclusion lists — fast templates you can apply today

Start with these practical block lists. Use them as a baseline and customize for brand sensitivity, product category, and regional regulations.

1) Brand-safety category blocks

• Adult / sexually explicit content
• Illegal activities / drug-related content
• Hate speech / violent content
• Gambling & betting
• Political content (where relevant or regulated)
• Misinformation / disinformation sources

2) Domain & channel block list (YouTube + web domains)

Typical fields: domain, reason, first blocked date, owner, platform (Google/Meta). Example entries:

• example-lowqualitynews.com — clickbait / low editorial standards
• AnyYouTubeChannelID12345 — repetitive spammy channels
• example-app.com — link farm or malicious app redirect

3) App / publisher bundle IDs

Block specific mobile apps or app bundles for in-app inventory. Useful when you discover a pattern of low viewability or invalid traffic in specific apps.

4) Inventory-type exclusions

• Exclude in-stream (skippable) vs. non-skippable — depending on KPIs
• Exclude overlay or discovery placements
• Exclude Audience Network or third-party networks if quality is poor

5) Performance-driven exclusion rules

Create an operational list of placements that consistently underperform — e.g., domains or channels over the past 30 days with CPA > 2x target or video completion rate < 25% for >3 reporting periods.

Step-by-step: Build a reusable account-level block list

Start with a simple spreadsheet that becomes your canonical block list. Below is a practical template you can adopt immediately.

1. Columns to include: platform, placement_type (domain/channel/app), identifier (domain or channel ID), reason, priority (block now / review), owner, date_added, last_reviewed.
2. Populate from discovery: export placement performance from Google Ads and Facebook Ads for the last 30–90 days. Flag placements with poor metrics (high CPA, low viewability, invalid traffic alerts).
3. Enrich with third-party feeds: add entries from brand-safety vendors (DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science) or industry block lists that are relevant to your vertical.
4. Prioritize: triage into immediate block, monitor, or ignore. Immediate blocks become account-level exclusions.
5. Review cadence: set calendar reminders for monthly review and quarterly audit (owner assigned).

How to implement account-level exclusions — platform workflows

Below are practical, step-by-step workflows you can follow today for Google Ads (including YouTube) and Facebook (Meta) Ads. These steps are written for 2026 platform layouts; UI labels may vary slightly by account. Always verify in your account UI.

Google Ads — apply account-level placement exclusions (Performance Max, Demand Gen, YouTube, Display)

1. Open Google Ads → Tools & settings → Shared library → Exclusions (called "Placement exclusions" or "Account-level placement exclusions").
2. Click “Create” → choose "Account-level placement exclusions".
3. Upload your block list (domains, app IDs, YouTube channel IDs). Use CSV: column headers platform, identifier, reason.
4. Confirm scope: check that exclusions will apply to Performance Max, Demand Gen, YouTube, and Display. Toggle any campaign exceptions if required.
5. Save and monitor. Google will prevent spend on blocked placements for eligible campaigns.

Notes & pro tips:

• Google may not allow blocking at account level for certain legacy campaign types — verify the campaign compatibility list.
• When blocking YouTube channels, prefer channel IDs over names to avoid false matches.
• Use campaign-level overrides only for controlled experiments — keep the canonical rule at account-level.

Meta (Facebook & Instagram) — create and apply block lists

1. Open Meta Business Manager → Brand Safety → Block Lists (or Inventory Filters, depending on your account layout).
2. Create a new Block List: choose the type (domains, publishers, apps) and upload a CSV with domain or publisher IDs and reasons.
3. Name the Block List clearly (e.g., "Global Brand Safety - Q1 2026").
4. Apply the Block List to the ad accounts: Settings → Ad Accounts → Select Block Lists to apply at the account level.
5. For placement types, use Inventory Filters to exclude Audience Network, Instant Articles, or in-stream where needed.

Notes & pro tips:

• Meta supports multiple block lists; use naming conventions and ownership so teams don’t overwrite each other.
• Some placements (e.g., Reels, Feed) may require format-specific controls — use placement-level settings for fine-grained control.

YouTube-specific: channel, video, and content label exclusions

YouTube inventory is managed through Google Ads. To protect your placements:

1. In Google Ads, upload YouTube channel IDs or video IDs to your account-level exclusions (see steps above).
2. If you rely on contextual safety, use content category exclusions (sensitive categories) and exclude specific content labels.
3. Use YouTube Content Exclusions in campaign settings to avoid specific types of content (e.g., live streams, gaming) if they conflict with brand guidelines.

Note: if you want a deeper look at video workflows and how content routing affects inventory, see this cloud video workflow for creators and teams.

Syncing exclusions across platforms

Manual uploads work, but for scaled accounts do one of the following:

• Use the Google Ads API and Meta Marketing API to automate list updates from a centralized database (your spreadsheet or a data warehouse).
• Use an ad ops platform or DSP that supports shared block lists across channels. Many vendors in 2026 offer unified block-list management with automated sync to Google/Meta.
• Integrate third-party verification partners (DoubleVerify, IAS) to get programmatic signals and auto-block flagged placements — build an incident playbook so teams can act quickly; see an incident response template for an example of operational runbooks and escalation steps.

Metrics to watch after applying exclusions — immediate and downstream signals

Blocking placements will change where your ads serve and can change measured performance in counterintuitive ways. Track all of the following for 14–90 days post-change.

Immediate (0–14 days)

• Spend redistribution: watch daily spend vs. pacing. Exclusions can concentrate spend into other pools and accelerate pacing.
• Impression share & reach: a small decrease in impressions is expected; watch reach to ensure you’re not damaging scale.
• CPM/CPV: CPMs often increase when lower-quality inventory is removed; monitor to see if the lift is justified by conversions.

Mid-term (15–45 days)

• Click-through rate (CTR) and view rates: should improve if you removed low-engagement placements.
• Conversion rate (CVR) & CPA: primary metric. A drop in CPA or lift in ROAS validates the exclusions.
• Video quartile completion rates: particularly for YouTube — these should trend up if placement quality improved.

Long-term (45–90 days)

• Lifetime value (LTV) and retention: downstream user quality can change if exclusions removed low-quality converters.
• Incremental reach & frequency: ensure you’re not burning organic reach by over-blocking; measure frequency caps.
• Invalid traffic (IVT) & brand-safety incidents: verify third-party reports; exclusions should lower IVT alerts.

Benchmarks & red flags

• If CPA rises >20% with no uplift in quality metrics (session duration, retention), rollback or re-evaluate the list.
• If CPM rises but CVR improves proportionally so ROAS is stable or better — that’s a positive trade-off.
• Watch for audience overlap spikes (frequency jumps) after exclusions — consider expanding target pools or testing lookalike expansion.

How to test exclusions safely: A/B (control) approach

1. Create two identical campaigns (or split budgets): one applying the account-level block list and one without the exclusions (control).
2. Run both for a statistically significant window — minimum 14–28 days depending on spend — and compare CPA, ROAS, and view rates.
3. Use lift measurement or incrementality tools when higher-fidelity measurement is needed (especially for brand lift and CTV).

If you're formalising the experiment process, pair your control test with an audit-style checklist and lead capture check so stakeholders get consistent reports and you can iterate faster.

Advanced strategies & 2026 trends to incorporate

• AI-driven contextual signals: In 2026, many platforms provide robust contextual scoring. Blend human block lists with contextual filters that dynamically exclude unsafe content without blocking whole channels — but remember why AI shouldn’t own your strategy outright.
• Publisher-level bidding: Use floor adjustments and publisher whitelists for high-value partners rather than blanket bans.
• CTV & streaming: Place stricter app-level rules for CTV and adopt server-side bidding controls when available — creators and engineers reviewing streaming tooling may also find hands-on portable capture and creator tools useful for debugging inventory and placements.
• Privacy-first measurement: with cookieless and privacy-first constraints, rely more on conversion modeling and aggregated signals to evaluate exclusion impact — this often requires tighter collaboration with your SRE and measurement teams (see work on site reliability beyond uptime).

Governance: who owns the block list and how to maintain it

An account-level exclusion is only effective if it’s maintained. Put these operational rules in place:

• Owner: assign a single owner (brand safety or ad ops) responsible for changes and audits.
• Change control: require documented rationale and stakeholder sign-off for immediate blocks (via a ticketing system). Pair change control with an operational decision plane so audits and rollbacks are clear.
• Review cadence: monthly quick reviews, quarterly deep audits. Keep a change log with dates and owners — consider governance patterns borrowed from micro-mentorship and accountability circles to keep small teams coordinated.
• Cross-functional visibility: marketing, legal, and PR should have read-access to the list; major brand-safety blocks should trigger a notification workflow.

Remember: exclusions are guardrails — not a substitute for creative testing, targeting optimization, and measurement. They reduce risk but also reduce scale; measure both sides.

Quick checklist — apply this in your next ad ops session

• Create or update canonical block list spreadsheet with source tags and owner.
• Upload to Google Ads account-level exclusions and Meta Block Lists.
• Run a 14–28 day A/B test with a control campaign to measure CPA / ROAS impact.
• Monitor CPM, CPV, CTR, video completion rates, and IVT alerts daily for the first two weeks.
• Schedule monthly reviews and store a change log.

Final takeaways

Account-level placement exclusions are one of the highest-leverage brand-safety controls available in 2026. Google’s new account-level capability simplifies cross-campaign enforcement, and Meta’s block lists let you apply the same discipline to Facebook and Instagram placements. But exclusions must be strategic: pair them with measurement, automated syncs, and governance to protect brand reputation without sacrificing long-term performance.

If you implement exclusions today, prioritize measurement: expect short-term CPM increases, target mid-term CPA improvements, and run a control to validate. Use AI-driven contextual filtering and publisher whitelists to maintain scale while protecting safety in the evolving video landscape.

Next steps (call-to-action)

Ready to implement account-level exclusion lists across your accounts? Download our exclusion spreadsheet template (fields & sample rows), or book a 30-minute audit with our ad-ops team to get a custom block list and a 30-day measurement plan tailored to your KPIs. Protect your brand and improve ROI — start today. For reliable automation patterns that help sync block lists into a centralized database, explore approaches to centralized databases and edge hosts that teams are using in 2026.

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