Exclusions may lead to poor performance
Ads are shown to your target audiences on the websites and apps they visit. While exclusions give you control, blocking too many domains or apps can limit your campaign's reach and effectiveness. We recommend using them purposefully to keep your performance high.
General Exclusions give you control over where your ads appear and who sees them. Once configured, these settings will be applied to all your AdRoll campaigns automatically. Use these settings to define the "no-go" zones where your brand should never appear—regardless of the campaign.
If you’re looking to block an ad placement because of performance reasons (e.g., your campaign has a high CPA or low click-through rate), we recommend using Campaign-specific exclusions instead. This ensures you aren’t accidentally limiting your reach on other campaigns where that same website or app might perform well. You can find campaign-specific exclusion settings within the campaign setup process by clicking into the Advanced Options in the channel-specific settings section.
General Exclusions take precedence over campaign-specific exclusions, with additional campaign-specific exclusions added on top. We recommend reviewing and updating your General Exclusions every 30 to 90 days to ensure they still align with your goals.
General Exclusions by Domain
Use Exclusions by Domain to prevent your ads from appearing on specific websites (publishers) that don’t align with your brand, messaging, or goals.
Keep in mind that AdRoll only shows ads to the audience you define, wherever they are on the internet. For example, when targeting a specific audience such as Third Party Audiences, you are electing to show ads to people who match specific behaviors, demographics, interests, lifestyles, etc. The relevance of the website is secondary to reaching your target audience wherever they are on the internet. To configure Exclusions by Domain for all your web campaigns, you can click here or follow the steps below:
- Click the Settings gear icon in the left navigation menu.
- Scroll down to General Exclusions and click By Domain.
- Enter the domains you want to exclude (one per line, up to100,000).
- If you have a large number of domains to exclude, consider uploading a .csv or .txt file.
- Click Save. Allow about 30 minutes to process.
We use an implicit leading wildcard for all domains you enter. For example, if you enter acme.com, we’ll exclude all subdomains that match *.acme.com. See below for examples.
| You Enter | We Exclude | We Allow |
|---|---|---|
| acme.com |
www.acme.com mail.acme.com sports.acme.com |
Any domains that don’t end in acme.com |
| sports.acme.com |
sports.acme.com tennis.sports.acme.com |
finance.acme.com www.acme.com |
General Exclusions by App (Mobile & CTV)
Use Exclusions by App to block specific mobile or Connected TV (CTV) apps that don’t align with your brand values or target audience.
To configure app exclusions, you can click here or follow the steps below:
For Mobile Apps:
- Click the Settings gear icon in the left navigation menu.
- Scroll down to General Exclusions and click By App.
- Enter the app IDs associated with the mobile or CTV apps you do not wish to target (one per line).
Important
- Many apps are available on both platforms, and excluding only one will not block the other. To fully block a mobile app, you must add both the iOS App ID and the Android App ID.
For example, to block the mobile app Words With Friends 2:
| App Store | App ID | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Android | com.zynga.words3 | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zynga.words3 |
| Apple (iOS apps) | 1196764367 | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/words-with-friends-word-game/id1196764367 |
- Click Save.
For CTV apps:
- Click the Settings gear icon in the left navigation menu.
- Scroll down to General Exclusions and click By App.
- Scroll down to the CTV Apps section
- Enter the app IDs associated with the CTV apps you do not wish to target (one per line)
Important
- To fully block a CTV app, you must add all app IDs associated with that app across supported CTV platforms (for example, Roku, FireTV, Apple TV).
Find a list of common CTV platforms and example app IDs here.
General Exclusions by IP Address
IP Exclusions are perfect for blocking specific users, like your own team, from seeing your ads. This helps preserve your budget and ensures your data isn't skewed by internal traffic.
To set up general exclusions by IP address, you can click here or follow the steps below:
- Go to the Settings gear icon in the left navigation menu.
- Click By IP Address under General Exclusions.
- Enter the IP addresses you want to exclude (one per line).
- Click Save.
Still Seeing Your Own Ads?
If your team is still seeing ads after blocking the office IP, try these best practices:
- Exclude Converters: Ensure your "Conversion Audiences" are excluded from active retargeting campaigns.
- Employee CRM List: Upload your employee email list as a CRM Audience and set it as an audience exclusion in your campaign settings.