Placement Exclusion List Formatter for Google Ads

How to format a Google Ads placement exclusion list

This tool formats your own Google Ads placement exclusion list — it doesn't ship a ready-made list of bad sites. Paste the websites, apps and YouTube links you want to block, and each one is rewritten in the forms shown on Google's Exclude specific webpages and videos page.

1. Collect your placements. Copy them from the “where ads showed” report, a spreadsheet, a brand-safety list from a client, or your notes. Any mix of formats works.
2. Paste or upload. With both a name and a URL column, the tool uses the column that holds a real address.
3. Pick how to treat websites. Keep folders and pages, or cut everything down to whole sites. Removing www. widens each exclusion to the whole domain.
4. Read the results. Every entry gets a type and a status: ready, duplicate, covered by a broader entry, needs a channel ID, or not usable — with the reason.
5. Copy or download. Use the paste list, the bulk upload file, or the website file for a scheduled list.

What it converts

• Websites: protocol, www., query strings and trailing slashes removed; host names lowercased; pages under an excluded domain dropped as already covered.
• Apps: Play Store links become mobileapp::2-com.example.app, App Store links mobileapp::1-1234567890.
• YouTube: youtu.be, shorts, embed and mobile links become standard video links; channel links keep their ID.

What to do next: add the exclusions in Google Ads

1. For the whole account: go to Tools › Content suitability › Advanced settings › Excluded placements, paste the list and save. This also covers Performance Max campaigns.
2. For a reusable list: Tools › Shared library › Exclusion lists, turn on placement exclusion lists, click the plus button, name the list, paste or upload, then apply it to campaigns.
3. For one campaign: open Content › Exclusions in the campaign, choose placements, then Enter multiple placements.
4. Give it time. Google says new account-level exclusions usually work within 12 hours. Check the “where ads showed” report next week for anything that slipped through.

Why won't Google Ads accept my placement list?

Google domains

Addresses such as mail.google.com can't be excluded as placements. They are marked “Not usable” so the rest of the list goes through.

All of youtube.com

You can't exclude YouTube as a whole site. Exclude the channels and videos you don't want, at account level for every campaign.

adsenseformobileapps.com

Old guides say to exclude this domain to keep ads out of apps. Google no longer supports it for app inventory, so exclude apps one by one or use app category settings.

Kids YouTube channel exclusion list with @handles

Handle links don't contain a channel ID. Look them up first — open each channel and copy a youtube.com/channel/ address.

www. kept the subdomains open

Excluding www.example.com still lets ads show on shop.example.com. Excluding example.com blocks every subdomain and page. Country sites such as example.co.uk need their own entry.

The list is too long

One shared list holds 65,000 exclusions, and the screen takes 5,000 at a time. The paste list is split in parts, and the bulk file starts a second list when the first is full.

Scheduled list: “File not found” on SFTP

Google suggests putting a double slash between the folder path and the file name in the SFTP address.