Apply Placement Exclusion List to Performance Max Campaign

[Shannon]

We have a placement exclusion list that we would like to apply to performance max campaign. There does not seem to be a way to apply it at the campaign level. Currently, in the new API, Placement Exclusion lists can only be applied at the Campaign level. If not, can we create account level exclusions manually with the API instead of using an existing list?

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to the Google Ads API support team.

Kindly note that as per the campaign criteria document Performance Max campaigns support the following types of criteria:

• AD_SCHEDULE
• BRAND
• LANGUAGE
• LOCATION
• LOCATION_GROUP
• WEBPAGE

With this, I would like to inform you that placement exclusion is not supported in Performance Max campaigns. Also, you may use customer criteria to create an account level exclusion via API.

Hope this helps. If you have any more queries, please feel free to get back to us.
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02vFnsI:ref" (ADR-00266964)

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

[Shannon]

Thank you. 

You state:  I would like to inform you that placement exclusion is not supported in Performance Max campaigns

However, the "customer criteria" PlacementInfo call appears to allow me to add a domain to an account exclusion. Wouldn't this effectively block that domain from showing ads, even in PMax?

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

In order to assist you further, kindly provide us with the complete API logs (request and response logs with request-id and request header) generated at your end where you adding domain for account exclusion in placement info resource.

If you are using a client library and haven't enabled the logging yet, I would request you to enable logging for the specific client library that you are using. You can refer to the guides Java, .Net, PHP, Python, Ruby or Perl to enable logging at your end. For REST interface requests, you can enable logging via the curl command by using the -i flag.

You can send the details via Reply privately to the author option, or direct private reply to this email.

[Shannon]

>>In order to assist you further, kindly provide us with the complete API logs (request and response logs with request-id and request header) generated at your end where you adding domain for account exclusion in placement info resource.

That is not related to my question. My calls are working correctly. I am asking about wether the Account Level Placement Exclusion will apply to a Performance Max campaign. 

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Note that account level placement exclusions will not apply to the PMax campaigns. As per API documentation, there is no way to create the placement exclusions for the PMax campaigns using the Google Ads API. However, negative WEBPAGE criteria can be used to exclude specific URLs from final URL expansion. Learn more about Final URL expansion and URL Exclusion.

[Shannon]

>>However, negative WEBPAGE criteria can be used to exclude specific URLs from final URL expansion. Learn more about Final URL expansion and URL Exclusion.

How is that useful for the situation of excluding ads from showing on specific domains on the GDN?

[Shannon]

Further, from: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14924934?hl=en&ref_topic=10631992

Performance Max feature compatibility


Google Ads feature
Compatibility with Performance Max
If yes, learn more:



Placement Exclusions Lists
Yes
Use placement exclusion lists across your accounts

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Kindly note that enabling "Final URL" in your Performance Max campaign settings allows your campaign to replace your Final URL with a more relevant landing page from the Final URL domain, based on the user’s search intent. The Final URL expansion can serve and receive traffic on any page that hasn’t been excluded. This means that if you have a subdirectory (like www.example.com/brand), your campaigns may be optimized to show both general and brand subdirectory pages.

However, as mentioned earlier placement exclusions are not compatible with the PMax campaigns using Google Ads API. But you can use the campaignCriteria for other campaign types like search and display.

[Shannon]

OMG, is "Google Ads API Forum Advisor " a GPT? WTH. I am capable of asking an LLM myself. This output is completely unhelpful and should be turned off. Forum questions are for long-tail, outlier situations where LLM corpus will not have the needed data, even if trained on product documentation.

Referring to Expanded Landing Page Final URLs is the most unrelated, nonsensical response a reply could be given for someone asking for a Display Exclusion Placement List functionality. 
Bots in a forum makes the Internet unhelpful. 

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

I have raised your concern with the rest of our team and one of my teammates will reach out to you once we have an update.

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hello,

This case has been escalated to me. I'm reviewing the thread and would like to note that my (human) colleague seems to have provided the correct information so far.

Placement exclusions are not available for Performance Max campaigns, even if specified at the account level.
A potential workaround (not a perfect match to the functionality, but something somewhat close so that you aren't left completely helpless) was mentioned, which is the best we can offer right now. If that doesn't suit your needs, then unfortunately what you are asking for is not available in the API at this time.

Please let me know if you have any other API issues that we could assist with.
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02vFnsI:ref" (ADR-00266964)

Thanks,
 

Michael Cloonan Google Ads API Team

[Shannon]

Perhaps I don't understand. How would using URL Expansion or anything related to the Final URL feature of PMax be used as anything related to the intent of placement exclusion showing our ad on a Google Display Network domain? Why is "Final URL expansion" even being mentioned here?

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hello,

The critical part of the message was the link to this article: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14337773

The reference to final URL expansion was tangential and is described in more detail in the "Note" at the top of that page.

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Greetings Everyone,

This question popped up again in the Ads community, and I would like to close the loop here in case anyone comes to this page looking for answers. Our Google Ads product Liaison Ginny Marvin phrased it best, so I'll share what she had to say.
 

I've connected with the teams on this, and we've dug into it to identify areas that have caused miscommunication and where we need to make updates and corrections.

We are in the process of updating our documentation to accurately and more clearly reflect how placement exclusions work, both via the Ads Ul and the API. We apologize for the confusion and appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

To clarify:
1. The Google Ads API does support account-level placement exclusions, and these exclusions are respected by PMax.
2. Web page placement exclusion lists can be applied from the MCC-level to child accounts via the Google Ads Ul. Account-level placement exclusion lists are respected by PMax.
3. However, account-level placement exclusion lists are not currently supported by the API.
4. Campaign-level placement exclusions are not a feature in PMax. As such, placement exclusions cannot be directly applied at the campaign-level for Max campaigns via the Google Ads Ul or API. However, the account-level placement exclusions will apply to all PMax campaigns.

Thank you, all, for highlighting this.

All the best,
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02vFnsI:ref" (ADR-00266964)

 

Nadine Wang Google Ads API Team

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