Negative Placements
Negative Placements are websites, mobile apps, video channels, or individual pages where an advertiser has prohibited their ads from being shown as part of an advertising campaign.
Simply put, it’s a list of resources where the ad will not be displayed.
How is it Different from Placement Exclusion?
- Placement Exclusion refers to the process or setting of excluding placements.
- Negative Placement is the specific, already-added list of placements that are excluded from impressions.
Why Add Negative Placements?
Exclusions help to:
- Avoid non-targeted traffic.
- Protect the brand from appearing next to undesirable content.
- Reduce spending on ineffective impressions.
- Increase campaign conversion rates.
- Manage reputational risks.
When Should You Create a Negative Placement List?
- When launching display advertising campaigns.
- When working with ad networks and programmatic platforms.
- When abnormally cheap clicks appear without resulting conversions.
- With a large volume of mobile traffic.
- When scaling advertising campaigns.
How to Determine Which Placements to Exclude
- Analyze the placement performance report.
- Identify placements with high spend and low conversion rates.
- Look for suspicious metrics:
- Excessively high CTR (Click-Through Rate)
- Minimal time spent on site
- High bounce rate
- Check if the site’s topic aligns with your brand.
Typical Mistakes
- Excluding placements without data analysis.
- Removing sites based solely on low CTR, without considering conversion data.
- Failing to regularly update the exclusion list.
- Ignoring mobile apps, which often generate accidental or low-quality traffic.
Key Takeaway
Negative Placements are a tool for controlling the quality of ad placements. Properly compiling a Negative Placement list helps reduce ineffective spending, improve campaign performance, and protect brand reputation.
