How To Exclude All Mobile Apps from Google Ads And Save A Ton Of Money

While doing the analysis of your visual campaigns like Google Display (remarketing), Youtube, or even Performance Max,
you may find out that you are wasting adspend.

If you already know this is happening, just skip right to the solution.

If you are not yet sure about this, read on to learn how you find any budget or adspend leakage.

Google Display (remarketing):

• Go to the campaign level
• On the left-hand menu click: Content -> Where Ads Showed & Placement

Youtube:

• Go to the campaign level
• On the left-hand menu click: Content -> Where Ads Showed & Placement

Performance Max:

• Go to the campaign level
• On the top right corner near your account ID, click on the predefined reports icon
• Choose: Predefined reports (others) -> Others -> Performance Max Campaigns Placement

With this report, you won’t be able to see the actual spend, only the number of impressions.

When And Why It Is Important To Exclude Mobile Apps From Google Ads

Unless your company offers a mobile app, game related or not,
AND/OR your company has an unlimited budget and doesn’t mind the waste,
there is absolutely NO value in advertising on mobile apps.

Perhaps you yourself have ever downloaded and used an app with an advertising monetization model integrated,
ask yourself how often you – purposely – clicked on one of the ads.

One might say, well what about remarketing purposes, to stay top of mind with an undecided prospect?

Well, to them I say: DON’T BE ANNOYING.

“But bad publicity is still publicity” …

No, you’re not a rock band. And this is not the 80s or 90s.
At the kind bequest of your audience, I ask you: Please stop it.

Here Is How To Exclude All Apps From Google Ads Display, Youtube, And Performance Max Campaign Types

Option 1: Exclude placements on the account-level

Excluding on the account level has the benefit to be able to set this up once and you won’t have to worry about this anymore.
Also, this would be the only way to exclude apps from Performance Max campaigns.

Speaking of which, If you are running a Performance Max campaign and haven’t run any display campaigns, you may not see the ‘content’ tab.
To be able to see this, you would have to create a dummy display campaign and then pause it.

The Steps:

1. Make sure you are at the account level, click “overview” in the left-hand panel
2. Then go over to ‘Content’ -> Exclusions
3. At the top of this screen there is a drop-down, make sure you select “Placement Exclusions”
4. Click on the pencil icon and chose “app categories”
5. There you can select *all* categories from all app platforms
6. Manually click *all* those categories to exclude them
7. Make sure you hit save

Option 2: Exclude Placements On The Campaign- Or Ad-Group Level

If – for the reasons mentioned at the beginning of this article – you wish to exclude more granular,
you could follow the same steps as above but on the campaign or ad group level.

The Steps:

1. Make sure you are at the account level, click “overview” in the left-hand panel
2. Then go over to ‘Content’ -> Exclusions
3. At the top of this screen there is a drop-down, make sure you select “Placement Exclusions”
4. Click on the pencil icon and chose “app categories”
5. There you can select *all* categories from all app platforms
6. Manually click *all* those categories to exclude them
7. Make sure you hit save

To Wrap Things Up

That’s it ladies and gentlemen, no more wasted adspend on mobile app advertising.

You may want to have a look at website placements too and see what is happening there.
If there are sites you may or may not want to be visible on based on the relevance or performance of the ads.