How to Exclude Bad Placements in Performance Max and Reduce Wasted Ad Spend

Worried that your Performance Max campaigns are wasting money?

If you’re not keeping an eye on where your ads are appearing, Google could be spending your budget on low-quality placements that don’t convert.

Excluding placements from Performance Max can help reduce wasted spend and improve your campaign’s overall performance.

In this newsletter, I’ll walk you through:

• How to view the placements report in Google Ads.

• How to identify and exclude low-quality placements.

• A quick method to block all mobile apps (which often underperform).

Let’s get started!

1. See Where Your Ad Money Really Goes

The first step is to find out where Google is showing your ads. Google Ads doesn’t make this obvious, but you can pull a placements report to get some insights.

Here’s how:

1. Open Google Ads and go to your Performance Max campaign.

2. Click on Insights and Reports.

3. Scroll down to Report Editor.

4. Find the Performance Max Campaigns Placement report.

This report will show you where your ads have been displayed, ranked by impressions. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t give us detailed metrics like clicks, CTR, or cost per placement for Performance Max, but impressions alone can give you a good idea of where your budget is going.

2. Find & Remove Bad Placements Fast

Now that you have the list of placements, it’s time to find the bad ones.

🔍 What should you look for?

• Mobile apps – These often deliver poor performance unless you’re advertising an app.

• Low-quality or irrelevant sites – Sites with names like “viral news” or “funny memes” are unlikely to convert.

• Suspicious URLs – If a domain looks sketchy, check it by clicking the link in the report.

💡 Pro Tip: If you’re unsure about a site, click on it and visit the page. If it looks spammy or unrelated to your business, add it to your exclusion list.

3. Block These Costly Placements

Once you’ve identified bad placements, copy and paste them into a notes file. You’ll use this list in the next step to exclude them.

🚫 Here’s how to add exclusions:

1. In Google Ads, go to your Performance Max campaign.

2. Click Audiences → Content.

3. Find the Exclusions section.

4. Click Edit Exclusions → Account Level Exclusions.

5. Paste in the domains or app URLs you want to exclude.

6. Click Save.

4. Block All Mobile Apps Instantly

Mobile apps tend to convert poorly in most cases. Instead of blocking them one by one, you can exclude all app categories at once.

Here’s how:

1. In the exclusions section, click on Browse.

2. Select App Categories.

3. Check all 84 categories for Apple’s App Store and all 56 categories for Google Play.

4. Click Exclude and Save.

📱 This method blocks virtually all mobile apps from displaying your Performance Max ads, saving you a ton of money on low-quality placements.

Final Thoughts

Excluding bad placements in Performance Max is an easy but crucial way to reduce wasted spend and improve performance. Here’s a recap of what we covered:

• Check your placements report to see where your ads are showing.

• Identify and exclude bad placements, including spammy sites and irrelevant URLs.

• Use app category exclusions to quickly block mobile apps.

• Repeat this process weekly at first, then reduce frequency as your placements improve.

This one simple optimisation can have a big impact on your Performance Max campaign. And remember — exclusions are just one piece of the puzzle. Your asset group strategy is just as important. Make sure you’re structuring your asset groups correctly for even better results.