To apply placement exclusion lists to your PMax campaigns, you must create these lists at the MCC level, as account-level placement exclusion lists are currently not supported by Google.
Also, you need to get help from Google Support to add these lists to your PMax campaigns. Here’s how to do it:
Requirements before you get started:
You need an MCC structure
Make sure you have edit rights to create placement exclusion lists on MCC level
Note
Each MCC account can create up to 3 placement exclusion lists with a maximum of 250,000 exclusions per list
You can't exclude placements at the campaign level for Performance Max campaigns; they are managed at the account level
1. Create placement exclusion lists in the Google Ads interface on MCC level
Before creating placement exclusion lists, keep in mind that these lists can only be used by sub (child) accounts. If you don't follow this setup, Google Support won't be able to assign them to your account for PMax.
To put it simply, you can't exclude placements in a setup like MCC > MCC > Child Account; you have to do it directly from MCC > Child Account.
2. Download the exclusion template directly from Google's Performance Max Campaign Modification Request Form.
Fill in the 'Performance Max Campaign Modification Request Form.'
Then, select 'Placement exclusion' to download the 'pMAX: Request Template.'
3. Fill in the 'pMAX: Request Template' after downloading.
Here’s an example of how this might look:
4. Send your 'Performance Max Campaign Modification Request Form' to Google
Attach the 'pMAX: Request Template' to the form, submit it, and wait for confirmation by email.
Once you receive confirmation from Google that they have successfully implemented your list to your Ads account, the placement exclusion lists will automatically apply to all eligible campaigns, including your Performance Max campaigns.
You don't need to submit another request to activate or update these lists for Performance Max campaigns; they will update automatically.
Troubleshooting
Please note that synchronization typically takes up to 72 hours after your list is implemented in your Ads account. During this time, you might still see the excluded sites appearing in your reports.