Skip to content
GetProfit
Log in

← All terms

Data exclusion

A data exclusion is a Google Ads setting that tells Smart Bidding to ignore the data from a set of dates when conversion tracking was broken.

How it works

Smart Bidding learns from the clicks and conversions it has seen. When a tag breaks, the site goes down or an import fails, those days show clicks but missing or wrong orders. With a data exclusion you mark that period, and Smart Bidding ignores all data from it.

An exclusion looks back: it starts in the past and may end in the past or the future. In the Google Ads API one exclusion covers at most 14 days. It applies to listed campaigns or to all campaigns of the chosen types (Search, Shopping, Display), optionally on some devices only. Google warns that frequent or long exclusions can hurt Smart Bidding.

First find out which days tracking broke; the steps are in protecting Smart Bidding after a tracking outage.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop gets 8,000 clicks and 300 orders in a 30-day month, a conversion rate of 3.75%. A site update breaks the tag for 3 days: 800 clicks come in, but their orders, about 30 at the usual rate, go unrecorded. The month now shows 270 orders from 8,000 clicks, or 3.375%. With those 3 days excluded, Smart Bidding learns from 270 orders on 7,200 clicks: 3.75% again.

Not to be confused with

  • Seasonality adjustment — looks forward: it tells Smart Bidding about a change in conversion rate expected during a coming event. A data exclusion looks back.
  • Conversion adjustment — retracts or restates conversions already recorded. It cannot fix orders that were never recorded.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “After the exclusion, the 30 lost orders are back.” Right: the exclusion recovers nothing. It only stops Smart Bidding from learning that 800 clicks brought no orders.
  • Wrong: “The ‘Your data exclusions’ setting in a Performance Max campaign is the same tool.” Right: that setting excludes people on your website visitor or Customer Match lists from the campaign. It doesn’t tell bidding to skip any dates.

Sources