Google Display Network reaches 90% of global internet users — which sounds impressive until you audit where your Indian Display budget is actually going. In practically every Indian Google Ads account I've reviewed, the placement report tells the same story: a significant chunk of spend has gone to mobile game apps that children play, low-quality regional news portals with content-farm articles, and obscure directories that exist primarily to collect Display ad revenue.
The waste is structural, not accidental. Google's Display Network algorithm optimises for clicks within your budget. It finds the cheapest clicks available — and in India, the cheapest clicks are on mobile game interstitials and low-quality content portals where accidental clicks are high and conversion intent is zero. Without exclusions, you pay for this inventory by default.
According to Google's own Ads Transparency guidelines and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) India's Digital Advertising Report 2024, invalid traffic and low-quality placements remain a persistent challenge in the Indian digital advertising ecosystem — particularly on the Display network, where placement quality varies dramatically.
The fix is simple and permanent: a well-built exclusion list applied once at the account level eliminates the worst placements for the lifetime of the account.
How to find your worst placements right now
Before applying the exclusion list below, pull your own placement data:
- In Google Ads, go to Campaigns → Display campaigns → Placements tab
- Set the date range to the last 90 days
- Sort by Cost (descending)
- Add the Conversions column
- Look for placements with significant spend and zero conversions
Most Indian accounts will find that the top 20-30 placements by spend include several mobile game apps (identifiable by their app bundle IDs like com.something.game), low-quality news portals, and content aggregators. These are your immediate exclusion targets.
Apply them at the account level (not just the campaign level) using Shared Library → Placement exclusions → Account-level exclusion lists. Account-level exclusions apply to all current and future campaigns automatically.
The 20 placement categories and types to exclude for Indian accounts
- Mobile game apps (all categories) — Exclude via Content exclusions: Games. In India, a disproportionate share of GDN mobile spend goes to children's and casual game apps where clicks are accidental.
- In-app mobile game interstitials — Exclude the "Mobile app interstitials" sub-category under Devices > Content exclusions.
- Low-quality news aggregators — Exclude domains serving clickbait regional news. Common offenders include generic "newsportal[region].com" style domains.
- Astrology and numerology portals — High-traffic, zero-conversion placements for most D2C and B2B categories in India.
- Free ringtone and wallpaper download sites — Among the highest accidental-click sources in Indian Display campaigns.
- Matrimonial aggregator sidebars — Irrelevant for most ad categories; high impression count, zero intent.
- Parked domains and placeholder pages — Exclude via Content exclusions: Parked domains.
- Error pages — Exclude via Content exclusions: Error pages. Impressions here have no legitimate value.
- Forums and bulletin boards — Low-intent browsing context for most conversion campaigns.
- Religious content portals — Unless your product is specifically relevant, these are low-conversion placements with high impression volume.
- Job listing aggregators — High traffic, wrong intent for most consumer product categories.
- Free cricket score portals and scorecard sites — Massive traffic, almost zero conversion for non-sports brands. Users are checking scores, not shopping.
- Political news portals — Brand safety risk plus low purchase intent context.
- WhatsApp status downloader and social media tool sites — Extremely high traffic in India, zero purchase intent.
- Video streaming apps (non-YouTube) — Exclude MX Player, JioCinema (non-premium), ShareIt if your GDN campaign is not specifically a video awareness campaign.
- Loan aggregator and NBFC portals — Unless you are a financial product, high-traffic but wrong-category audience.
- GIF and meme sharing sites — Common in India; extremely high bounce rate for Display ads.
- Torrent and free download portals — Brand safety risk and low purchase intent.
- Clickbait content farms — Sites with headlines like "10 shocking facts about..." that generate high clicks and no conversions.
- Embedded ad slots in low-quality apps (com.* app bundles below 3-star rating) — Exclude app bundles with Play Store ratings below 3.0; these generate the bulk of accidental in-app clicks.
Category-level exclusions in Google Ads
Beyond specific placements, Google Ads offers content category exclusions that apply broadly. For Indian accounts, enable these category-level exclusions under Campaign Settings → Brand Safety → Content exclusions:
- Sensitive social issues — Brand safety; irrelevant for most campaigns
- Tragedy and conflict — Brand safety; your product appearing next to disaster news is not beneficial
- Sexually suggestive content — Standard exclusion for all brand campaigns
- Profanity and rough language — Especially important for family-oriented D2C categories
- Games (for non-gaming brands) — Eliminates the mobile game app category wholesale
Device-level optimisation for Indian Display campaigns
One of the most impactful optimisations for Indian Display campaigns is device bid adjustment. Mobile traffic dominates in India — but mobile Display conversion rates are typically 40-60% lower than desktop for most D2C categories. Meanwhile, the cheapest inventory (and worst quality) is concentrated on mobile.
Recommended device bid adjustments for Indian Display campaigns:
- Desktop: +20-30% bid adjustment. Higher-quality traffic, better conversion rates.
- Tablet: +0-10% bid adjustment. Moderate quality.
- Mobile: -20% to -40% bid adjustment for conversion campaigns. Reduces exposure to low-quality mobile inventory while maintaining reach on higher-quality mobile placements.
Exception: if you are running a brand awareness campaign (not conversion-focused), mobile bid reductions are less critical because reach matters more than intent quality.
Managed placements: the alternative to exclusion lists
The nuclear option — and often the right one for Indian accounts with significant Display spend — is switching from automatic placements to managed placements entirely. Instead of running broadly and excluding bad placements, you specify exactly which sites and apps your ads appear on.
The managed placement list for Indian Display campaigns that consistently delivers quality traffic includes:
- The Hindu, Times of India, Hindustan Times digital editions
- Livemint, Economic Times, Business Standard (for B2B and premium consumer)
- YouTube (managed separately but still within GDN framework)
- Cricbuzz (for sports-adjacent categories — massive engaged audience)
- Zomato blog, Swiggy blog (for food and lifestyle categories)
- Category-specific portals relevant to your product vertical
The tradeoff: managed placements significantly reduce reach. Use managed placements for retargeting and high-value prospecting; use broad placements with exclusion lists for top-of-funnel awareness where reach matters more than precision.
How AdsSarthi handles GDN placement quality
AdsSarthi's Google Ads optimisation layer monitors placement quality continuously. When a placement accumulates spend above ₹500 with zero conversions across a 30-day window, it gets flagged in your daily WhatsApp digest with a one-tap exclusion option. This automated ongoing audit catches new low-quality placements as they emerge — which they do, because GDN inventory is dynamic and new low-quality sites enter the network constantly.
The initial exclusion list above handles the known permanent offenders. Ongoing automated monitoring handles the long tail of new junk placements that appear over time. Together, these typically reduce GDN waste from the industry-average 20-30% of Display spend to under 8% — which at any meaningful Display budget represents a significant recovered investment.