Buying traffic · also called blacklist, exclusion list, site block
Blocklist
A blocklist is a list of websites, apps or placements where a buyer tells an ad network never to show their ads.
When a buyer finds a placement that wastes money, they add it to a blocklist and the network stops serving their ads there. Everything not on the list remains eligible.
For arbitrageurs buying native, push or display traffic, the blocklist is a core daily tool. Performance by site follows a long tail: a few placements produce most of the profit and many produce losses. Sites are usually blocked for one of three reasons: they cost more than they earn; their visitors never click anything (a sign of accidental or automated traffic); or their clicks look fine in estimated revenue but keep attracting deductions.
That third reason is the one beginners miss. A placement can appear profitable for weeks and still poison the feed account. Operators therefore look at quality signals such as a traffic quality score or independent IVT detection alongside profit. Blocklists need enough data before each decision, and they never finish, because networks add new sites constantly. The stricter alternative is an allowlist.
Think of it like this
It is a restaurant's list of suppliers it will never buy from again. Everyone else may still deliver.
Related terms
Allowlist
An allowlist is a list of approved websites, apps or placements, with ads permitted to run only on those and nowhere else.
Placement
A placement is the specific website, app, section or screen position where an ad appears.
Placement exclusion
A placement exclusion is an advertiser's instruction that its ads must not appear on a named website, app or category of sites.
Automation rules
Automation rules are if-then instructions that pause, restart or adjust ad campaigns automatically when chosen metrics cross set thresholds.
Traffic quality score
A traffic quality score is a rating of how genuine and commercially valuable a publisher's visitors are, used to decide what their clicks are paid, or whether to keep them.