Buying traffic · also called site, publisher site, ad placement
Placement
A placement is the specific website, app, section or screen position where an ad appears.
Buying from a network means buying thousands of different spots at once. Each is a placement: a particular news site in a native network, an app in a display network, or a surface such as Instagram Reels versus Facebook Feed on Meta.
Placements matter in search arbitrage in two directions. As a buyer, the arbitrageur finds that results vary enormously by placement. One site sends readers who search and click; another sends accidental taps or outright bot traffic. Reports from the tracker broken down by placement (usually via a Sub ID) show which to keep, and the bad ones go on a blocklist.
As a seller, the arbitrageur's own site is a placement in Google's and Microsoft's eyes. Advertisers on the search partner network can now see partner sites in their reports, since Google extended site-level placement reporting to Search campaigns in 2025, and can remove sites that do not convert through placement exclusion. In other words, the arbitrageur judges placements and is judged as one.
An example
Say a native campaign averages 10% ROI. By placement: site A returns +40% on $600 of spend, site B returns -35% on $400. 0.6 x 40 + 0.4 x (-35) = 10. Blocking B lifts the campaign to 40%.
Related terms
Blocklist
A blocklist is a list of websites, apps or placements where a buyer tells an ad network never to show their ads.
Allowlist
An allowlist is a list of approved websites, apps or placements, with ads permitted to run only on those and nowhere else.
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.
Sub ID
A sub ID is a custom label a publisher passes to a feed or network with each visit, so reported revenue can be broken down by that label.
Content recommendation widget
A content recommendation widget is a block of sponsored and editorial story links on a publisher's page, supplied by a network that pays the publisher for clicks.
Search partner network
The search partner network is the collection of non-Google or non-Microsoft sites where an advertiser's search ads can appear through syndication.
Sources: Google Ads Help: Search partners network (SPN) announcements