How to Use Redirects to Implement Account-Level Exclusions Across Multiple Campaigns

Stop duplicating exclusion logic across campaigns — centralize it at the redirect layer

Pain point: Marketing and engineering teams waste time updating dozens of campaign-level blocks, miss exclusions on new landing URLs, and struggle to keep brand-safety rules consistent across platforms. In 2026, with automation-heavy formats (Performance Max, Demand Gen) and multi-channel programmatic buys, fragmented exclusions are a single point of failure for spend and reputation.

Quick takeaway

Use the redirect layer as the single source of truth for account-level exclusions. Route every marketing click through a centralized redirect service that enforces exclusion logic, returns SEO- and analytics-safe responses, and emits events via webhooks and APIs so your ads and analytics systems remain accurate and synchronized at scale.

Why centralize exclusions at the redirect layer in 2026?

Recent platform changes make centralized exclusion logic more urgent. On January 15, 2026, Google Ads launched account-level placement exclusions to help advertisers apply a single block list across campaign types. That move signals an industry trend: ad platforms are consolidating controls, but they aren't solving cross-platform consistency, downstream landing URL spills, or time-to-update when new landing pages appear.

“Advertisers can now apply one exclusion list at the account level.” — Google Ads (Jan 15, 2026)

Centralizing on the redirect layer solves gaps that platform-level controls don’t cover:

• Cross-platform consistency — One rule suite for Google Ads, Meta, programmatic DSPs, email, SMS links, and affiliates.
• Landing-URL enforcement — Blocks enforced even if a marketer creates a new destination URL or a vanity domain that isn’t tied to ad platform settings.
• Faster updates — Change rules via API or UI and propagate instantly without logging into multiple ad accounts.
• Rich observability — Emit real-time events for each exclusion hit to analytics, BI, or compliance systems via webhooks.

High-level architecture

At a glance, this is the pattern we recommend:

1. All campaign links use a redirect domain (short, custom, or campaign-specific subdomain).
2. Click hits the redirect service; the service evaluates exclusion rules (account-level, campaign-level, dynamic signals).
3. If excluded, the service routes the user to a safe fallback or a suppression page and returns an appropriate HTTP status.
4. Event is emitted (webhook, analytics API, or pub/sub) with full context for post-click attribution and compliance auditing.

Core components

• Redirect API — Fast, low-latency endpoint that evaluates rules and issues redirects (301, 302, or 307 depending on context).
• Rule Engine — Centralized rules store (JSON or DSL) supporting account exclusions, domain blocks, country/device conditions, and A/B exceptions.
• Configuration API — CRUD endpoints for rules so marketing ops can automate updates.
• Eventing/Webhooks — Real-time notifications when a click is excluded (or served) for downstream systems.
• Cache / CDN — Edge caching for high read throughput while honoring TTL for rapid propagation of rule changes.

Practical tutorial — implement account-level exclusions at the redirect layer

The sections below map to a step-by-step rollout. I assume you have a redirect domain and can route clicks through a middleware service. Examples use pseudocode and common patterns you can implement in your stack.

Step 1 — Define your exclusion model

Define the minimal schema to represent exclusions. Keep it simple but extensible.

ExclusionRule {
  id: string
  accountId: string
  type: "domain" | "placement" | "app" | "youtube_channel"
  pattern: string  // e.g. example.com, youtube.com/channel/ABC
  scope: "account" | "campaign" | "global"
  action: "block" | "route_to_fallback" | "suppress_attribution"
  reasons: [string]
  active: boolean
  createdAt: timestamp
  updatedAt: timestamp
}

Key design decisions:

• Store rules in a primary datastore (Postgres, DynamoDB) and keep a cached, precompiled representation on the edge.
• Use pattern matching with both exact and wildcard support. For placements, support hostname and URL path checks.
• Support an action enum so you can change behavior without altering callers (block vs route).

Step 2 — Route every marketing click through your redirect domain

When you onboard channels, ensure the tracking links are the canonical entrypoint. Examples:

• Ads: final URL → redirect.example.com/r/{linkId}
• Email: links point to redirect.example.com/track/{campaign}/{linkId}
• Affiliates: partner redirects through the same domain

A typical redirect request will include query parameters or a signed token that contains:

• accountId or advertiserId
• campaignId or creativeId
• destinationURL (or a linkId that maps to the URL)
• UTM parameters

Step 3 — Evaluate exclusions synchronously and decide

On click, evaluate rules in order of specificity: global → account → campaign → dynamic signals. Keep evaluation fast — aim for sub-20ms on a warm cache.

// Pseudocode: redirect handler
onClick(request) {
  ctx = parseContext(request) // accountId, campaignId, destUrl, geo, device
  rules = cache.get('compiledRules')
  match = evaluate(rules, ctx)
  if (match && match.action == 'block') {
    emitEvent('excluded', ctx, match)
    return redirect(302, '/safefallback?reason=' + match.id)
  }
  if (match && match.action == 'suppress_attribution') {
    // Send to landing but strip attribution params
    url = stripAttribution(ctx.destUrl)
    emitEvent('served_no_attrib', ctx, match)
    return redirect(302, url)
  }
  emitEvent('served', ctx)
  return redirect(302, ctx.destUrl)
}

Decisions about HTTP status codes:

• Use 301 for permanent, SEO-intended moves (e.g., permanent brand URL remap).
• Use 302 or 307 for campaign-level redirects and temporary routing to ensure analytics integrity and not break ad platform expectations.
• For blocked clicks, route to a lightweight suppression/fallback page with a 302 and a minimal payload — do not return 4xx unless you want to count it as an error.

Step 4 — Emit real-time events via webhooks and APIs

Each decision should produce an event that downstream systems can consume for attribution, budget protection, and auditing.

Webhook payload (POST /webhook/exclusions)
{
  "eventType": "click_excluded",
  "timestamp": "2026-01-18T12:34:56Z",
  "accountId": "acct_123",
  "campaignId": "camp_456",
  "linkId": "L789",
  "ruleId": "rule_111",
  "destUrl": "https://example.com/landing",
  "geo": "US",
  "device": "iOS",
  "rawHeaders": { ... }
}

Best practices for webhooks:

• Support retries with exponential backoff and idempotency keys.
• Allow customers to configure which event types they want (excluded, served, suppressed attribution).
• Include enough context (hashed PII if necessary) for downstream mapping without exposing raw user data.

Step 5 — Provide Configuration APIs and DevOps workflows

Marketing teams need simple tools. Expose a RESTful API plus SDKs or a UI so rules can be maintained programmatically or by non-technical users.

POST /api/v1/exclusions
{
  "accountId": "acct_123",
  "type": "domain",
  "pattern": "adultsite.com",
  "action": "block",
  "reasons": ["brand_safety"],
  "active": true
}

Integrations you should build:

• Google Ads sync: push account-level exclusion lists from your redirect rules (or import from Google Ads) so both sides stay aligned.
• Ad platform webhooks: subscribe to campaign creation events and automatically inject campaign-specific exceptions into the rule engine when needed.
• CI/CD for rules: allow audited rule changes with approvals for high-impact blocks.

Advanced strategies and edge cases

Dynamic signals: geo, device, OS, and risk scoring

Beyond static lists, evaluate contextual signals. Example: route mobile iOS users for a specific account to a different experience, or block traffic from risky IP ranges flagged by fraud detection.

rule = {
  "scope": "account",
  "type": "dynamic",
  "conditions": {
    "geo": ["CN","RU"],
    "device": ["Android"]
  },
  "action": "route_to_fallback"
}

Attribution integrity and privacy constraints

When you suppress attribution or strip UTMs, provide an alternative mapping so downstream finance/analytics can still reconcile spend. Emitting webhook events with hashed identifiers allows matching without persisting PII.

Caching and propagation at scale

Rule changes must propagate quickly but safely. Recommended pattern:

• Push rule diffs to a distributed cache (Redis cluster, edge key-value store).
• Use short TTLs for high-risk rules (e.g., 30s) and longer TTLs for stable rules (5–10 minutes).
• Provide a forced purge API for emergency blocks that bypass TTL.

Performance considerations

Redirect services run at the critical path for revenue clicks. Keep the hot path lean:

• Pre-compile rules into an efficient trie or regex set.
• Avoid heavy DB calls on-click; prefer cache and async persistence.
• Instrument p95/p99 latency and error budgets — aim for p95 < 50ms excluding network.

Testing, rollout, and governance

A safe rollout is essential. Use this phased approach:

1. Shadow mode — evaluate rules without changing behavior and log matches for 7–14 days.
2. Soft block — route a small percentage (1–5%) of traffic to fallback to measure impact.
3. Full enforcement — enable rule fully after stakeholder sign-off.

Governance checklist:

• Audit logs for rule changes with approver and reason metadata.
• Retention policy for click events and exclusion logs (compliance-driven).
• Escalation runbook for false positives and urgent delists.

Integrating with Google Ads and other ad platforms

Google Ads’ account-level exclusions (Jan 2026) reduce some management friction inside Google, but they don’t replace a redirect-layer approach because:

• Google’s exclusion list applies only to its placements; it doesn't prevent clicks or traffic coming from non-Google sources, affiliates, or email links.
• Landing URLs and vanity domains can bypass platform-level controls unless you harmonize settings across all systems.
• Redirect-layer events provide the telemetry needed to reconcile spend vs blocked clicks.

Recommended integration patterns:

• Two-way sync: import Google account-level exclusions into the redirect rule store and export redirect-layer blocks back to a custom audience or negative list in Google where supported.
• Ad platform webhooks: when Google or DSPs create new campaigns, evaluate whether special exceptions are needed (e.g., VIP partners) and programmatically create scoped exceptions in the redirect layer.
• Attribution stitching: when you suppress UTMs for blocked flows, post events to your analytics to prevent false conversions.

Case study (anonymized): SaaS company reduced unsafe clicks by 98%

A mid-market SaaS advertiser with 500+ active campaigns across Google, Meta, and programmatic partners implemented a redirect-layer exclusion system in Q3–Q4 2025. Results in the first 90 days:

• Unsafe placements blocked at the redirect layer: 98% reduction in visits to disallowed URLs.
• Time-to-block (rule change to edge enforcement): median 12s using forced purge + edge push.
• Reduction in wasted ad spend: 7% of monthly budget reallocated after immediate blocking of low-quality placements.
• Improved attribution accuracy: webhook events reduced phantom conversions by 15%.

Security, compliance, and auditability

Protect your redirect service:

• Sign tokens for link parameters (HMAC) to prevent tampering with account or campaign IDs.
• Rate-limit redirects to protect against click farms and bot spikes.
• Hash or tokenise user identifiers in outbound webhooks to meet privacy regs.
• Maintain an immutable audit trail for all rule changes for governance and legal defense.

Operational runbook — what to monitor

• Click volume and excluded count by account and rule (real-time).
• Webhook delivery success/failure and processing lag.
• Cache hit rate and propagation lag after rule updates.
• False positive rate from manual reviews and user feedback.

Future-proofing: trends to plan for (2026+)

• Automation-first ad formats will increase the need for robust guardrails at the redirect layer.
• Cookieless and privacy-safe attribution will make server-side events and webhooks more valuable for reconciliation.
• Edge computing will enable even faster rule enforcement; consider pushing compiled rules to Cloudflare Workers, Fastly Compute) for sub-10ms decisions.
• AI-based risk scoring will augment static lists — plan for integration points where the rule engine can call a scoring API synchronously or cache results.

Checklist: Implement a redirect-layer centralized exclusions program

1. Standardize all marketing links to route through a single redirect domain.
2. Design an exclusion schema and rule engine with account and campaign scope.
3. Implement synchronous evaluation with edge caching and a forced-purge API.
4. Emit webhooks for excluded and served events with idempotency and retries.
5. Integrate with Google Ads and other ad platforms for two-way sync where possible.
6. Run shadow tests, soft rollouts, and then enable full enforcement.
7. Monitor, audit, and iterate with governance controls and alerts.

Final thoughts

In 2026, centralized guardrails are no longer optional. As ad platforms move to account-level controls and automation grows, keeping exclusions fragmented across campaigns creates operational risk and wasted spend. By moving exclusions into the redirect layer, you get consistent enforcement across channels, immediate propagation of rule changes, and the event-level observability modern marketing teams need to reconcile automation and compliance.

Next steps

If you're responsible for protecting ad spend and preserving brand safety, start by routing a pilot cohort of links through a centralized redirect service and run a 14-day shadow test. Monitor exclusion hits, set up webhooks to your analytics, and iterate on false positives before scaling to full enforcement.

Ready to centralize exclusions at scale? Get hands-on with our API docs, request a demo, or run a proof-of-concept to see how a redirect-layer approach reduces risk and simplifies campaign management across Google Ads and every other channel you run.

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