A blacklist is a list of specific traffic sources, placements, sites, apps, zones or IP ranges that a campaign explicitly excludes because they have been shown to produce fraud, low-quality users or no conversions at all.
Definition
A blacklist is a list of specific traffic sources, placements, sites, apps, zones or IP ranges that a campaign explicitly excludes because they have been shown to produce fraud, low-quality users or no conversions at all. It is the negative counterpart of a whitelist, and on open-inventory networks — push, pop, native, some programmatic — it is one of the core levers a media buyer pulls to turn a losing campaign into a profitable one.
The principle is simple: keep spending on the broad pool, measure results at the most granular level available (usually a zone or placement SubID), and cut the identifiable losers as evidence accumulates.
Building a blacklist is an evidence-gated process. A zone that has received a few hundred clicks and produced no registrations is a candidate; a zone with two thousand clicks and nothing is a certainty.
Cutting too early, on thin data, throws away zones that were merely unlucky; cutting too late wastes budget on zones that will never convert. Experienced buyers set explicit thresholds — for example, block any zone past 300 clicks with zero registrations, or past $50 spend with cost per registration over 3x target.
In context
Blacklists come from two sources. The buyer's own campaign data is the most valuable, because it reflects this offer, this creative and this GEO.
Shared blacklists — from the network, an anti-fraud vendor, or a community — catch known bot farms and fraudulent publishers quickly but are generic and can over-block. Many buyers start a campaign with a modest shared blacklist to avoid the worst inventory, then build a campaign-specific list from their own results.
The risk is over-blocking. Every excluded zone reduces available volume, and an aggressive blacklist can starve a campaign of delivery, forcing bids up to compensate.
Blacklists also go stale: a zone that was fraudulent last quarter may have been cleaned up, and a zone that converted well may have degraded. Buyers review blacklists periodically, occasionally re-testing excluded zones with a small budget, and treat the list as a living part of the campaign rather than a one-time setup.
Worked example
After $500 of spend on a push casino campaign, a buyer pulls the zone-level report: 60 zones have delivered clicks but zero registrations, accounting for $180 of wasted spend. They add all 60 to the campaign blacklist.
Delivery drops 15%, cost per registration falls 28%, and the campaign moves into profit.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Browse the full iGaming & affiliate glossary — hundreds of EN/RU terms with examples.
← Back to glossary