How to exclude IP addresses in

You can exclude IP addresses in two places. At account level (Admin → Account settings → IP exclusions) one list covers every campaign, Performance Max included. At campaign level (Campaigns → Settings → Additional settings → IP exclusions) Google allows up to 500 IP addresses per campaign, and Performance Max, video, App, hotel and Smart Display campaigns can't use it.

By the stopfakeclicks team. Checked against Google's help pages on Oct 15, 2026.

Account level: one list for every campaign

  1. 1In , click the Admin icon.
  2. 2Click Account settings.
  3. 3Open the IP exclusions section.
  4. 4Enter the IP addresses you want to exclude.
  5. 5Click Save.

This list applies to Search, Shopping, Display, Performance Max, Demand Gen, Discover and YouTube campaigns. You can only change it in account settings, not from inside a campaign.

Campaign level: up to 500 IPs per campaign

  1. 1Click the Campaigns icon.
  2. 2Open the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu, then click Campaigns.
  3. 3Click Settings.
  4. 4Select the campaign.
  5. 5Click Additional settings.
  6. 6Expand IP exclusions.
  7. 7Enter the IP addresses you want to exclude.
  8. 8Click Save.

Not available for Performance Max, video, App, hotel or Smart Display campaigns. For those, use the account-level list.

Rules worth knowing

  • 500 is the limit per campaign. Google's help and its API documentation both state it. Neither gives a number for the account-level list.
  • If you exclude IPs at both levels, Google merges the two lists: an IP on either one can't see that campaign's ads.
  • An asterisk replaces the last part of an address, so 203.0.113.* excludes the whole block from 203.0.113.0 to 203.0.113.255.
  • Addresses come in more than one version. Google asks you to enter every version of an address you want to exclude.
  • Excluding a location is a different tool. To keep a whole city or country out, exclude the location in campaign settings instead.

Which IPs are worth excluding

  • reports don't show the IP address behind a click. To find it, match visits that arrive with a Google click ID (gclid) in the URL to the IP addresses in your own server or analytics logs.
  • Look for the same address clicking your ads again and again in a short time without buying, and for traffic from data centres or automated browsers rather than homes and phones.
  • Leave mobile network addresses alone. Phone carriers share one address between many people, so excluding it can shut out real customers.
  • Lists go stale. Bots rotate addresses, and an address that clicked last month may belong to someone else today, so an exclusion list needs regular pruning.

Doing it automatically

stopfakeclicks does this for you. A small tag on your site sees each visit from a Google ad. An address that clicks your paid ads 3 times in 48 hours, or that shows signs of automation, goes onto your account-level IP exclusion list through a script in your own account, every hour. It keeps at most 500 entries, removes only its own oldest ones and never touches IPs you added. Buyers, people who add to cart and shared mobile network addresses are never blocked. For the first 7 days it only watches.

Start your 14-day free trial

$9.99 a month per website after the trial. Nothing is blocked until you switch it on.

Sources

  1. Google Ads Help, “Exclude IP addresses”, checked 15 October 2026.
  2. Google Ads API, “System limits”: excluded IP blocks per campaign, 500.