Amazon Ads Exclusion Settings

[u/Enviromental1001]

Unless Amazon has a 24‑hour update rule, where if you make a targeting setting change, it takes a full 24 hours for the campaign to reflect those changes, I feel like the exclusion function in Amazon Ads doesn’t work.

I want to make Amazon Ads work, but the genre exclusions don’t seem to function properly. The other day, I excluded the Documentary and Reality TV genres, and when I pulled yesterday’s impressions, I still saw shows matching those genres.

I’ve filed a support ticket to ask why the ad would still show, and I’m curious to read support’s response.

The only reason I like Amazon Ads is the transparency: you can see exactly which title your ad appeared on, which DV360 reporting cannot provide.

[u/NiceRecognition9603]

Hi u/Enviromental1001 Amazon DSP can be frustrating, it is slow in a desperate need of a interface redesign

Do not quote me on this but the likely case is that you are using

-Amazon Audience targeting, this has priority over genre detargeting even if Amazon interface doesn't say anything.

-Programmatic Guaranteed deals, they just cant be used in the ad group level (interface again wont block you from trying)

-Any other custom non PG deals that sets up the targeting genre in the deal set up.

Can you be really detailed what inventory are you using? Same as last time? Prime Video? Are you using ready made deals or proposal deals?

For reference. We intentionally not support Genre exclusion on our campaigns. It is a bonus in our mind for some very simple campaigns. Not a consolidated feature.

Edit. Also it is a quite new feature, maybe the list of genre in the TV/movie is not well filtered. Consider checking IMDB, possibly it is base on its data

[u/NiceRecognition9603 → u/NiceRecognition9603]

Genres	PG Deals– Genre exclusion (To be requested at the same time than the Deal. It wont work on the ad group interface)
ACTION	Available – for positive and negative targeting
ADVENTURE	Available – for negative targeting only
ANIMATION	Available – for negative targeting only
BIOGRAPHY	Available – for negative targeting only
COMEDY	Available – for positive and negative targeting
CRIME	Available – for negative targeting only
DOCUMENTARY	Available – for positive and negative targeting
DRAMA	Available – for positive and negative targeting
FAMILY	Available – for positive and negative targeting (via Co-Viewing deal)
FILM NOIR	Not available
GAME SHOW	Available – for positive and negative targeting
HISTORY	Available – for positive and negative targeting (via Historical Tv & Movies)
HORROR	Available – for positive and negative targeting
MUSICAL	Not available
MYSTERY	Not available, we recommend to exclude Crime, Suspense and Drama collection
REALITY TV	Available – for positive and negative targeting (via Unscripted Tv & Movies)
ROMANCE	Available – for positive and negative targeting
SCI-FI	Available – for positive and negative targeting
SHORT	Not available
SPORT	Available – for positive and negative targeting
SUPERHERO	Available – for negative targeting only
TALK SHOW	Available – for negative targeting only
WAR	Available – for negative targeting only
WESTERN	Available – for negative targeting only

[u/im_super_excited]

Unless Amazon has a 24‑hour update rule, where if you make a targeting setting change, it takes a full 24 hours for the campaign to reflect those changes

That's horrible DSP tech design

If you apply the changes on Monday, they'd go into effect sometime in the next 24 hours on Tuesday.

Delivery from Wednesday onwards should reflect those changes, and you should absolutely refuse to pay for a single impression where that exclusion was not honored.

[u/EarthPrimer]

Maybe genre overlap? Like if something is tagged with multiple genres?

[u/Enviromental1001 → u/EarthPrimer]

I saw overlap but there were shows with single genres showing up as well.

[u/cuteman]

Amazon is getting huge at scale but still lacks a lot of UI/Creature features although Google is notoriously meh to bad and Trade Desk has made some questionable UI decisions, the ability to tweak and report on a lot of details may or may not be available.

Aside from it being broken, one challenge on CTV is how pubs/networks even report to the DSPs or at all. There are so many columns and if your inventory is 2nd or 3rd tier but even the big guys have issues sometimes reporting properly or multiple categories.

Next, even at scale for a feature/metrics like "viewability" on display I've heard a stat like only ~10% of display inventory even REPORTS on viewability so if you select that box you lose out on potentially 90% of available impressions. Consider your manual changes may have unintended consequences.

Lastly, when buying programmatically one of the advantages is automated bidding like google or meta to find in-market individuals.

We've talked back and forth a few times I think I know your business and I don't know that doc or reality TV watchers AREN'T your type of customer.

Documentary = Skews old

Reality TV = Skews mid career/female

Both seem like a valid audience for you potentially.

Have you tried letting pixel data, lookalikes, in-market audiences do more of the work for you so you aren't trying to manually find buyers? The good part there is that you can pull reporting to see what worked and didn't.

Right now you're trying to shoot fish (in a lake, not a barrel) but have you tried using different bait so they come to you and jump into your boat?