Blacklist
A blacklist is a list of traffic sources, placements, subids, or IP addresses a buyer excludes from spend because of zero conversions, fraud, or chargebacks. It's the main manual cleanup tool inside a campaign that's already running.
How a blacklist gets built
A source lands on the blacklist based on tracker data: zero or near-zero conversions against real spend, an oddly high CTR paired with a low install rate, or a high chargeback and rejected-lead rate. The list needs regular review — a source flagged a week ago can stay live in rotation if nobody circles back to it.
Blacklists in PWA arbitrage
A manual, tracker-based blacklist works after the fact — the buyer only sees the problem once budget is already spent on a bad source. APEX's built-in cloaking, antibot, and IP checks filter out bots, datacenter IPs, and known problem ranges before they ever reach the prelander, so a manual blacklist ends up as a second layer of defense, not the only one.
FAQ
- How often should a source blacklist be updated?
- At minimum every few days on a live campaign, and more often in the first week of a new launch, since that's when the worst sources show up fastest. A blacklist nobody revisits loses its value once the campaign shifts.
- Is an IP blacklist the same as a placement blacklist?
- No — a placement (subid) blacklist excludes a specific site or publisher within a network, while an IP blacklist blocks specific addresses or ranges regardless of placement. Buyers often run both together for tighter filtering.
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