Retargeting Exclusions

What AdGradr checks

AdGradr evaluates whether your prospecting and retargeting campaigns exclude audiences that should not be receiving ads:

• No exclusions on prospecting campaigns: Prospecting campaigns that do not exclude retargeting audiences or converters are paying to reach people you should be handling in a separate funnel stage.
• No converter exclusion on retargeting campaigns: Retargeting campaigns that do not exclude people who already converted are wasting spend on completed leads.

Why this matters

At LinkedIn’s CPCs ($8-15+), every wasted impression is expensive. Without proper exclusions:

• Your prospecting campaign pays to reach people who already visited your site (who should be in a cheaper retargeting campaign)
• Your retargeting campaign pays to show ads to people who already filled out your form
• You compete against yourself in LinkedIn’s auction, driving up your own CPCs
• You annoy people who already engaged with you, damaging brand perception

Experienced media buyers emphasize exclusions more than any other targeting refinement. The best targeting in the world is wasted if you are showing ads to the wrong people.

What good looks like

Prospecting campaign exclusions

• Recent converters (Lead Gen Form submitters, website conversion events)
• Existing customers (uploaded CRM list)
• Current employees (company page followers or uploaded employee list)
• Competitors (uploaded company list)
• Students and interns (seniority-level exclusion)
• Irrelevant geographies

Retargeting campaign exclusions

• People who already converted (form fills, demo requests, purchases)
• People who are already in active sales conversations (uploaded from CRM)
• Disqualified leads (uploaded from CRM)

The exclusion hierarchy

Prospecting  -->  exclude: retargeting audiences + converters + customers
Retargeting  -->  exclude: converters + customers
Bottom-funnel -->  exclude: customers

Each funnel stage excludes everyone who should be in a stage below it.

Common mistakes

1. No exclusions at all. The most common mistake. Campaign Manager does not require exclusions, so most accounts never set them up.
2. Excluding too broadly. Excluding all website visitors from prospecting means you lose people who bounced after 2 seconds. Exclude based on meaningful engagement (pricing page visitors, time on site) rather than all visitors.
3. Not refreshing exclusion lists. If your converter list is 6 months old, you are still excluding people who may have churned and could be re-engaged.
4. Forgetting employee exclusions. Your own employees see your ads too. At $10+ per click, that adds up fast.

How to fix it

1. Create a converter audience. In Campaign Manager, build a Matched Audience from Lead Gen Form submitters or website conversion events. Apply this as an exclusion to all prospecting and retargeting campaigns.
2. Upload your customer list. Export current customers from your CRM and upload as a Matched Audience. Exclude from all campaigns (unless you are running upsell campaigns).
3. Set seniority exclusions on prospecting. Exclude “Unpaid,” “Training,” and “Entry” seniority levels if your product targets decision-makers.
4. Exclude competitors. Upload a company list of competitors. You do not want them studying your ads.
5. Review and refresh monthly. Set a recurring task to update exclusion lists from your CRM.

When to ignore this check

• Accounts with no Matched Audiences at all will not have audiences to exclude. Fix the Matched Audiences check first, then set up exclusions.
• Brand awareness campaigns targeting very broad audiences may intentionally skip exclusions to maximize reach. This is a legitimate strategy if the goal is awareness, not leads.

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Want someone to handle this? The Click Makers team manages LinkedIn Ads accounts for companies spending $10K+/month. Get in touch to see if we are a fit.