Meta Block Lists and Brand Safety Controls

This guide uses the Meta Business Help Center: About publisher and content block lists, Create a publisher block list, Upload a publisher block list, Apply a publisher block list in the Brand Safety and Suitability Center, Apply a publisher block list in Ads Manager, Best practices for publisher block list limit warnings, About partner-publisher lists, About inventory filter, Use inventory filter in Ads Manager, Manage brand suitability controls, Apply topic exclusions, About live video exclusions, About content from nonpartner-publishers, View delivery reports, Review delivery reports and Best practices for brand suitability. Checked on 8 November 2026. Meta notes that several of these features are "being introduced gradually", so your account may not show all of them yet.

The controls at a glance

Meta calls these tools brand suitability controls. They decide where your ads may run next to other people's content: in videos, in Reels, in feeds and in the third-party apps of Audience Network. Most of them live in the Meta Brand Safety and Suitability Center, which sits in Meta Business Suite. To see partner-publisher lists there you need a business portfolio. Some controls work per ad in Ads Manager, some for the whole ad account.

Content that breaks Meta's Community Standards, "such as full nudity, excessive violence, terrorist acts or misinformation identified by third-party fact-checkers, is excluded by default." These controls are for content that is allowed but wrong for your brand. Meta is clear about their reach: "there is no guarantee that all content and publishers will be compliant or aligned with your unique brand suitability standards."

Publisher block lists and content block lists

Meta has two kinds of block list:

• Publisher block list: a list of Pages, profiles and apps where your ads should not run. You build and manage it yourself.
• Content block list: works at the level of individual content, for Feed and Reels feed ads on Facebook and Instagram and for Threads feed ads. Meta says this "is available through brand safety and suitability Meta Business Partners", so you create and apply it by contacting one of those partners. In the Center you only see content block lists that were applied from there; to see the content actually blocked, you ask the partner.

For most small advertisers the publisher block list is the practical tool, so the next sections cover it.

Building a publisher block list

A publisher block list is a .csv or .txt file with one URL per line in column A. Meta describes three ways to fill it.

From the partner-publisher list

The partner-publisher list shows where your ads could appear on Facebook in-stream reels, ads on Facebook Reels and Audience Network. In the Center, click Partner-publisher lists, pick a placement type, tick the publishers you don't want, then click Add to publisher block list and choose the list. You can search, sort and filter by name. You can also click Download this list and copy URLs into your own file.

From delivery reports

Once ads have run, click Delivery reports, pick a placement, tick the publishers where your ads appeared that you don't want, and add them to a block list the same way.

By hand

Paste URLs into column A of a spreadsheet or text file. Two rules from Meta matter here:

• To block a publisher on every placement, include all of its URLs: Facebook Page URLs, Instagram account URLs and any app store URLs.
• For Facebook in-stream reels, list a Page as www.facebook.com/ plus its Page ID. Meta's example: Page ID 12345678 becomes https://www.facebook.com/12345678. You find the ID on the Page under About.

Uploading and applying the list

A list does nothing until it is uploaded and applied. To upload: in the Center click Publisher block lists, then Create publisher block list, give it a name and drop in the .csv or .txt file. Meta says the upload "may take a few minutes."

Then apply it, in one of two places:

• In the Brand Safety and Suitability Center, open the list's Options and choose Apply or remove. You can apply it to all ad accounts (an option you only see with full control of the business portfolio), to selected ad accounts, or remove it from all of them. After that, the list is applied automatically whenever anyone creates a campaign in those ad accounts. Meta calls this "the best way to avoid human error".
• In Ads Manager, for one ad: in the Placements section of the ad set click Show more options, find Publisher block lists, click Edit and pick the list.

You can keep one list for every account or a separate list per account. Meta's example is an organization with two ad accounts that wants to block different URLs in each: two lists, one applied to each account.

List limits and warnings

One file "can't contain more than 10,000 lines due to platform technical constraints". For more, Meta suggests using multiple files.

There is a second limit on how much you block in total. When applied lists go over Meta's limits you see a warning. It "won't prevent you from running the ad, but it will prevent you from running the ad on one or more placements": Facebook in-stream reels, Facebook profile feed, Audience Network, ads on Facebook Reels and Instagram profile feed. The reason Meta gives is that the auction needs enough options to choose from.

Meta's fixes: block URLs at account or business level rather than per campaign, remove lists or URLs that aren't important, and compare your list with the current partner-publisher list. URLs that aren't in Meta's network don't block anything, so removing them costs you nothing.

What gets blocked automatically

Two groups of Audience Network apps are handled for you as soon as you have any publisher block list:

• Testing-size apps that receive a very low volume of ads are listed separately, and "these apps will be blocked by default".
• OEM apps that come preloaded on Android phones have no Play Store URLs, so you can't add them to a list. Meta says that if you have made any publisher block lists, "we will block the OEMs automatically for you."

Meta updates the partner-publisher list regularly and says "it's best to check it often."

Inventory filter

Block lists name publishers. Inventory filter controls the sensitivity of the content around your ad instead, and "it doesn't block publishers." It has three settings:

• Expanded inventory: content that follows Meta's Content Monetization Policies, for the most reach. This is the default.
• Moderate inventory: excludes highly sensitive content. Meta notes it "lowers your reach and may increase costs."
• Limited inventory: also excludes additional sensitive content and live videos, again with lower reach and possibly higher costs.

The filter is set separately for three groups: Feed ads (Facebook and Instagram feed, Reels feed and Threads feed), in-content ads (Facebook in-stream reels and ads on Facebook Reels) and Audience Network. On Facebook, Instagram and Threads it excludes certain videos and feed content; on Audience Network it excludes whole apps. In Ads Manager you find it under Placements, Show more options, Inventory filter. If you opted out of a placement group, its setting isn't shown. In the Center, the Controls page sets it for the business or per ad account. If you can't see the option at all, Meta says to contact your Meta account representative.

Topic, live video and nonpartner exclusions

These three only concern video placements on Facebook.

• Topic exclusions for Facebook in-stream reels and ads on Facebook Reels: gaming, news, politics, and religion and spirituality. You need full control of the business portfolio, and you set them in the Center under Controls, Ad account settings, Topic exclusions. They apply to existing and future campaigns in that ad account, and nobody can change them at campaign or ad set level. Meta says this feature is being released in specific regions only.
• Live video exclusions: in-stream ads can appear in live videos. Exclude them for one ad in Ads Manager, or for the whole ad account in the Center. Limited inventory already excludes all live videos.
• Nonpartner exclusions: ads can also appear in videos from publishers that never signed up for monetization, for example when a rights holder claims a copyrighted video through Rights Manager. You can exclude those for in-stream reels and ads on Facebook Reels; the setting applies to the whole ad account and can't be changed in Ads Manager.

Delivery reports: checking where ads ran

Delivery reports list where your ads actually appeared: Facebook in-stream reels, ads on Facebook Reels, Audience Network rewarded videos, Audience Network native, banner and interstitial, Facebook Feed and Facebook Reels feed. In the Center, choose Delivery reports, an ad account and a placement. The first time you open a placement you may have to opt in, and data appears about 1 to 2 days later. For Facebook Feed and Reels feed the report shows only the top 100 posts by impressions for the last 15 days.

Start with the URL, the organization or brand (useful for Audience Network apps you don't recognize), the Page name and the impressions. For in-stream reels and ads on Reels, a content-level breakdown links to the videos your ad ran next to. Downloads from Ads Manager by campaign or ad set add campaign and ad set columns.

If a report is empty, Meta lists three reasons: the placement wasn't chosen, the data isn't there yet ("reports may lag by about 3 to 5 days"), or the delivery system found no opportunity on that placement. Impressions from Advantage+ app campaigns are included in delivery reports but not in Ads Manager reporting, so the totals can differ slightly.

The cost of every restriction

Meta's best-practice page opens by saying you may not need these controls at all. It also explains the trade-off: the delivery system "works best with as many options for people and placements as possible". Restricting those options limits delivery, can make ads more expensive and can make it harder to spend the whole budget. Our Meta Advantage+ campaigns guide covers how placement choices interact with Advantage+.

Meta's questions to ask first include whether ads inside publisher content are a problem at all, whether you want Audience Network, what your customers would find inappropriate (its example is a children's brand), which publishers you would not want to fund (a news app and its rivals) and how you would react to a tragic news event.

A simple routine

Our suggestion for a small advertiser, built on Meta's tools above:

• Start with defaults unless a real brand rule says otherwise, and decide whether you want Audience Network at all.
• Run, then review the delivery reports after the first week or two, and add publishers you don't want to a block list from there.
• Apply lists in the Center, not ad by ad, so a new campaign can't go out without them.
• Keep lists short and relevant, and watch for limit warnings.
• Raise the inventory filter only where the audience calls for it, and expect less reach when you do.

Google Ads has its own versions of these tools; our Google Ads placement exclusions guide explains them. For how Ads Manager is organised, start with our Facebook and Instagram ads guide.

FAQ

What is a Meta publisher block list?

A .csv or .txt file of Facebook Page, Instagram account and app store URLs where your ads should not run. It covers Audience Network apps, Facebook in-stream reels, Facebook profile feed, ads on Facebook Reels and Instagram profile feed, once uploaded and applied.

How many URLs can a block list hold?

Up to 10,000 lines per file; Meta suggests multiple files for more. If your applied lists exceed Meta's limits, your ad still runs but is kept off one or more placements.

Do block lists work on Facebook and Instagram feeds?

Publisher block lists do not cover the main feeds. For Feed and Reels feed ads on Facebook and Instagram and for Threads, Meta offers content block lists through brand safety Meta Business Partners, and the inventory filter.

Does inventory filter block publishers?

No. It sets how sensitive the surrounding content may be (Expanded, Moderate or Limited). To block named publishers, use a publisher block list.

Why is my delivery report empty?

The placement may not have been chosen, the data may not be there yet (Meta says reports can lag about 3 to 5 days, and a first opt-in takes about 1 to 2 days), or your ad found no opportunity on that placement.

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