Should you ALWAYS remove these placements?
On prior videos, I shared the pitfalls of the Audience Network and Rewarded Video placements. They are often the source of inflated and low-quality results.
Audience Network is known to drive low-quality traffic. Rewarded Video (also an Audience Network product) leads to low-quality video views.
Does this mean that we should always remove them? And are there other placements we should always remove?
You’re overthinking it. Here’s why…
When to Remove Placements
The only times placements can be a problem are when their low-quality results are directly tied to your performance goal. Let’s go back to our two problem placements.
You should remove Audience Network when optimizing for link clicks or landing page views because it leads to low-quality link clicks and landing page views. Since Audience Network drives the same action you want, it can fool the algorithm.
You should remove Rewarded Video when optimizing for ThruPlay views because it leads to incentivized (low-quality) ThruPlay views. Since this placement can load you up with the action you want, the algorithm will prioritize it.
Beyond these two very specific scenarios, you should ONLY remove a placement if it directly leads to a high volume of low-quality results — the same result that you’ve defined with your performance goal.
The assumption may be to remove these two placements in all cases, but it’s just not necessary. The algorithm won’t be fooled if you optimize for something else. If you optimize for any conversion, you’ll likely see Audience Network is barely used, if at all.
If it’s barely used, why wouldn’t you remove it? It’s just not necessary. We want to limit customizations when possible. Don’t restrict the algorithm if you don’t need to. That drives up costs.
Let the Algorithm Work
In most cases, use Advantage+ Placements and let the algorithm work. Use the Breakdown by placements to verify that nothing weird is going on.
