Whitelist / Blacklist (Site Targeting)
A whitelist allows ads to run only on chosen publisher sites; a blacklist blocks specific sites, both are core site-targeting controls in native campaigns.
A whitelist / blacklist is a pair of site-targeting controls that let an advertiser decide which publisher sites a campaign may run on. A whitelist restricts delivery to an approved set of sites; a blacklist (or block list) excludes specific sites while allowing the rest. Both operate on the publisher / site ID level.
How it works. Native campaigns typically launch broad, serving across many ad placements to gather data. Once enough impressions accumulate, the media buyer reviews performance by site: sites that convert profitably go on the whitelist (or get bid up), and sites that spend without converting go on the blacklist. Over time a campaign converges toward a curated list of proven inventory.
Why it matters. On open native supply, a small fraction of sites usually drives most of the profitable conversions, while a long tail burns budget. Disciplined whitelisting and blacklisting is one of the highest-leverage optimization habits in media buying, it concentrates spend where it works and is also a brand safety tool, keeping ads off low-quality or off-brand pages. Competitive intelligence accelerates this: by capturing which sites rivals consistently run on, you can seed a whitelist with inventory that is already proven rather than discovering it the slow, expensive way.
