Google Ads now limits the number of country-level exclusions you can add to your ads to 120 countries. This is a new limit, but Google confirmed that location exclusions aren’t going away, but they are now limited to 120 countries.

PPCSauce was given an error while using the location exclusion feature and posted the error on X that read, “The number of entities exceeds the limit.” Here is a screenshot:

Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Liaison, replied saying, “You will see this notification if you try to add more than approximately 120 country level location exclusions. The aim is to simplify location targeting workflows, and we recommend using positive geographic targeting instead.” Marvin also confirmed this is not a bug but a feature, where Google intentionally added a limit to the number of countries you can exclude.

Some think that this means Google will remove the location exclusions completely one day but Google said no. “Location exclusions aren’t going away & we know they are important. But advertisers should not have to use a blanket exclusion approach, and using a positive targeting-first approach should not impact performance,” Marvin added.

“I offered this in that thread as well: If you or anyone are seeing issues on this front, please feel free to DM me with further details so we can investigate,” she added later.

Here are those posts:

Anyone else getting this with location exclusions today? pic.twitter.com/CtjBbjKf64

— PPCSauce | Google Ads Excellence (@ppcsauce) March 6, 2024

You will see this notification if you try to add more than approximately 120 country level location exclusions. The aim is to simplify location targeting workflows, and we recommend using positive geographic targeting instead.

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) March 6, 2024

Correct not a bug.

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) March 6, 2024

Hey Anthony, Location exclusions aren’t going away & we know they are important. But advertisers should not have to use a blanket exclusion approach, and using a positive targeting-first approach should not impact performance.

I offered this in that thread as well: If you or…

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) March 7, 2024

Forum discussion at X.