---
title: "Block a named advertiser, campaign or banner from your inventory"
description: "The one brand-safety control that removes hand-linked direct demand and any DSP creative that slipped through — block a banner, a campaign or a whole advertiser on a placement, a site or all sites from the Banners probability card, and block a site or placement from demand out of an analytics report."
type: "howto"
audience: [network-manager, admin]
keywords: [brand safety, block advertiser, block campaign, block banner, named block, banners probability, excluded blocking, block site, block placement]
ui_path: "Account → Publishers → site → zone → placement → Banners probability"
---

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/llms.txt. Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. Append .md to any documentation page URL to get its markdown version.

# Block a named advertiser, campaign or banner from your inventory

## What it is and why

A named block is the one hard stop for direct demand: it removes a banner, a campaign or a whole
advertiser from a placement, a site or every site, whatever any category rule or matching rule
says, and it is the fix for a DSP creative that got past `bcat`. It is the first layer of
[Use case: brand safety with category rules, domain lists and advertiser blocks](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/brand-safety-controls.md); the domain lists and category rules are the next two.

**Example.** "Lucky Seven Casino" has 3 campaigns and 14 banners. One block of the **advertiser** on
the Kidwise **site** removes all 14 — and every campaign created later — from its 8 placements in
one action.

## Typical scenarios

| You want to avoid… | Use | Does it stop demand? | Lives in |
|---|---|---|---|
| **One named advertiser** (its 3 campaigns and 14 banners) on your site, or one DSP creative that slipped past `bcat` | **Named blocks** | Yes — the only hard stop for direct demand | Banners probability card / analytics |

## Step by step

Blocks are set on the supply side from the placement, or from an analytics report on the demand side.

The one control that removes hand-linked direct demand — and the fix for any DSP creative that
got through. A block is **absolute**: it removes the pairing regardless of how well any dimension
rule or matching rule matches.

1. On **Account → Publishers → site → zone → placement**, open the **Banners probability** card —
   it lists every banner that can currently win on this placement.
2. Click the **Block** button at the end of the row (a circle with a slash). The popover offers
   **Block as** *Banner*, *Campaign* or *Advertiser* (blocking the advertiser removes all its
   campaigns and banners at once, including campaigns created later) and **On** — this
   *Placement*, the whole *Site*, or *All sites*. Click **Block**, then confirm.

   ![Banners probability card with the Block popover open on a banner row, offering Block as and On choices](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/brand-safety-controls/block-named-advertiser.webp)

3. The block appears on the placement's (or site's) **Pre-targeting** card under
   **Excluded: Blocking** and can be removed there.

   ![Pre-targeting card with the Excluded: Blocking group holding one advertiser chip](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/brand-safety-controls/block-chip-pretargeting.webp)

4. In the other direction, an advertiser or network manager blocks a **site** or **placement** from
   demand: run an **Account → Analytics** report grouped by Site or Placement together with Banner
   or Campaign, tick rows, and click **Block site** / **Block placement** in the selection bar —
   the rule lands on the banner's or campaign's **Targeting** card. The success toast appears
   whatever the server answered, so confirm the chip under **Excluded: Blocking** there.

Full behaviour and scopes: [Block demand and inventory](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/targeting/pretargeting-blocking.md).

## Caveats and exceptions

**Named blocks**

- Creating a block **silently switches the targeting card on** for the entity that receives it (a
  block cannot work with targeting off), which also re-activates that entity's positive rules.
  Blocks then keep applying even if you later switch the card off — the switch only governs
  positive dimension rules.
- The **Block** buttons are drawn only for roles allowed that scope — each scope (placement / site
  / all sites; blocked sites / blocked placements on the demand side) is switched on separately,
  per role, and none is on out of the box.

The caveats that apply to every layer — what none of the four controls can do, competitive separation and the roles — are on [Use case: brand safety with category rules, domain lists and advertiser blocks](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/brand-safety-controls.md#caveats-and-exceptions).

## Not working?

A block is missing, or a block changed what else serves? The likely causes:

| Symptom | Likely cause | Check |
|---|---|---|
| No **Block** button on the Banners probability row | The block scope is not granted; none is on out of the box | Admin → Users and roles → block scopes (placement / site / all sites) |
| Rules on the placement stopped applying after a block was removed, or positive rules came back unexpectedly | A block switches the targeting card on; removing it does not switch it off | Placement → **Pre-targeting** card switch |
| **Block site** from analytics showed a success toast but no chip | The toast appears whatever the server answered | Banner / campaign → **Targeting → Excluded: Blocking** |

The other layers, and the verification step, are on [Use case: brand safety with category rules, domain lists and advertiser blocks](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/brand-safety-controls.md#not-working).

## Reference

Full behaviour and scopes: [Block demand and inventory (pre-targeting blocks)](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/targeting/pretargeting-blocking.md). Which permission each control needs is in the [reference table](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/brand-safety-controls.md#reference) of the use case.

## Related

- [Use case: brand safety with category rules, domain lists and advertiser blocks](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/brand-safety-controls.md)
- [Keep your ads off named domains and apps](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/brand-safety-controls-domain-and-app-lists.md)
- [Steer automatic pairing with a category rule](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/brand-safety-controls-category-rules.md)
- [Block demand and inventory (pre-targeting blocks)](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/targeting/pretargeting-blocking.md)
- [Protect your inventory from bad creatives and bad traffic](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/creative-policy-protection.md)