Your exclusions control which advertisers can appear on your post-purchase pages. They live in Settings → Partner Preferences.
By default, all advertiser categories are on — and that's the recommendation. More advertisers competing for your placement means higher payouts, so don't over-exclude: only turn off what you're sure you don't want (your own category, direct competitors, anything off-brand). Over-excluding limits your earnings.
You first set these during onboarding (the Partner Preferences step) and can revisit them anytime in Settings → Partner Preferences.
If you go deeper — Advanced: Manage category exclusions — the Estimated Yield Impact meter shows how your exclusions shrink the pool of advertisers competing for your placement. Fewer advertisers means less competition and lower payouts, so exclude what you must and keep the rest on.
One thing worth asking about: enterprise advertisers. Talk to your Disco team about including enterprise advertisers on your placements — publishers who do typically see meaningfully higher earnings.
You have three controls:
Auto-exclude sensitive content
A single toggle — on by default — that blocks sensitive categories (alcohol, cannabis, firearms, gambling, and similar). Leave it on unless you have a reason to show sensitive advertisers.
Block specific brands
Search for a brand by name to block it — useful for a direct competitor whose category is otherwise allowed. If a brand shows as "not found," it isn't in the Disco network, so there's nothing to block.
Advanced: manage category exclusions
For finer control, open Advanced: Manage category exclusions to see every category and subcategory (Apparel & Accessories, Automotive, Toys & Games, and so on) and uncheck any you don't want. The count of excluded categories shows here.
How they combine
All three stack — an offer shows only if it clears everything you've excluded.