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Facebook recently announced that it has figured out a way to override ad blockers and show its users ads, both on mobile devices and computers. This means that if you’re a Facebook user, you’ll probably be seeing ads even if you have an ad blocker installed.
These ads may be helpful, such as alerting you when your favorite tv show comes back on the air, or when your favorite author has a new book on sale. Or they may be irrelevant, such as ads for baby diapers when your child is leaving home for college.
So now would be a good time to check out your Ad Preference settings on Facebook to find out what Facebook knows about you.
How Facebook Learns About You
If you’ve been using Facebook, chances are you’ve made friends, Liked Pages, shared posts and reacted to others’ posts. These actions help give Facebook an idea of who you are, including your beliefs, political leanings, interests, and more. Facebook also may know where you’ve traveled, where you live and where you went to school.
All of these kernels of knowledge help Facebook to show you ads that should be relevant to you. But they may not be.
See Facebook: A New Way to Control the Ads You See on Facebook, and an Update on Ad Blocking
For example, just because you have Liked silly cat videos doesn’t mean you have a cat. And just because your friends mostly tend towards a certain political view doesn’t mean that you do too.
The good news is Facebook has made it easier for you to adjust your ad preferences. Hey, since you’re going to be seeing ads no matter what, you may as well make them more relevant.
By taking a few minutes to review your ad preferences you may be able to avoid seeing irrelevant, embarrassing or annoying advertisements on Facebook.
⇒ Check out Ad Blockers – For Better or Worse?
Facebook Ad Preferences
Facebook offers two ways to adjust your ad preferences. You can use both to make sure you have the most relevant ad experience.
Ad Preferences Page
You can see what Facebook knows about you on your Facebook Ad Preferences Page. There you will see the interests Facebook thinks you have.
Check out your interests in different categories, such as Lifestyle & culture, News and entertainment, People and more.
[note] This page is best accessed using your computer. [/note]
Hover your cursor over an interest to see an explanation of why Facebook thinks you like it. Click on the X in the upper right corner of an interest to remove it from your ad preferences.
Click on the interest to see sample ads. After you view a sample ad, you can let Facebook know if that interest is relevant to you.
[tip] Ad blockers may block sample ads on the Ad Preferences page. Pause your ad blocker if you don’t see sample ads after clicking on the interest. [/tip]
Hiding Ads
You can hide a specific ad on Facebook when you see one that is irrelevant. For example, you may want to see ads about an interest but want to hide an individual ad.
To hide an ad, click or tap on the down arrow in the upper right corner of the ad. You’ll see a drop-down menu.
Click on Hide ad to be shown fewer ads like this.
You can also click on Why am I seeing this? to be taken to a page with the link to your Ad Preferences. Alternatively, you can let Facebook know that the ad is useful so you can see more ads like that one.
⇒ Also see, How To Find Out What Google Knows About You
Your Thoughts
Have you adjusted your Ad Preferences on Facebook? Did Facebook guess right about your interests? Were you surprised by any of your interests on Facebook?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
* Facebook eye image (edited) courtesy of Geralt via Pixabay and Creative Commons
Hi Carolyn,
Sounds like something new 🙂
No, I haven’t really given much thought to Facebook ads as I have the Facebook Purity installed since long – I think Kim’s post (years ago) led me to install it – and it does take care of most of the ads, except a few on the side that show up sometime. However, it slows the loading speeding of FB, as I’ve noticed. Certainly need to check out all that you mentioned here, which I will though will FB show us ads based on our interests then? I guess it would, whichever way it will – no way without showing us those 🙂
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, That’s interesting that Facebook Purity still is able to block some ads. Even so, checking your Ad Preferences is still a good idea to make sure the ads you’re still seeing are relevant. Checking your preferences only takes a few moments so you can be sure you’re seeing ads that might matter to you.
Hi Carolyn,
It looks like the Facebook is becoming more like Google . And The facts you have shared I was not knowing.
So, Thanks for sharing.
Hi Robin, Excellent point. Both Facebook and Google are free to use but make money through advertising. The more these sites know about you, the better they can target advertising towards your interests. That makes ads more relevant to you and more valuable to advertisers.
By taking a few minutes to review your Ad Preferences, you can make sure that Facebook really knows what you’re interested in. If you’re going to see ads on Facebook, you may as well make sure they’re ads you’re interested in seeing.
It looks like the Facebook is becoming more like Google
Hello Le Hai, Great point. Yes, both Facebook and Google offer their services to us for free. But they both make money through advertising to us. The more they learn about us, the better they can provide advertisers with a targeted audience and show us more relevant ads. While ad blockers can block ads on Google, they don’t seem to be effective on Facebook. That makes adjusting our Ad Preference settings on Facebook all the more important.
Hey Carolyn,
Willing to read your wonderful post,
Very interesting post by you and most important thing is you have clearly defined how Facebook know whole about us. You have explored great ideas to how we can hide Ads from Facebook this is really helpful for us, sometimes we didn’t want see some specific Ads but continuously blinks so we get frustrated of it. You have easily makes us understand whole features to remove this undefined Ads.
Finally, from my opinion this post is very helpful to get relax from unwanted Ads. This post includes fully information regarding Ads in Facebook.
Eventually, thanks for sharing your worthy post.
With best regards,
Amar kumar
Hi Amar, Good point, sometimes you don’t want to bother with changing your Ad Preference settings on Facebook but just want to stop seeing an annoying ad. Removing the ad takes just a few seconds and then you never have to see it again. You’re right, taking control of which ads you see on Facebook can definitely give you a more pleasant experience.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Amar.
Hey Carolyn,
There are many things which are hidden from the Facebook users. It’s good to know the way to find it out.
Hiding the ads and many others things ca be done on Facebook but what do they know about us is required to find.
Thanks for sharing with us.
~Ravi
Hi Ravi, Yes, Facebook doesn’t let us hide all ads, but we can hide individual ones we don’t want to see. Hiding an ad takes just a few seconds. Better to see relevant ads than annoying ones.
I’m so glad this was helpful to you, Ravi. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with us.
This is very interesting Carolyn. I say no attention to them, but I might like to eliminate them. I am going to check this feature out. Thanks
Hi Pamela, Well, you can eliminate individual ads but you can’t eliminate all ads on Facebook, even with ad blockers. But better to get rid of ads that are irrelevant and set your ad preferences so you may see an ad that actually interests you.
It is amazing how sophisticated advertising and marketing research has become in the digital age. …and how it can invade our day to day lives. Thank you for bringing a simple simple solution to out attention to help minimize the “noise” on Facebook.
Hi Mike, Yes, we don’t want our Facebook experience cluttered by irrelevant ads. If we can’t block them, we may as well make them relevant.
Intersting information. i am using Facebook from many years but i don’t know Facebook used ad preferences. I think Facebook also another Google…..Thank you, it’s always useful to listen to the advice of a professional.
Hi Sanjeet, Yes, Facebook, Google and many other free sites make their money from selling ads. While we can block ads on many sites, we can’t totally block them on Facebook. So we may want to adjust our ad preferences to see more relevant ads.
I think Facebook and the NSA should hook up and go on a giant data collecting date!
I think web users must not install the adblockers and should give credit to the webmaster by uninstalling because they are getting huge stuff on internet free of cost. So it is worth to uninstalling or ot installing the adblock. Because webmaster put lot of effort and money to get the original things in front of them. So either it is facebook or any other platform do credit them and let the ads display.
Thanks
Hi Johny, Good point, if we are going to enjoy the benefits of visiting a website, shouldn’t we pay the price of seeing the ads on the site? That is the way many websites pay for their existence. By blocking the ads, we may be hurting the website and missing out on relevant ads.
But many people do block ads, as they fast-forward through commercials on TV shows they watch. The choice is up to the individual, but Facebook has found a way to neutralize ad blockers so it can show advertising and help pay for its business.