Ever looked at something online and then immediately started seeing adverts for it all over the internet? Well we’re here to confirm that it’s not divine intervention, it is in fact a little tool known as Google Ads.
These ads actually have a name, they’re called ‘Reminder ads’ and they exist to literally remind you of something you’d seen earlier but clearly decided not to buy.
How it works is remarkably simple, you simply go onto a website that supports Google Ads, look at a product and decide not to buy it. That company will then start pushing ads about that product to you even when you’re not on their website being fed through any other website that supports Google Ads.
While Google argues that they’re useful, you’d be forgiven for thinking that actually they’re just a tiny bit creepy.
Well the good news is that Google now recognises that perhaps they’re not everyone’s cup of tea and as such will be giving you the option to turn them off.
If you want to turn them off then Google lists some in-depth instructions here on its site.
Otherwise if you want a simple breakdown of how to do it here’s a step-by-step guide”
Sign in to your Google Account.
Go to Ads Settings.
Scroll down to “Your reminder ads.”
Click or tap the X next to an advertiser whose reminder ads you’d like to remove.
One thing to note is that this isn’t going to last forever, the muting will only last for 90 days, but as Google points out, most ads won’t last longer than 90 days anyway.
What this also highlights is one further point which is that you can’t just mute all of them, sadly you’re going to have to go through each one individually and then mute it.