Hey there! Have you ever noticed just how many ads show up in your Instagram feed nowadays? And have you ever wondered why you see ads for certain products or services – are they stalking you?!
Well in this guide, I‘m going to let you in on the secrets behind Instagram ads to help you customize and control what gets shown to you. Read on to learn how the system works and exactly how to update your preferences.
Why You Should Care About Ad Settings
Instagram has access to tons of data about you and your interests, which of course allows them to show you very targeted, relevant ads. But I totally get that it can feel a bit invasive for an app to make assumptions about what you‘ll probably purchase or what content you‘ll engage with.
And beyond just maintaining your privacy, poorly targeted ads also degrade your Instagram experience. Think about an ad that pops up over and over yet has nothing to do with you. Super annoying, right?
Luckily Instagram does make available robust ad setting options to provide transparency around data practices and targeting. Let‘s explore what‘s there at your disposal…
Navigating to Your Ad Settings
First things first – getting to those settings. Instagram sadly doesn‘t make it too easy to access these options, but just follow my lead here:
- In the Instagram app on your phone, tap that little profile icon down at the bottom right. This opens up your personal profile page.
- Next, tap the icon with the 3 horizontal lines in the top right corner. This brings down the main site menu.
- From there, choose the gear icon for Settings and let‘s scroll on down…down…keep scrolling!
- Eventually you‘ll see the option for "Ads". Give that tab a tap and you‘re in!
Pretty simple right? The key is knowing to go to Settings first – it‘s not laid out intuitively unfortunately.
Decoding Your Ad Preferences
Okay now that you‘ve made it to the Ads section, let‘s walk through what you‘ll find. I like to think of it in two buckets:
Ad Preferences
This category directly controls what types of ads Instagram will serve up in your feed:
| Setting | What It Controls | Recommendations |
| Ad Topics | Opt into or out of broad interest categories used to target ads | Deselect topics irrelevant to reduce clutter |
| Data About Your Activity From Partners | Whether to allow external website data for targeting | Leave on for maximal personalization |
As the table outlines, by toggling Ad Topics you explicitly indicate interests. The external data sharing allows partners like Facebook to inform targeting based on activity elsewhere around the web.
Depending on your personal preferences around privacy vs. relevance, you can dial these up or down.
General Ad Info
These settings deliver transparency into how Instagram targets you:
| Setting | What‘s There | Recommendations |
| Ad Interests | View interests Instagram has inferred about you from your activity | Remove any inaccurate interests |
| Ad Activity | History of your ad clicks, purchases, complaints | Review occasionally for targeting quality check |
Very useful here to see what Instagram believes you to be interested in based on what their algorithm has picked up on from your activity. I‘d suggest pruning back anything that no longer applies.
And that‘s the scoop on the key dimensions available to customize your Instagram ad experience! Let me know if any part needs more clarification. Just trying to unlock the full potential for you to set up the platform with your personal preferences and privacy in mind.
Talk soon,
[Your Name]
