Kyle Sulerud - October 28, 2020How much information does Google really know about us? If I’m targeting audiences with my Youtube Ads, how accurate is that targeting? I wanted to explore this by looking inside my own Google profile and analyzing the accuracy of the interests that Google thinks I have.
Google places us in different audiences based on what they think they know about us. And, as it turns out, they know a lot about us. They know what we’re searching for on Google, they know what we’re watching on YouTube, and they know what we’re looking at when we are browsing other websites. But do they know everything? How accurate are they when they are placing us in these different audiences?
Let’s take a look at my own Ad Personalization settings.
You can do the same thing just by going to adssettings.google.com.
Here, you’ll find your ad personalization profile. You can choose to turn it off, which means you’ll never see ads specifically targeted to your interests. If you select this, you’ll still see ads, but they’ll be more related to the content of the videos you’re watching or the content on the websites you’re browsing. They just won’t be targeted at you personally, but honestly, who wants that? We want ads that are relevant to us. I definitely recommend leaving it on, especially if you are an advertiser. You can see who is advertising to you and how they are advertising to you. Just seeing other ads is a great learning opportunity.
Watch this video and let’s take a look at the interests and personalization that Google has inferred about me: