New google privacy policy

PoshTiger · Mar 1, 2012

I've just checked some of the adsense sites I run and the ads that are on there today are more closely related to the recent searches I've been doing - less about the content on the site..

Has anyone else noticed this?

Could it be due to the new privacy policy?

getmein · Mar 1, 2012

I've had remarketing ads follow me around for a while, but yes I think they are also starting to incorporate more of the information they have about you into what they show on the contextual network.

foz · Mar 1, 2012

Google and others will target to users behaviour (by your cookies).

You can opt out - www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

monaghan · Mar 1, 2012

can a publisher opt out of the targeted ads? From the ads I've seen following me about, I'm unlikely to click on an ad for a site I've already searched for and most of the people I know will conclude their business same day and don't keep going back.

Sussexite · Mar 1, 2012

This has been happening for a while.

Before Christmas G kept serving me ads based on the Christmas presents I'd been buying Mrs Sussexite (which didn't exactly help keep them a surprise).

Thank God I hadn't been shopping for something embarrassing.

ratboy · Mar 1, 2012

I have Portable Toilet adverts following me around, really annoying.

BREWSTERS · Mar 1, 2012

It's daft - ads shouldbe targeted at what you're looking at now, not last week.

PoshTiger · Mar 1, 2012

I've got a site that hasn't got many adsense advertisers..

Previously it was getting lots of google adsense adverts, now these have changed to adverts based on content I've searched for...

A bonus if you're site's CPC 'aint all that...

murph · Mar 1, 2012

I've noticed this too and tbh can't understand the logic by G?! Bit of a risky manoeuvre IMO

Alien · Mar 1, 2012

foz said:
Google and others will target to users behaviour (by your cookies).

You can opt out - www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

Handy link, thanks!

Brassneck · Mar 1, 2012

I'm currently plagued by hearing aid adverts after following a link on one of my health sites to a hearing company. Been going on for about 3 weeks. Previously had loads of similar and especially a nuisance for the image ads rather than the text ones.

Stephen

monaghan · Mar 2, 2012

From a website owner's point of view this can't be good as surely people would be more likely to click on a relevant advert so you are showing people what they've already got and getting far less clicks than if you have something relevant to your site.

I searched for an Android update for my daughter's Samsung yesterday, now I'm getting ads for new phones which I have no intention of buying so no chance of the site owner generating any revenue from me or the advertiser getting positive interest. I just can't see how this actually benefits anyone in the chain.

getmein · Mar 2, 2012

I think it very much depends on what you're searching for. If you were searching for a mortgage the other day, that makes you a more valuable user (based on the assumption that a mortgage ad will pay a lot more than other ads) than if you were looking for a lower value product.

If you'd visited a transactional e-commerce website and didn't buy anything. As an advertiser I could re-market to you with a discount code to try and entice you back. I know that you've expressed an interest in blue widgets and I know that you didn't checkout on the site.

From a publisher point of view, it just puts more ads into the auction for that impression. If you've already got a site in a high paying vertical it probably won't outperform contextually relevant ads. I think the real winners are site owners who had previously had much lower eCPM who now have far more potential ads to show to users.