Personalized ads are advertisements that are tailored to your interests, demographics and preferences. This means that the ads you see on social media, on search engines, or in email inboxes may be different from those of your friends.
How Do Personalized Ads Work?
In order for websites to provide personalized ads, they must collect data about users’ online behaviors.
What Information Can Be Collected?
The type of information collected depends on the website's features and goals, like:
What you search for: If you search for a specific term on Google or Bing, it will keep the results stored in its database and use them to show relevant ads later on.
How long you stay on a page: This lets advertisers know what products or services interest you in general, so they can show more personalized ads in the future. For example, if you spend a long time looking at vacation packages but never click one, then over time an airline might conclude that this is not a service you're interested in right now and stop showing those ads altogether (or at least stop showing them when they think it's appropriate).
