How Do Ads Track You?
“I was talking about a piece of furniture. I never searched for it. So why did I suddenly get an ad for it?”
The first thought that comes to mind is: my phone is listening to me.
But ads don’t necessarily need access to your microphone to be that precise.
Platforms can use a combination of signals: what we search for, what we watch, what we click on, the websites we visit, our activity within a platform, data advertisers share under applicable rules, and algorithmic models that predict what we might be interested in.
That’s why an ad can sometimes feel like it “heard your conversation”, when in reality, the system may have reached you through signals you didn’t even notice.
Try it yourself: How well does online marketing “know” you?
TEST 1: Talk about something you wouldn’t normally search for.
Choose, together with a friend, a product completely outside your usual interests — for example, a specific appliance or construction material. Talk about it, but don’t search for it, click on it, or type it anywhere.
One thing is certain: simply seeing an ad afterwards would not, by itself, prove that your microphone was used.
TEST 2: Search for something just once
Choose a product you wouldn’t normally search for. Google it, visit 2–3 websites and look at a few products. Then stop searching for it.
Pay attention to the ads you see over the next few days. If you start seeing that product or similar ones more often, you may be seeing advertising signals and remarketing in action.
TEST 3: Ask the ad why it found you
When you see an ad on Instagram or Facebook, open the ⋯ menu and look for “Why you’re seeing this ad.”
There, you can see some of the information Meta provides about why you may have been included in the audience for that ad. It won’t reveal every signal, but it can give you a much clearer idea of how ad targeting works.
Try it. Because sometimes, the best way to understand advertising is to become part of the experiment yourself.
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