Tech is letting users choose their ad experience

The Future. Social platforms and online giants are ceding some of their power back to users with new features that give people more control over the types of ads they see. The features help people curate their online experience and help advertisers better target their digital-marketing spend. But, they may actually also be a low-key way of keeping the platforms out of hot legal water.

Ad dynamic
No one likes ads, but they may be a little more enjoyable if you’re at least watching the ones you want.

• Per WSJ, ByteDance is partnering with the Digital Advertising Alliance (the company behind those YourAdChoices icons) to let users opt out of certain ad categories, specific words, and hashtags.
• After years of unregulated tracking, Meta, Google, and Snap have all recently rolled out similar “see fewer” ad features, giving users more leeway to select their ad experience online.
  • Google is planning to expand its feature with the creation of “My Ad Center,” which will give users even greater control.

• The Digital Advertising Alliance is also developing a tool that will allow users to block certain types of ads across most websites.

The new features are meant to be a relief to people who especially don’t want to see ads for things such as baby clothes, diets, alcohol, or gambling due to past trauma or substance-abuse recovery.

The move is also beneficial to advertisers, who no longer have to waste money on serving ads to people who don’t want to see them in the first place.

Talk about a win-win situation.