Google Offers Mute Tool For ‘Reminder’ Ads

Google is to let users block specific ads for 90 days. It does have some restrictions however.

The new feature is designed to cover “reminder ads”, which is where websites can track visitors and then use Google Ads to serve the same ad or a series of follow-up ads (on other sites) to that visitor on multiple occasions in future weeks. The idea is for advertisers to take advantage of the fact they know somebody is interested in a product or service and might be more susceptible to repeated nudges.

The problem is that this can be annoying, particularly if you really aren’t interested in said product or service. To get round this, you’ll soon be able to go to your Google account and the Ads settings sections, find the “Your reminder ads” section and then select the X next to the advertiser in question.

This then “mutes” the ads for 90 days, which Google says is an appropriate time period given the average “reminder ad” campaign lasts for up to a month.

The muting only affects Google-provided ads on non-Google sites and in apps. This means you might still see the ads on Google owned pages, or on third-party sites using a different advertiser.

The system mutes ads based on the domain which they point to when clicked or tapped. That means you might also see ads from the same advertiser if they use multiple domains.

It’s important to note that using this tools won’t reduce the number of ads you see on the pages. Instead you’ll see other ads in their place which, in theory at least, might not be as relevant.