With privacy and personalization at the forefront of the tech world over the last few years, Google released a new privacy tool that will give users better control of the ads they are served, along with more details on why they are being served particular ads.

At Google’s annual I/O event this past May, Google unveiled the new platform that will allow users a few different options to ensure the most relevant ads are being served to them across Google Search, YouTube, and Google Discover.

The new privacy tool will be called “My Ad Center.”

Here’s what the platform can do:

• Allow users to “follow” brands and topics that interest them, so Google can better serve relevant ads from advertisers and brands the consumer cares most about.
• Choose the amount of ad personalization they are most comfortable with. Whether a consumer wants ads personalized based on age, relationship status, demographics, education, and more, this is where they can control the amount of personalization in their ads. They can also limit any and all personalization, and choose to opt-out of sensitive ad topics.
• Allow consumers control over what data sources can be used to personalize their ads, and which sources can be used across different Google properties.
• Allow for optimization of their ad experience directly within an ad itself. While the My Ad Center will operate as a standalone platform, many users will likely manage the ads they are seeing in real-time. Google users will have the ability to click on “Why This Ad” within an ad unit and can make changes or get clarity on why they were targeted directly in the ad unit. From here, a user has various options – they can like, block, report an ad being served to them, or fine-tune their targeting preferences. See the screenshot below for an example:

• See who paid for the ad being served. This is a bigger change for Google, as this information has not yet been shared at all historically, but now users can see exactly who paid for an ad. Not only can they see who paid for an by clicking “Why This is Ad,” but users can also see the criteria that matched them to the ad.

While My Ad Center support for Google Display Network, Gmail and Search partners is being worked on, it will initially come with a lighter feature set than the above properties.

My Ad Center is an important and notable effort by Google to help get the power back to users in the form of privacy control. Not only can users now see which brands are serving them ads, but they also get the ability to manage which brands have access to them and what information can be used to create their ad experience.

Updates like this are always great to see, and only will hinder the advertisers who aren’t quick to adapt to platform changes. As an advertiser, so long as your targeting is smart, relevant and focused on your consumer, and you are a real, legitimate brand – you shouldn’t expect performance to change too much. If you have any questions about if you are targeting the right user, or the strategy to get there, please reach out to our team! We’d love to help you.