Advertisement From Google to Facebook, the Internet’s best websites are free to use. How can they afford that? Well, these “free” sites are actually showing you ads, which they charge advertisers for. When you click an ad, the free site earns money. So if you like these free websites and want them to stay free, it’s in your best interest to tolerate those ads. And you’re bound to accept their existence more if they cater to your likes rather than your dislikes.

So why not make the best of this situation and look at ads positively? Why You Should Work on Ads Although it’s our first instinct, we’re not going to complain about ads here. We’re also not going to get into Ad-blocking seems like a natural option for any consumer because of a simple reason: it's an easy way to get rid of an annoyance. This article is all about a positive spin: accept that online behavioral ads exist, companies like Did you plan on sharing your browser history with advertisers? Because if you have been sharing your browsing history with Facebook then that's exactly what's going to happen. They collect about us, and that they aren’t going anywhere. They help run the free sites we love, and we’re going to make an effort to make those ads relevant for us.

Before we start, there’s one thing you should know. Facebook and Google don’t offer ways to stop ads altogether. The options you get are “interest-based”.

What this means is that you can let Facebook and Google know what you like, so they can show you ads accordingly; or you can opt out of giving them any information, and they’ll bombard you with online behavioral ads you don’t like. Either way, you will continue to see ads. In that case, doesn’t it make more sense to see an ad that you’ll like? How to Make Facebook Ads Relevant We’ve gone into the details of If you've ever considered advertising on Facebook, but assumed it was completely unaffordable except for the largest companies and corporations, you may want to think again. If you've ever advertised on Google, using the pay-per-click.

The same basic data is used to serve ads to you on other Facebook products like Instagram. In its quest to show you ads that are more relevant to you, Facebook has been gathering information on you all this time, and has determined your “interests”. Updating your profile is one way to Are you seeing irrelevant ads from Facebook?

Here's why Facebook is showing you these ads and what you can do to influence them., but here’s where you can add or delete interests: When you’re on this page, you’ll see a bunch of tags marked as your interests. Click the “X” to delete that interest. “Undo” restores it. And you can search for more interests, or add more from suggestions for relevant interests. Pay attention and mark the things you really are interested in, delete what you aren’t. That way, the ads you see will be things that actually matter to you! Control How These Interests Are Added However, Facebook will keep automatically adding new interests to your profile.

There’s a way to stop this though. Let’s dive into the Facebook Adverts settings to find out how at the ad settings page: Adverts based on my use of websites and apps This is how Facebook tracks your use of websites and apps that have a Facebook button. Turning it off won’t stop Facebook from tracking you, but it will stop Facebook from adding these websites and apps as “interests”. If you want to protect your privacy, there are other Whenever you visit a site with a Like, Tweet or +1 button, you're actually sharing data with Facebook, Twitter or Google. And that's not all. There are hundreds of advertising and data collection companies that.

Adverts with my social actions When you Like, comment, use an app with a Facebook log-in, or share a post, event, or page on Facebook, it counts as you endorsing that page and is again an “interest”. Plus, then your friends can see this endorsement as an ad! It’s part of You know that message your friends share on Facebook that declares the social network can no longer reuse your images? Although a hoax, Facebook actually can use your photos if and when it wants to. Even without your express permission.

Want to switch that off? This is the option to do it. Block Advertisers or Show Interest When you see any advertisement in Facebook, you can interact with it immediately.

Take your mouse cursor to the top-right corner and you’ll see a little “X”. Click the X to see three options: Click the first option to hide it immediately, the third to indicate interest in ads like this. The second option, “Why am I seeing this?”, opens up a pop-up window that tells you why Facebook targeted you with this ad. In this, you can gain some additional control, like blocking all ads from the advertiser (in case that isn’t of interest to you), or going directly to the advertiser’s page and learning more about him. There’s also a shortcut to your Advert Preferences page, which we talked about above, in case you want to make some more changes. How to Make Google Ads Relevant Google, Gmail, YouTube, Android, Maps and all of the company’s other main services are completely free because of advertising.

For that advertising to be effective, it’s important that Google is no champion of user privacy, but you might be surprised just how much they know., which is why it tracks your usage across the Internet. And like Facebook, based on that usage, it has a set of “interests” for you, which you can check out at:. There, you will see all the categories Google has marked as “Your interests”. Uncheck any box to remove it as an interest, or click the “Add Interest” button to add a new one.

Here’s you can have as interests. Along with that, add your gender and age if you haven’t already. Go to to view your Google profile and update the options there. Control How These Interests Are Added Like Facebook, Google monitors your activity across the Internet using DoubleClick, an advertising tool, and adds more interests to your profile based on that.

The Internet search giant is really persistent in how it tracks you and doesn’t make it easy to say no. But there is an official way nonetheless. Install th and Google won’t send a cookie every time you visit a site supported by Google’s large network of affiliates. The plugin works for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

Similarly, Users are beginning to accept the fact that Google may not be rolling back Google+ sign-in regardless of how much people hate it. But is it really as bad as you think? Also tells Google that you are interested in whatever that site is all about. So you might want to avoid that too. Actively Interact With Bad Ads Even after all this, sometimes, you’ll see an ad that you don’t want to see. It might be smutty, it might be an ad that covers the whole page you’re viewing, or you just might find it irrelevant. Whatever your reason is, you can close that ad and tell Google why.

On any Google ad in any page on the Internet, the top-right corner has a tiny “i” for information and an “x” for close. Click “x” to close, and tell Google why you chose to close it. This interaction again helps Google in showing ads that matter to you. The Digital Advertising Alliance and You Both Facebook and Google are part of an organization called the (DAA), which is part of how they mine information about you based on what you are browsing on the internet. With 123 companies in the DAA, you probably want control over its behavior. Unfortunately, not much is offered.

The DAA does not let you see your profile or control your interests. Instead, it gathers that data silently. Your only option is a similar opt-out program, which again will only reduce targeted ads, while you still get to see ads all the time and the companies are free to gather information about you. Go to and choose which of the companies you want to stop from targeted advertising. However, know that this only works for the current browser you are using. If you switch to a different browser, you’ll have to go through the procedure again.

If you’re on your mobile, the that you can install. But again, their effect is limited. Better Ads or Paid Content? Every time we talk about ads, it leads to a debate in the comments about ad-blocking. Let’s avoid that this time. Instead, let’s talk about the alternative: better ads vs. Paid content.

Would you prefer that Google and Facebook started showing more relevant ads to you? Or do you want to pay for content instead of watching ads (like Google just announced YouTube Red. YouTube is a different kind of service with a big community.

So, is YouTube Red good or bad for the video site in the long term?)? Image Credits: Explore more about:,.

Listen now: Subscribe: What Is Power Editor? Power Editor is a bulk ads creation and management tool typically used by larger Facebook advertisers or advertisers who want advanced features.

The Power Editor interface looks much different than the Ads Manager. Power Editor is essentially a plugin that works with Google Chrome. It works on a download and upload system, so every time you want to work in Power Editor you download all of your data from the Ads Manager and then create your campaigns, ads and ad sets within Power Editor. Then you click Upload Changes to actually start running your ads. Use the download and upload buttons to manage changes and start your ads. Your ads will then be available to view from the Ads Manager.

If you need to make any changes to features that are only available in Power Editor, you will have to re-download your ads, make your changes and upload them again. However, if the change is something you can adjust from the Ads Manager, feel free to adjust it there. Benefits of Using Power Editor Power Editor has a lot of interesting features. One benefit is that typically new features are added here first before they roll out to the Ads Manager area, so you have early access to all of the coolest toys.

Here are some of the other benefits of setting up your ads with Power Editor. Run Ads on a Time Zone–Independent Schedule If you know your audience is only on Facebook at certain times of day, you can improve your ad performance by showing your ads at those local times. Show your ads at only certain times of the day. When you’re choosing your budget and, you can pick exactly which times you want your ad to run in any time zone. Controlled Placement of Your Ad If you’re an app developer, controlling the placement of your ads can be very useful because you can advertise to the people on the right mobile device. You can also choose to only show your ad to mobile devices when they’re connected to WiFi.

Download Fb For Mac

Choose the exact placement of your ad on mobile devices. Better Optimization In Power Editor you can optimize your ad for the same things available in the Ads Manager such as clicks, post engagement (depending on whether you’re doing a boosted post ad) or impressions. But you can also select daily unique reach, which allows you to bid on impressions (bid per 1,000 people who see your ad), but limits their views to once per day. Daily unique reach ensures that your ad will reach each person who sees your ad just once per day. If you use the daily unique reach option, do your testing just like any other feature to see if it works for you.

Bulk Uploading If you’re running a lot of ads, you may be interested in the bulk uploading feature. It allows you to upload an Excel spreadsheet of your ads and download them too, if you need to edit them. Use bulk uploading to save time on large campaigns. Start with the template and then check with to understand all of the columns.

Run Unpublished Posts One of my favorite reasons to use Power Editor is the Unpublished Post option. An unpublished post looks similar to a regular page post in that it has longer text, but it also includes a call-to-action button and you can control what the link looks like. Create an unpublished post in Power Editor. I recently did a short tutorial on how to create an unpublished post in Power Editor.

One of the keys is to know where to start an unpublished post—that is, to use the + symbol box, rather than selecting a post that has already been published. Create your unpublished post by selecting the + symbol. Unpublished posts are great because you can split test your ads without posting multiple times on a page. That means you’re not posting too much promotional content for your fans. Plus, you have a call-to-action button that draws attention to your desired action. Using an unpublished post can be a good idea because you can have longer text in the post to tell people more about your offer.

Keep in mind that the ad is optimized for page post engagement by default, so some people are going to be more likely to just click like or comment on your ad rather than visit your website. You can always change your optimization to clicks. Navigate Power Editor Now that you know a little bit about Power Editor, the next step is to access it. You can do that one of two ways: You can go there directly at, or you can go to the and select Power Editor from the left sidebar. You can access Power Editor from the Ads Manager. Typically the first time you use Power Editor, you’ll be prompted to download your data, but it’s a good practice to start your session by selecting the Download to Power Editor button at the top of the screen.

Once you are in Power Editor, you have a different navigation process. First you see the left sidebar where you can filter by campaign, ad set or tag. This can help you easily search for individual ads if you have a lot. At the top of the page, just click on Campaigns, Ad Sets or Ads to see your ads listed.

The text in blue indicates the active selection. In this example I chose Ads and you can see the three ads I’m currently running. Basic sections of Power Editor. The buttons at the top of the page also have options for what you can do within each section. For example, you can split audiences of an ad set if you want to break down your ad for testing purposes.

Explore the buttons at each level to see your options. This is also where you delete campaigns, ad sets or ads. Simply highlight what you want to delete and click the garbage can icon. Another cool thing you can do from here is easily duplicate campaigns, ad sets or ads by clicking on the icon that looks like two boxes together. Create a Campaign Remember that a consists of three elements:, ad set and ad.

The campaign is where you set the objective of the ad such as page post engagement or website clicks. The ad set is where you select the targeting, budget and schedule for the ad.

And the ad is where you have the image and text for your ad. At first glance these things seem a little disconnected in Power Editor (at least that was my feeling), but you can see which ad set and campaign each ad is part of in the chart. Here are the instructions for creating an ad in Power Editor. Name the Campaign, Ad Set and Ad My favorite way to quickly create an ad is from the Ads area (Ads is highlighted in blue). But make sure you go back into the Ad Set area and edit your targeting and budgeting.

Mac Ad Site

Click the + symbol on the left side of the page to create a new ad. To start an ad, click the + symbol when you are in the Ads section. A Create Ad pop-up box appears asking you to add the campaign and ad set. If you’re using an existing campaign or ad set, make sure they have the goal (Campaign area) and targeting/budget (Ad Set area) that you intend.

Otherwise, create a new campaign and ad set. Choose your campaign goal. If you create a new campaign, you have similar options as in the Ads Manager.

Here you can also set the buying type to Auction or Fixed Price. Auction is a better way to go since you’ll probably get a cheaper click price than what you bid. If you’re creating a new ad set, you just need to make sure you adjust the targeting and bidding in the Ad Set area. Name your ad set something meaningful that relates to the type of targeting you’re doing or what you’re testing so that the reports are clearer. Once you have the campaign, ad set and ad named or selected, click Create. Design Your Ad Now you’re in the Design area for the ad.

The Design area will look different depending on what objective you chose for the campaign. Note that you’ll see errors listed until you’ve completed everything you need to do before you upload your ad. Create your ad in the lower section. To get started, choose the Facebook page associated with the ad. Below that, you see all of the creative sections to complete such as text, link description, headline, image, etc. Add all of the elements for your ad.

Once you have the ad in the Preview area and it looks good, you can move on to editing the ad set. Just a quick note about previewing an unpublished post: You can’t edit the text after you have the ad in the Preview window—you have to delete the ad and start over. For the other types of ads, you can edit the text. You cannot edit unpublished posts. Edit the Ad Set When you edit your ad set, you specify:. Budget and schedule for the ad. Bidding for the ad (optimization and pricing).

Target audience. Ad placement Note that any ad under the ad set will use these parameters. If you want the ad to test different options, you’ll have to create a new ad set. To edit the ad set, click on Ad Sets at the top and select the ad set name that you set up earlier. Edit the ad set to make sure you have the right target and budget set up. I talked about custom scheduling earlier, but you can also just set a daily budget with a start and end date or use the lifetime budget just like the Ads Manager.

When you select Edit Audience, a pop-up appears where you can use the same types of targeting available in the Ads Manager. Edit your target audience. Set your placement and optimization and pricing in the next section of the Ad Set area. Set your placement and bidding. Upload Your Campaign, Ad Set and Ad Now your campaign, ad set and ad are complete and you can click the green Upload Changes button to send your ad in for review. If the ad passes Facebook’s review, you’ll get a notification that your ad has been approved and it will either begin running right away or be set to run according to the schedule you configured. When you click Upload Changes, you’ll get an upload preview to make sure you know exactly what’s being sent to the Ads Manager.

You’ll receive an upload confirmation notification as well. You get an Upload Preview to confirm what new ads or changes you’re uploading. Access Your Power Editor Ads Power Editor is used only in the creation or editing phase of your ads. Once you’ve uploaded the Power Editor ads, you can access them and make changes to them from the Ads Manager.

You also access the report information from the Ads Manager area. A quick caveat As much as I love Power Editor, I am a big proponent of using the Ads Manager for most campaigns, especially if you’re new to Facebook advertising. Several features that were once only available in Power Editor are now available in the Ads Manager. For example, the Ads Manager now gives you access to advanced tactics like custom audiences, lookalike audiences, website retargeting and conversion pixels.

Additionally, both Power Editor and Ads Manager have (which let you save a demographic and interests target to easily use it in multiple ads), as well as partner categories (which let you target things like homeowners, online shoppers, travelers and more). You can access these in the Behaviors section of the ad set targeting. Over to You Power Editor is a great tool to save you time if you run larger campaigns. Once you get the hang of it, using Power Editor isn’t too hard, and Facebook has definitely made big improvements in usability over the last year.

I encourage you to do your own testing with some of these features to see what works best for you. What do you think? Have you used Power Editor?

What has your experience been? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!