How to Stop Personalized Google Ads

If you use Google, chances are you’re pretty fed up with seeing intrusive ads based on what you’ve bought, searched, or browsed once.

Personalized advertising is by no means polite or ethical. Created with the noble intention of helping you find what you are supposedly looking for, all those autoplay videos and huge banner ads just ruin your online experience. No wonder you find yourself googling “how to stop Google ads”. Luckily, there are some simple tricks you can use to control this seemingly unstoppable stream of unwanted suggestions and recommendations.  

Pro tip: Are you annoyed with Google’s personalized ads and not in the mood to read the suggested articles and guides? Well, you can get rid of any type of ads, trackers, and malicious websites immediately. 

How to stop Google ads of all kinds  

While you can stop pop-up ads with a few clicks in your Chrome account, the same can’t be said for personalized Google ads.  

Yes, you can decide which ads you’d like to see and those you want to avoid. But you can’t switch them off entirely. So, you’ve got two options: accept Google’s efforts to help you (and at the same time, sell you something) or consider utilising third-party software.

If you want to block Google ads on your laptop or desktop computer, try Clario's web extension for Chrome—it is free, and, apart from blocking ads, it's got some more useful features:

• Anti-tracking: Clario’s web extension stops Google and other sites from tracking your online activities
• Web security: It checks if the website you're on is safe. It also checks all the links and search results to make sure they are safe
• Anti-malware: The extension prevents you from opening any malicious sites

You can also unlock additional features like:

• Malware protection to check scripts running on sites
• Real-time live support to answer all your questions and help you get the best out of your safe browsing experience

To get these features, you need to install the Clario app.

How to control personalized Google ads  

Chrome’s personalized ads are based on the information you hand over directly to Google (when you sign up, for example), your current location, and recent online activity. This includes what you search for online, apps you download, or websites you visit.  

Using this information, Google tries to predict what you really need to provide an improved online experience. Sometimes, it works. But in most cases, these ads are distracting at best and annoying at worst. If you’ve ever been bombarded with promotions attempting to make you buy an item that you’ve already purchased, you know what we mean.  

How to block or allow personalized Google ads

Unfortunately (or luckily?), Google can’t read your thoughts to know for sure what you expect from a browsing session. Instead, the Google algorithm relies on your online activity and personal interests.  

Follow our guide below to make your personalized ads correspond better to what you really want or to turn off Google ad personalization altogether.  

1. Go to Google Account

Open Chrome browser and click on Google Account (the circle with your avatar in the upper right corner). Click Manage your Google account under your avatar, then Data & personalization on the left navigation panel.

2. Ad Personalization

Scroll down to Ad settings, then click on Ad personalization.

3. Tune-up ad personalization

The ad personalization should be turned on by default. If you want to fine-tune what ads you see based on your interests, go to the next step. If you want to completely stop Google ad personalization, just turn the toggle OFF—that’s it.

4. Tune-up interests

• Scroll down a bit, and you’ll see How your ads are personalized with a list of your interests (according to Google).

• To turn off an interest, select it and click Turn off.

• To return an interest that you’ve turned off, select What you’ve turned off, then choose an interest.

• And select Turn back on.

If you want Google to show you ads based on these settings on all your devices, make sure you’re signed in to this Google account on all of them.  

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Personalized Google ads can be a true nuisance, especially if they constantly offer you things you don’t need. And while it’s quite easy to make them better-suited to what you really want, it sometimes seems impossible to turn them off once and for all. Luckily, with an ad blocker like Clario, it will only take you a couple of clicks to stop these pop-ups, banners, and autoplay ads that can sometimes scare the hell out of you.