i've never seen those ads before. aren't instagram ads tailored based on your browsing history? if anything, those ads may just be indicative of your recent interests.
Yeah, they’re tailored. I get ads for perf dev tools, compilers. I still get ads for vehicles months after buying one.
I’ve only had one ad that was “eerie.” Coworkers were talking about a kind of beverage I’d never heard of (talking over zoom, on a work-only machine), got an ad for the product later that day. Could be that I just recognized the name from our convo which caused me to scroll back up...
I finally figured out the spookiness after talking to my mom on the phone about vacuum cleaners and then getting ads for vacuum cleaners:
My mom bought a vacuum online after our phone call, and one way advertisers choose an audience is “all the friends of someone who searched for the product”
My roommate and I confirmed this by getting ads for something the other just googled.
What I’m trying to say is, targeted ads ruin Christmas, but no one will hear me out :’(
