Sometimes you want to know a little more about that ad you keep seeing over and over and over again online. Today, Google is launching a new searchable hub of every ad that shows up from verified Google advertisers in Search, YouTube, and Display over the past 30 days.
The tool, called the Ads Transparency Center, is a response to the company’s Ads Safety Report which was also released today. That report noted that Google blocked or removed over 5.2 billion has in 2022 for violating policies, a huge jump from the 3.4 billion it blocked or removed in 2021. Over 6.7 million advertiser accounts were suspended in 2022 as well, up from 5.6 million in 2021.
Not to be confused with My Ad Center, which allows you to manage what types of ads you see, the Ads Transparency Center instead gives you a closer look at those ads. Specifically, you’re able to see what other ads that particular advertiser has run, what ads it chose to run in different regions, the last date an ad was run by that advertiser, and what the format of the ad might be.
The idea behind the tool is that you’re able to get a little bit more information about a company you might be considering purchasing something from or a service you might be considering trying without having to click on the ad or visit the company’s site.
For instance, if you were considering buying a shirt you saw advertised, you might look up the company and see if they were the same company you saw an ad for pants from a few months ago.
Want to give it a try? Once it’s available for you, you can visit the Ads Transparency Center directly, or you can click on the overflow menu (those three dots) beside any ad you come across and access the information through My Ad Center. Of course, you could always block ads on Android and never think about any of this stuff again.
