How do I stop all the ads on my Facebook page?

Facebook ads can be annoying and intrusive. You may feel like you’re being constantly bombarded with ads in your News Feed, and just want them to stop. Fortunately, Facebook provides ways to limit how many ads you see.

Why am I seeing so many Facebook ads?

Facebook’s primary revenue source is advertising. The more ads they can show users, the more money they make. So Facebook has a vested interest in displaying as many ads to users as possible.

In addition, Facebook collects a huge amount of data about its users, including your age, gender, location, interests, pages you’ve liked, groups you’ve joined, and more. All of this data allows Facebook to target ads specifically to you based on what they think you’ll be most likely to click on and engage with.

Ad targeting

Facebook has very sophisticated ad targeting capabilities. Advertisers can target users by:

• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Interests and hobbies
• Pages and groups liked or followed
• Purchase history and website browsing
• And much more

The more detailed profile Facebook has on you, the better they can match you with relevant ads. And the more you engage with certain types of ads, the more similar ads you’ll see.

Ad auctions

Facebook holds auctions for ad placement on your News Feed. Advertisers bid for the chance to display ads to certain types of users. The higher the bid, the more likely their ad will be shown.

So if you fit the profile of a target audience an advertiser wants to reach, and they place a high bid, you may see their ads frequently in your feed.

How to stop Facebook ads

While you can’t completely eliminate Facebook ads, there are ways to reduce how many you see:

Adjust Ad Preferences

You can access your Facebook Ad Preferences to see what interests and information Facebook has associated with you, and remove data you don’t want used for ad targeting:

1. Click on the arrow in the top right corner
2. Go to “Settings & Privacy”
3. Click on “Ads”
4. Select “Ad Preferences”
5. Review and remove any interests you don’t want used for ads

This will stop ads related to those interests from being shown to you.

Hide Ads from Specific Advertisers

If there are certain advertisers whose ads you want to stop seeing, you can hide all of their ads:

1. Click the three dots in the top right corner of an ad
2. Select “Hide ad”
3. Choose “Hide all from X” where X is the advertiser

This will prevent all ads from that advertiser from appearing in your News Feed going forward.

Ad Preferences on Mobile

To access ad preferences on mobile:

1. Tap the hamburger menu icon (three horizontal lines)
2. Scroll down and tap “Settings & Privacy”
3. Tap “Ads”
4. Tap “Ad Preferences”

From there you can remove interests as you would on desktop.

Limit Ad Tracking

You can prevent Facebook from using your activity on other websites and apps to target ads by limiting Facebook’s ad tracking:

1. On desktop, go to your Ad Preferences
2. Click “Ad Settings”
3. Disable “Ads based on data from partners”

This will reduce the ability for off-Facebook activity to influence the ads you see.

Use Ad Blockers

Using an ad blocker like AdBlock Plus is an effective way to block Facebook ads. However, this will block all Facebook ads, not just ones you find intrusive or irrelevant.

Unlike Pages and Leave Groups

Go through your liked pages and joined groups and unlike or leave any that do not genuinely interest you or accurately reflect your preferences. This will stop ads targeted to fans of those pages and members of those groups.

Limit Facebook Usage

The less time you spend on Facebook, the fewer ads you’ll see. Consider taking a break from Facebook for a set period of time, such as a few days or a week, to both get away from the ads and re-evaluate how much time you want to spend on the site.

Ad Frequency Capping

Facebook does limit the number of times you will see a specific ad to try to prevent excessive repetition:

Facebook and Instagram have implemented ad frequency capping to try to avoid showing users the same ad too many times. The exact limits depend on the campaign objective and platform, but typically range from 1 to 10 times per day.

However, there are so many different advertisers and ads on Facebook that you can still feel bombarded even with frequency capping per individual ad.

Facebook Ad Options

Here is a summary of the different options available for controlling Facebook ads and the pros and cons of each approach:

Option	Pros	Cons
Adjust Ad Preferences	Lets you selectively remove interests Very granular control	Time consuming to update interests Doesn’t block all ads
Hide Ads from Advertisers	Blocks entire advertiser Very simple to do	Have to do for each advertiser You may still see ads from that advertiser for different products
Limit Ad Tracking	Reduces influence of external sites	Facebook still has your user profile and activity to target ads
Use Ad Blockers	Blocks all Facebook ads	Blocks useful/relevant ads as well Ad blockers can slow browser performance
Unlike Pages and Leave Groups	Limits niche targeting Good for pages/groups you don’t interact with	Time consuming to unlike pages/groups
Limit Facebook Usage	Simple and avoids all Facebook ads	Prevents you accessing Facebook for social reasons

Conclusion

Facebook ads can be invasive and irritating at times. However, the platform does provide users with options to control and limit ads based on their preferences and tolerances.

Adjusting your ad preferences, hiding ads from specific advertisers, limiting ad tracking, using ad blockers, unliking pages, leaving groups, and reducing your time on Facebook can all help decrease the number of ads you see.

Finding the right balance for you between staying connected on Facebook and limiting annoying ads may take some trial and error. But you should be able to find a configuration that shows you useful, relevant ads while avoiding excessive distractions.