It happens all the time: You go on Amazon and buy something. And then in the following months you're bombarded with ads for that item you just bought, despite the fact that you now already own it.
This is a huge problem for targeted ads, as they collect data on past behavior not future projections.
I experienced this very problem when I bought an air conditioner. After making the purchase, I kept seeing ads for other air conditioners. All I could think was "Stupid advertisers! I don't need two of these!"
Well Facebook has a new system that aims to solve this problem. For a while Facebook has given users various options for dismissing ads they don't like. It looked like this:
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The old prompt for when a Facebook user deemed an ad annoying
Now Facebook appears to have streamlined these options, and added one new very important choice:
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Now, Facebook's new prompt asks an important question
The new addition is "I already own this." So now, if you keep getting the same ad for a product you don't need to buy again, you can let the advertisers know.
It's unclear whether this is in place for all Facebook users or whether this is just in testing. Either way, it does solve one of the most annoying problems with targeted ads.
Business Insider reached out to Facebook to learn more about this new advertising option. We'll update if we here back.