How to find an instagram ad again


How To Find The Ads You Were "Interested" In On Instagram

Life

by Lea Rose Emery

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Ah, the wonderful and terrifying world of Instagram ads. If you feel like one thing that you clicked on now haunts your internet browsing forever, then I feel your pain. Online ads seem to infect corner of the screen on mobile or laptop — and Instagram is no different. In fact, a lot of people do their shopping straight out of Instagram ads. But have you ever clicked on an ad, interesting in seeing what it was about, only to get distracted and have it be lost forever? Well, fear not — because you can find Instagram ads that you were interested in or interacted with. They’re still there, living in your profile.

In fact, it’s really easy to find ads you've interacted with in the past — all you have to do is go to your “Settings” on mobile, scroll down to “Ads,” and then tap "Ad Activity. " In that section, you'll be shown any ads that you’ve interacted with — whether you clicked, liked, scrolled through, or attempted to bookmark them — in the last 90 days.

Now, I would argue that this is equal parts useful and creepy. On the one hand, you may genuinely want to retrace your steps back to an ad or a product you liked. Maybe you saw a sweater that you wanted to tell a friend about or some nifty sports gear that you’ve been wanting to try — but then you can’t remember the actual name or how to access it again. Well, this will make your life a whole lot easier. On the other hand, it’s a little unnerving — because you might find ads that you clicked on so mindlessly that you don’t even remember interacting with them. Maybe you see a pattern of clicks and interests that you didn’t even know you had. Suddenly, you feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror and the world is a much darker place.

Screenshots via Emma Lord/Bustle

So, yeah — this might be a super power for good or evil, depending on how you look at it. Sorry about that.

It’s definitely true that people have been interested in taking a little more ownership of their social media accounts. You can even find all of your old Instagram bios, so you can remember each and every embarrassing song lyric that you put in there as a desperate hope to catch your crush’s attention. Or is that just me? You can also click around to see if someone follows you on Instagram, or delete an archived Instagram story so it’s really gone. Basically, if you explore the app enough, you'll see plenty of ways to take more ownership of the content you're seeing, and the content other people can see.

Form being able to see your old profiles to connect with your closest friends to finding those comfortable shoes you clicked on once that apparently Meghan Markle wears, learning how to navigate your Instagram profile can give you a lot more control over the app. Plus, you might just find something you thought was lost forever — or you’ll discover that you’re an Instagram zombie who taps on thousands of ads and products without thinking. Either way, the power is in your hands.

How to find recently viewed ads on Facebook and Instagram

Saw an ad when browsing your Facebook feed or skipped a story ad on Instagram and now can’t seem to remember the ad, product, or brand? It’s common. But, I have a better solution than waiting for it to appear again! Thanks to Facebook and Instagram, your recently clicked ads are saved in history.

Let me show you where to find all your recently viewed ads on Facebook and Instagram.

  • Find recently viewed ads on Facebook for iPhone or Android
  • Find recently viewed ads on Instagram for iPhone or Android

Find recently viewed ads on Facebook for iPhone or Android

  1. Open the Facebook app on your iPhone or Android.
  2. Tap the hamburger icon.
  3. Tap Recent Ad Activity.
  4. You will find the ads you clicked, and it permits you to save them later. 

If you do not find the ‘Recent Ad activity,’ try this method to sneak a peak. This method also works if you are using Facebook on a browser.

  1. Open the hamburger menu.
  2. Scroll down, tap on Settings.

  3. Tap Ad preferences.
  4. Tap Advertisers whose ads you have clicked.
  5. You will find the list of advertisers that you have interacted with on Facebook.

Note: You can also access your ad history by following the same process on the website. However, it will only display the list of advertisers and not the ads.

Note: The Instagram web will not have that information, so make sure you have the app installed on your iPhone or Android.

Find recently viewed ads on Instagram for iPhone or Android

  1. Go to your Profile.
  2. Tap the hamburger icon.
  3. Open Settings.

  4. Tap Ads → Ads Activity.
  5. You will find all the ads that you interacted with on Instagram here.

Note: Instagram only keeps a history of the ads from stories or feed you have interacted with. If you simply scrolled through an ad, it won’t show up.

This is how you can find recently viewed ads on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook is known to have a powerful suite for ad tracking, which is why it keeps a record of every activity you do on these platforms. 

If you do not agree to your data being tracked, you can change your iPhone’s tracking permissions or uninstall the apps. 

What are your views on the same? Let me know in the comments below. 

You may also check out related posts:

  • How to change your Instagram password or reset it
  • How to see who viewed my Facebook profile?
  • Remove a remembered account on Instagram from iPhone
  • How to change your name on Facebook

iGeeksBlog has affiliate and sponsored partnerships. We may earn commissions on purchases made using our links. However, this doesn’t affect the recommendations our writers make. You can read more about our review and editorial process here.

Author

Harshanki

An entrepreneur by heart, I am obsessed with the world of Apple. I survive on Apple products and their updates. Over the last five years, I have been writing all kinds of content that are remotely connected to Apple and sharing across digital platforms. When not writing, you will find me on the court playing basketball or in my room playing the sitar.

How to find recently viewed ads on Instagram and Facebook • Oki Doki

Facebook and Instagram are no longer just social media platforms. Over the years, they have evolved into a marketplace, a video viewing hub like YouTube, a game streaming service, and more. Among all this, the ad network is what ties all Facebook services together. According to the report, Facebook generates over 98% of its total ad revenue. It gives an idea of ​​how widespread its ad network is and how much data it collects for personalized ad targeting. However, if Facebook has managed to grab your attention with its ad recommendations and you want to find an ad you've seen recently on Instagram or Facebook, follow our guide below. In this article, we'll show you where to find all the ads you've recently viewed on Instagram and Facebook.

Find recently viewed ads on Instagram and Facebook (2021)

Here we have mentioned all the ways you can find out about your recent ad activity on Instagram and Facebook. You can click on the links below to go to the relevant section.

1. To find your recently viewed Instagram ad, you need to install the Instagram app on your Android or iOS smartphone. Advertising activity on the site is not available. Once you've installed the app, open your profile and click on the hamburger menu. Then open the "Settings" menu.

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2. Then click "Advertising" and select "Advertising Activity".

3. Here you will find all recently displayed ads on Instagram. Keep in mind that Instagram only logs the ads you have interacted with on the platform. It includes the ads you interact with in the feed as well as Instagram stories. If you just saw an ad while scrolling through the feed, it won't show up here.

1. If you are using the Facebook app on Android or iOS, open the hamburger menu on the top navigation bar. After that, click on the "Recent ad activity" option. If you don't see the "Recent Ad Activity" option here, scroll down and click "Learn More" to open more settings options.

2. Just like Instagram, here you can find all recently viewed Facebook ads. It also gives you information about when you clicked on the link and the ability to save the ad for later viewing.

3. In addition to the app, Facebook also allows you to find recently displayed ads on its desktop and mobile website. However, keep in mind that it only gives information about the advertiser and not the exact ad. If you're on desktop, click this link to see your recent Facebook ad activity.

4. And if you're using Facebook on a mobile browser, open the hamburger menu and scroll down. Here click on Settings.

5. After that, scroll down and open "Ad Settings". Then click "Advertisers whose ads you've clicked on" to see the ads you've recently seen in your feed.

6. Here you will find a list of advertisers you have interacted with on Facebook.

Discover old ads on Instagram and Facebook

Here's how you can find old ads you've recently seen and interacted with on Instagram and Facebook. We all know how powerful Facebook is as a company when it comes to ad targeting. While this helps a lot of people make their food choices, I don't like it. If you'd like to strictly prevent Facebook from targeting you with interest-based ads, please review our guide to remove off-Facebook activity. This will prevent Facebook from using data about your advertising preferences collected from third-party applications.

And if you're done with Facebook's total disregard for user privacy, then go ahead and delete your Facebook account without leaving any trace. Finally, if you are looking for a way to recover deleted messages on Instagram, you can do that too. Just follow our guide at the link. Anyway, it's all from us. If you have any questions, leave a comment below and let us know. We will definitely try to help you.

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"How to set up ads on Instagram?"

Productstar Blog

How do I set up ads on Instagram?

It has long been known that well-adjusted advertising in social networks can bring good income to a business. With its help, you can implement a full-fledged sales funnel - from getting to know the brand to warming up to buying. There are also opinions that Instagram gives less organic reach to accounts that do not use official advertising at all.

Instructions on how to set up advertising on Instagram, in this article.

Everyone remembers that Instagram has been owned by Facebook since the distant 2012. Therefore, setting up advertising takes place in the Facebook Ads Manager and is impossible without creating a business page. A detailed description of how and why is at this link.

Although no, there is an option to set up ads directly from the Instagram application, but the functionality is significantly limited there. And, in any case, you must have a business account.

How to start advertising setup?

After creating a business account, check your payment settings. The card needs to be linked. And immediately an important point - you need to monitor the limits of advertising campaigns, because without them, ad impressions will not stop, even if you have 0 on your card. Just during the billing period, Facebook will issue an invoice for the specified amount and you will have to pay.

Next, let's move away from the technical side and turn to the strategy. Yes, we do not recommend setting up ads without understanding what purpose you need it for. In addition, the advertising account will ask you about it in the first setting.

Therefore, analyze the current state of affairs, think over an advertising strategy and desired indicators. There is no need to just launch a promo, because this often leads to a drain on the budget.

For example, your goal is to get sales from Instagram. So you need to think in advance where potential customers will go - to the site, lead form, messengers.

Preparation

We still need to prepare texts and other promotional materials. Let's say right away that it is worth testing different formats. Anything can shoot — a regular post, a story, a carousel or a video. It is also better to prepare several texts, with different approaches and advantages.

Well, you should think in advance who you will show ads to. Write down several target audiences who are definitely interested in the product, and who might be. For convenience, you can use the services of mindmaps. Let's say you have a healthy food delivery service. This may be of interest to athletes, young mothers, and environmentalists.

Creating an advertising campaign

We figured out the strategy, we open an advertising account and create a new advertising campaign.

Target selection

Next, a window opens where we just need to decide on its target. This is necessary so that the algorithm understands what you need and optimizes ad impressions for users who meet the required parameters.

For the purpose of "conversion", the ad algorithm will look for people who are more likely to take some action on your site - buy or leave payment information. "Traffic" will help you find people who are more willing to go to the site, messenger, etc.

You can also select the lead generation goal. Then you can create forms where customers will leave their data - phone, mail, etc. This is a great way to build a base, and also useful when a product is complex and you need to communicate with the manager before buying.

More information about all options can be found in the help. Marked in the picture where to find it.

Name and budget

After choosing the goal, we go down and name the campaign. We advise you to reflect the type of goal in the title, some defining information (name of the promotion, type of product, etc.). For example, wedding_events_lead, the name of an event agency ad to search for orders for organizing a wedding.

And here we immediately determine the budget of the campaign, you can set the daily or for the entire duration of the campaign.

Create an ad group

Well, we got to the main point. In this part, you need to set the parameters by which ads will be shown and create the ads themselves. First, also write the name of the group. Here we advise you to write the date of creation and the audience to whom you will show.

If you have chosen conversion as the target of your ad, you will also need to select which action is considered a conversion. For example, “sending an application”, “lead”, etc. Also, in some cases, you need to choose where a person will go when clicking on an ad - to a website, application, messenger, etc.

Setting up audiences

So, here we need to select the geolocation of the potential target audience, age, gender, language and range of interests. Or, there is an option to use a custom audience. We will talk about this in more detail later.

Country and age are simple, so let's talk about detailed targeting. This is a setting that allows you to find an audience by interests. There are a huge number of them on Facebook from the wide type "amateur sports" to "Ironman 70.3" (triathlon competition).

There can be several interests in one setting, but it is better not to have too many. You can also cross interests. For example, we want to find those who can afford to buy a yacht. It can be who are fond of yachting and golf. Since both sports are characteristic of wealthy people. The “recommendations” button will help you find close interests.

The window on the right will help you understand the size of the audience.

You can also select the "communication" setting. It helps you find people who have interacted with you in some way.

Placements

Now select the places where the ad will be shown. Since the options for Instagram and Facebook are immediately connected in Ads Manager. We select "manual selection of places" and mark the options we need.

There will be an additional menu under the seat options. There you can set on which devices we want to show ads. Usually select all, but sometimes you can segment. For example, it will be relevant for advertising an application that is only available for iPhone.

Also, this setting can help to identify a solvent audience. Since they tend to buy the latest models of phones.

Cost Optimization

The last step of this level is to set the ad time and limits (if you haven't already set them). Here you can choose when to end and start showing ads. Valid for limited-time promotions. You can also set a spending limit.

Advertisement setting

That's it, we're at the finish line - creating an ad. According to the classics, we write the name, by the way, it is better to add a format or placement to it (carousel, stories, etc.). We choose from which page the ad will be displayed and select the format.

You can select one image or video, or a carousel with several. Everything is relevant both for the feed and for stories. And immediately advice: test all options and remember that the text in the picture should not take more than 20%.

You can also select an existing publication or one that you have previously made in the "creative center" for advertising. This is such a library for creating advertising layouts in the Facebook business manager. The thing is convenient to consult with colleagues or the customer.

Add one or more images below, insert text and set button parameters. This allows you to select a word as the call to action. For example, “more”, “download”, “contact us”, etc.

In the field "URL for additional information" we put the link where our button will lead to. Website, messenger, etc. An important point: immediately put a link here with a UTM tag. Without it, you will not be able to properly analyze the effectiveness of advertising.

Custom audiences, pixel and look a like

As promised, we are talking about custom audiences separately. This is a great function of the FB advertising account, which allows you to do almost any retargeting tricks - squeeze site visitors, find a similar audience, and so on.

All this happens in a special section of the "audience". By the way, it also allows you to pre-configure and save audiences for the same interests. And in the process of creating an ad, simply select “use saved audiences”.

So we have several options to create an audience. But the most commonly used are "custom" and "similar". In the first case, you can generally download any database of potential customers and continue to warm them up with advertising. For example, you participated in a fair and handed out stickers for free for mail / phone number. Now the database with contacts can be uploaded to Facebook.

But the most pleasant moment is that you can set up a great “look a like” thing (just a similar audience). Then the Facebook algorithm will find a new audience that is most similar to your customers. According to many targetologists, this setting is the best they could come up with for advertising.

Pixel

Well, time to mention the pixel. Because if you are advertising on the site, without a pixel, the work does not make sense at all. It makes it possible to collect the audience of one or different pages of the site in order to show ads to it later, or also to make an audience similar to visitors. It also uses the pixel to retarget visitors. For example, you are advertising to visit the site so that customers get to know each other. Then you collect those who are interested (that is, they came to the site) and show them an ad with an emphasis on buying.

You can find the pixel code in order to give it to programmers or put it on the site yourself in the "Events Manager" section.

Set up, what's next?

Okay, we have set up advertising, launched it, what next? Now you need to wait until the advertising algorithm learns and can show ads at a lower price.

In general, advertising on Instagram (and on FB) has the following logic - the machine shows ads to random people from the audience that you have chosen. Someone is interested and clicks, thanks to which the algorithm receives additional “parameters” for finding new people. And so on, until the circle narrows to the best results.

Therefore, if after 1-2 days you see that the results are not very good, do not rush to cut everything down and do it again. Give the algorithm a chance and time to think.

During the learning process, look at the results, and then start to gradually reduce the price for the target action. You can also adjust the daily budget.

Statistics

One last word of advice - always use analytics systems to track results. The most common options are Yandex.Metrica and Google Analytics. Be sure to include UTM tags on all ads, as they provide more accurate click-through information and you can track the customer's journey to purchase.

If you are afraid of getting confused, you can create a simple Excel table with the names of labels and the sequence of their formation. For example, write down social networks, types of traffic (banner/story, etc.), names of advertising campaigns, etc. It's also useful if you're working with someone or the customer keeps the statistics himself.

Summing up

Phew, it's time to summarize our conversation. First, don't take on advertising without a strategy! Often this is a waste of money and your time. Plus, with a strategy, it’s easier to prepare everything you need for customization — banners, texts, audiences.

Second, don't do anything without analytics set up. Only she will be able to answer the main question - was the advertising effective. And if you are advertising on the site, the first thing to do is put a pixel code on it.

Third, test different ad formats and audiences. Be sure to give ad algorithms time to learn. Sometimes it takes up to several weeks. Therefore, the results of the “here and now” are a bit of a utopian story.

Fourth, remember that ad customization is not a panacea. It is necessary, at a minimum, that the account has informative content.

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