Jump to instructions on how to see fewer inappropriate ads on YouTube and other platforms owned by Google.

Not happy with ads you’re seeing?

A reader recently alerted me that some inappropriate ads were showing up alongside my Spiritual Eldercare videos on YouTube. Eek!

Unfortunately I have no control over which ads YouTube puts near my videos. (I am able to prevent them from playing in the middle of a video, so that’s something.) UPDATE: I found a way to limit inappropriate ad categories! So that should help 👍🏼

If you use YouTube videos a lot, I do recommend subscribing to YouTube Premium. It’s $14 per month, or $140 for 12 months, and you’ll get to watch everything on YouTube without those pesky commercials. You can also download videos to watch offline.

However, if you don’t want to subscribe to Premium, here’s what you can do to further customize the ads that YouTube plays for you.

1. Go to My Ad Center on Google. Click either “Get started” or “Personalized ads: Off.” Choose the option to turn on Personalized Ads.

2. Once Personalized Ads is on (you’ll see it noted in the upper right corner), look at the far left column on the page. Click on “Customize Ads.” The page will look like this; click on the tab that says “Sensitive” (shown circled below):

3. The “Sensitive” page will show several ad categories that you can turn on or off. Simply click on a category button to turn it off (gray) or leave it on (blue). In my example, I’ve turned all of them off except “Pregnancy and parenting.”

These instructions are focused on limiting that “sensitive” ad type 😳. But you can also check out the Topics and Brands tabs to further customize your ad choices. (Click the “minus” sign if you want to see less of those ads; click the “plus” sign if you want to see more of those ads.)

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

Peace be with you,

Image by Firmbee from Pixabay