One day last week, I was on my computer and I searched “Creating a podcast.” I wanted to get information on what it takes to start a podcast, i.e., what equipment you need, how do you build your audience, etc.

I clicked on a couple of search result pages and quickly skimmed some paragraphs. I didn’t have much time to check it out so I marked the pages for later reading.

About an hour later, I picked up my phone to check my Instagram feed. If you’re not familiar with Instagram (IG for short), every so often between the posts of those you follow, you’ll see a sponsored post – an ad. Well, the next three ads I saw were all about podcasting. Two of them were trying to sell me podcast training while the third ad wanted me to buy equipment such as a special microphone and control unit.

On the one hand, I find this pretty cool. In other words, my interests on the Internet – in this case podcasting – caused me to be exposed to ads related to my search. (And these ads appeared on an entirely different device!) This meant that, if I was really interested, I wouldn’t have to go back to search to find training and/or equipment. In a sense, these ads were saving me time!

Despite the good side to this story, some people will find the whole thing creepy. I saw ads on my phone from a search I preformed on my computer? The ads appeared in an app (IG) that I wasn’t even in when I searched? Is there anywhere on the Internet that I can go and not be followed?

Whether you find this creepy or cool, that’s totally up to you. I have customers who always use a VPN (Virtual Private Network software) when they’re on the Internet, they turn off cookies, they delete history automatically when they log out of a browser and more. In other words, they do everything they can to not have the Internet track them. If you feel that way, that’s fine. For me, though, I actually prefer targeted marketing because it really does save me time.