Ad Block: Blocking Ad Publishers’ Success

By: Shraddha Banglorewala

Image: Mary Queency (Flickr)

The nature of media and advertisement is constantly evolving. Advertising techniques have to keep up with changing preferences and habits with every new generation before they become outdated.7

Image: Rodion Kutsaev (Unsplash)

The digital advertising industry is now facing a crisis – Millennials, also known as the “digital natives” are blind to ads on social sites, they simply skip, disregard or block them.4

Image: Oscar Keys (Unsplash)

Online ad publishers are now facing a crisis that can essentially put an end to their existence.11

Image: Carlos Muza (Unsplash)

“Ad blocking software is here to stay and has the potential to negatively impact both advertisers and publishers.”12

Image: Cgc76 (Flickr)

Henrik Aasted Sørensen, wrote the source code for Adblock in 2002 as a 'procrastination project’ in University - today well known as AdBlock Plus, it has become the most widely used ad blocking software.9

Image: Markus Spiske (Unsplash)

"Adblock Plus has become the internet’s advertising sheriff.”11

- Michael Rosenwald

Image: Céline Aussourd (Flickr)

An Adobe report from 2015 shows that 198 million people globally are now blocking ads. In the US, ad blocking grew 48% from last year, to 45 million users.10

Image: João Silas (Unsplash)

Adobe says that $21.8 billion in global ad revenue will be lost this year, a massive loss and threat for publishers.11

Image: Didier Weemaels (Unsplash)

People between the ages of 18 and 29 are the most frequent ad blockers (41%).12

Image: Bruno Gomiero

(Unsplash)

Men are 48% more likely than women to use ad blocking software while browsing the internet.12

Image: Nala Connect (Unsplash)

Ad blocking differs by industry - visitors on gaming websites are significantly more likely to block ads compared to when visiting health, charity and government websites.6

Image: Viktor Hanacek (PicJumbo)

. Why do people block ads?  “Online ads are obtrusive, obnoxious, annoying” 11

 - Michael Rosenwald

Image: Trevor Hurlbut (Flickr)

Sparkle of hope for publishers - Most ad blocking occurs on desktops. Mobile advertising has been a growth market – now capturing 50%  of all digital advertising.2

Image: William Iven (Unsplash)

However with the iOS 9, Apple is enabling allowing users to block ads.8

Image: TAKA@P.P.R.S (Flickr)

With Apple’s dominance in the mobile industry, this further pushes the AdBlock technology into the mainstream.11

Image: Yuanbin Du (Unsplash)

Publishers have to make peace with the growth of ad blocking, but fight back by changing their strategies instead of accepting defeat.12

Image: Ryan McGuire (Gratisography)

Key strategies to reduce the cost per impression: 1.  Craft the right message to target your audience.12

2.  Embrace real-time marketing.12

3.  Native ads which are essentially ads in disguise are a great way to reach consumers who have already adopted ad-blocking software.12  

4.  Use better data to create ads that are relevant and catered to target audience.5

Image: Katy Belcher (Unsplash)

Counter ad blocking software exists. PageFair has developed new technology that allows publishers to

display acceptable ads bypassing the blocking software.  SourcePoint lets publisher put on popup messages which advices

users to turn off ad block for their site.3

Image: Bethany Legg (Unsplash)

Publishers can also can also become “whitelisted,” if their ads meet a certain criteria and are approved by an AdBlock Plus employee.1

Image: Drew Patrick Miller (Unsplash)

“We are not in a sustainable media ecosystem today”  - Publishers have to make money; with the appropriate strategy modifications, they can capture the remaining potential in the market.11

Image: Farrel Nobel (Unsplash)

Image Sources All Images Used have a Creative Commons License

Aussourd, C. (2012, January 31). Sheriff [Slide 7]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/bmipJM

Gomiero, B. (2016, May 20). [Slide 10]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/collections/314514/social-media?photo=jp7J14W9sSg

Hurlbut, T. (2010, May 11). It's Fire [Slide 13]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/7W9QHp

Queency, M. (2014, March 8). [Slide 1]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/kZrUfb

Belcher, K. (2015, November 6). [Slide 18]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/search/key?photo=uVX0tmFdNEg

Cgc76. (2013, March 30). Stop Sign in Amish Country [Slide 5]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/mM841j

Connect, N. (2016, April 30). [Slide 11]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/collections/327289/facebook-ads?photo=IXHNBGTKJfw

Du, Y. (2016, April 28). [Slide 16]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/search/apple?photo=SmLuEzJvw4U

Hanacek, V. (n.d.). Action Pro Gaming Mouse Close Up at Night [Slide 12]. Retrieved from https://picjumbo.com/action-pro-gaming-mouse-close-up-

at-night/

Iven, W. (2015, February 11). [Slide 14]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/collections/314514/social-media?photo=SpVHcbuKi6E

Keys, O. (2016, January 28). [Slide 3]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/photos/AmPRUnRb6N0

Kutsaev, R. (2016, January 23). [Slide 2]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/search/pocket-watch?photo=UIUgYu9bENU

Legg, B. (2015, February 18). [Slide 19]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/search/sunshine?photo=75nbwHfDsnY

McGuire, R. (n.d.). [Slide 17]. Retrieved from http://gratisography.com

Miller, D. P. (2016, January 7). [Slide 20]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/search/door?photo=15oMQ1S9de0

Muza, C. (2016, April 17). [Slide 4]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/collections/353744/business?photo=hpjSkU2UYSU

Nobel, F. (2016, June 18). [Slide 21]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/search/computers?photo=BhLFK8lHvUs

Silas, J. (2015, August 10). [Slide 8]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/search/globe?photo=-03UAJK6-w8

Spiske, M. (2016, July 9). [Slide 6]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/search/coding?photo=xekxE_VR0Ec

TAKA@P.P.R.S. (2015, October 16). ADBlock [Slide 15]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/zQmjsw

Weemaels, D. (2015, September 24). [Slide 9]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/collections/388522/money-revenue?photo=ZKVBM2_Dp84

Works Cited 1.  Adblock Plus. (n.d.). Allowing acceptable ads in Adblock Plus. Retrieved October 22, 2016, from https://adblockplus.org/

acceptable-ads 2.  Anne Salz, P. (2016, June 14). Mobile ad blocking on the rise. What’s that mean for digital publishers? Retrieved from https://

digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2016/06/14/mobile-ad-blocking-on-the-rise-whats-that-mean-for-digital-publishers/ 3.  Kulp, P. (2015, August 31). Ad-blockers are terrifying companies and publishers, but ... Retrieved from http://mashable.com/

2015/08/31/ad-block/ 4.  Matrix, S. E. (n.d.). Part 1 Advertising Strategies - Slide 4. Lecture presented at Module 02 Lecture. 5.  Mortished, C. (2015, July 3). With ad-blocking software, readers have declared war on ... Retrieved from http://

www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/executive-insight/with-ad-blocking-software-readers-have-declared-war-on-publishers/article25234621/

6.  Nayar, V. (2015, August 10). Over 198 Million People All Around The World Now Use Ad ... Retrieved from http://www.techtimes.com/articles/75508/20150810/over-198-million-people-world-now-use-ad-blocking-software.htm

7.  Newman, D. (2015, April 28). Research Shows Millennials Don't Respond To Ads. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2015/04/28/research-shows-millennials-dont-respond-to-ads/#685ed81d5599

8.  O'Reilly, L. (2015, June 11). Apple seems ready to let iPhone users block all ads they see on the web — which will really hurt publishers. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ios9-to-allow-ad-blocking-on-iphones-and-ipads-2015-6

9.  O'Reilly, L. (2015, July 14). The inventor of Adblock tells us he wrote the code as a 'procrastination project' at university — and he's never made money from it. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/interview-with-the-inventor-of-the-ad-blocker-henrik-aasted-srensen-2015-7

10. PageFair Team. (2015, August 10). The 2015 Ad Blocking Report. Retrieved from https://pagefair.com/blog/2015/ad-blocking-report/

11. Rosenwald, M. (2015, September/October). The digital media industry needs to react to ad blockers ... Retrieved from http://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/will_ad_blockers_kill_the_digital_media_industry.php

12. Zajechowski, M. (2015, November 16). Ad Blocking and Its Effects on Advertisers and Publishers. Retrieved from http://relevance.com/ad-blocking-and-its-effects-on-advertisers-and-publishers/