what is the cost of ad blocking? - wtf ad blocking uk, 3/10/16

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Feeling the fear

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What City A.M. did

▸ Worked with a tech company called Rezonence ▸ Tracked how many of our impressions had ad blockers being used on » 19% of desktop » <1% on mobile ▸ Rolled out a trial across Firefox desktop users (8.5% of our audience) ▸ Ran this for 6 weeks and tracked numbers/tweaked tech ▸ Rolled out across all desktop users in Dec 2015

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Why City A.M blocked the ad blockers?

▸ City A.M. audience had an understanding of need to make money ▸ City A.M. content had a niche interest which increased perceived value ▸ Business model completely reliant on advertising ▸ 19% of desktop impressions equates to significant revenue loss ▸ Expectation that the proportion was only going to increase over time

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The results

•  Firefox ad blocking rate down from 22% to 15%

•  No noticeable impact on exit rate

•  Ad blockers turned off on 21% of occasions message was served

Initial Firefox trial

•  Desktop ad blocking rate down from 18% to 14.6%

•  No noticeable impact on exit rate

•  Ad blockers turned off on 29% of occasions message was served

All desktop browsers

•  Chrome = 33% turn-off rate

•  Firefox = 21% turn-off rate

•  Internet Explorer = 11% turn-off rate

Browser differences

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The hypothetical reward

6m desktop ad

impressions

• At average CPM of £15 = £900k

19% blocked

• £171k of potential ad revenue lost

14.6% blocked

• Reduced loss to £131k

£40k more per month

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What we are doing at Metro

▸ Looking at a model that doesn’t rely on display advertising ▸ Exploring opportunity within mobile apps where ad blocking is less of an issue ▸ Awareness that anti ad blocking approach may have less success in mainstream news environment ▸ Investigating how sponsored content can work outside of ad serving

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Key points

1.  Ad blocking is more prevalent on desktop than mobile and has real impact on revenue

2.  Once a user turns on an ad blocker they are highly unlikely to turn it off for individual sites unless forced

3.  The most engaged user will turn off their ad blockers to access content they value

Thank you

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martin.ashplant@metro.co.uk @mashplant