Damaging Effects of Blocking Ads and Mitigating Them

Damaging Effects of Blocking Ads and Mitigating Them

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  Damaging Effects ofBlocking Ads and Mitigating Them By Brett Kammer Photo Credit: captplanetrocksmysocks on Flickr
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  Photo Credit: JackZalium on Flickr
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  Photo Credit: KylePearce on Flickr A staggering 34.4% increase in United States adblocker usage occurred from 2015-2016, signaling its increasing popularity. (eMarketer)
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  Certain websites have significantlychance of their users blocking their ads than others. Tech related websites such as gaming websites see 26.5% of their users block ads. (Pagefair) Less tech related, for example Real Estate websites see only 5% of their ads blocked. (Pagefair)
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  But why blockads? “(I) Clicked a green button…and few than 10 seconds later ads had vanished.This (web surfing with adblock) immediately became Web surfing nirvana: pages loaded faster, my browser stopped randomly crashing, my whole computer ran better.” (Rosenwald) In a nutshell adblockers provide: • Better Performance • Less Annoyance • Easy Installation
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  Many companies arelosing significant revenue due to adblocking. An estimated 6 billion dollars of revenue is lost annually by Google alone because of adblockers. (Mortished)
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  But who cares? Howwould this affect the average user?
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  Photo Credit: KylePearce on Flickr “We believe that ads help fund free services and content on the Web.” (Rosenwald) “Users are inadvertently putting their favourite websites out of business.” (Rosenwald) If too much ad revenue disappears many services typically offered for free will likely disappear or become paid services.
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  With the popularity of adblockingthe problem will only get worse. Advertisers must change to stay relevant.
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  There are anumber of existing strategies to circumvent or reduce adblocking
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  Four available strategiesfor combating adblocking: Customer Payments Blocking Adblock Native Advertising Content Marketing Photo Credit: Tony …. on Flickr Photo Credit: 401(K) 2012 on Flickr Photo Credit: kkirugi on Flickr Photo Credit: Laurinha Lii on Flickr
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  Photo Credit: Nathaniel_Uon Flickr Customer Payments One way to recover some of the lost revenue is to provide a service where the users pay a small fee to remove ads of the site. (Rosenwald) Both parties are happy, but this is not an effective strategy. “Most users are unwilling to subscribe online (11%) and few would pay to make ads go away.” (Rosenwald) Since most users don’t want to pay therefore another strategy is needed.
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  Photo Credit: Bradon Flickr Blocking Adblock The practice of having a program block the user from seeing any of the websites content unless they are whitelisted on the user’s adblocker. This ensures the users see ads. (Anderson) There is a major problem with this technique however. Websites that employ this technique usually see a significant decrease in user base. When Forbes introduced this strategy their daily page views decrease by 9% over one year. (Anderson) Again, a better strategy is needed.
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  Native Advertising or “Sponsored Content” The method ofpromoting a good or service in an article or video in a way that is similar to how content would normally appear on a particular platform. (Campbell) Currently this type of advertising cannot be blocked. “Another means of reducing viewer disruption is by crafting native advertisements that blend in with the surrounding content. ” (Campbell) This technique is successful because it takes advantage of user’s high trust levels for seemingly non-advertising content. (Campbell) Much criticism has arose from the use of this technique.
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  Native Advertising is Controversial“Our findings show that no matter what steps publishers have taken, there is still significant confusion on the part of readers as to what constitutes an article and what constitutes an ad.” (Lazauskas) The inability to distinguish native advertisements from genuine articles has raised ethical concerns. (Mombourquette)
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  Content Marketing Non-traditional advertisingstrategy where the brand releases content with value to the target audience. (CMI) John Deere releasing “The Furrow” magazine with content relevant to their user base while being clearly from John Deere is an example of Content Marketing. (CMI)
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  From 2014-2015 approximately 73%more content marketing was produced. (Teicher) Content marketing is becoming a leading form of advertising for many companies as adblocking becomes more popular. “49% of marketers rate their content as somewhat or very effective” (Teicher)
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  The problem isgoing to get worse before it gets better. 36% of Cellphones in the Asia-Pacific region engage in Adblocking (Scott) “It’s only a matter of time until mobile ad blocking comes to the West.”(Scott)
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  Conclusion As adblocking’s popularity increases risks touser content and advertiser’s revenue increase. Advertisers have to use new techniques to combat lost revenue and prevent loss of user content. Content marketing and Native advertising are the best current options for advertisers.
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  Works Cited • Anderson,Martin. “Sites That Block Adblockers Seem to Be Suffering.” The Stack. N.p., 21 Apr. 2016. Web. 1 Mar. 2017. • Bilton, Ricardo. “What Is Ad Blocking?” Digiday. N.p., 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2017. • Campbell, Colin. “Good Native Advertising Isn’t a Secret.” Science Direct. N.p., Dec. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2017. • CMI. “What Is Content Marketing?” Content Marketing Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2017. • eMarketer. “US Ad Blocking to Jump by Double Digits This Year - eMarketer.” N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2017. • Lazauskas, Joe. “Article or Ad? When It Comes to Native Advertising, No One Knows.” The Content Strategist. N.p., 8 Sept. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2017. • Mombourquette, Angela. “A Look at the Ethically Complex World of Native Advertising | J-Source.” J Source. N.p., 1 June 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2017. • Mortished, Carl. “Canadian Periodicals Index Quarterly - Document - Readers Have Declared War on Publishers.” Globe & Mail. N.p., 3 July 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2017. • PageFair. “The 2015 Ad Blocking Report.” PageFair. N.p., 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2017. • Rosenwald, Michael. “The Digital Media Industry Needs to React to Ad Blockers … or Else.” Columbia Journalism Review. N.p., Oct. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2017. • Scott, Mark. “Rise of Ad-Blocking Software Threatens Online Revenue.” The New York Times 30 May 2016. NYTimes.com. Web. 2 Mar. 2017. • Teicher, Jordan. “Content Marketing 2016: Staffing, Measurement, and Effectiveness Across the Industry.” The Content Strategist. N.p., 11 Jan. 2016. Web. 2 Mar. 2017.
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  Extended Photo Credits •(Title) https://www.flickr.com/photos/34997486@N02/5441104104/ (Captplanetrocksmysocks) • (Slide 1) https://www.flickr.com/photos/joojaebum/8047664173 (Jaebum Joo) • (Slide 2) https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaiban/3514043632 (Jack Zalium) • (Slide 3) https://www.flickr.com/photos/keepitsurreal/5236525729 (Kyle Pearce) • (Slide 4) https://www.flickr.com/photos/23119666@N03/5424139604 (Mark Bonica) • (slide 5) https://www.flickr.com/photos/sidewalk_flying/226536207 (Seth Sawyers) • (Slide 6) https://www.flickr.com/photos/cesnet/5870529678 (Cesar Solozano) • (Slide 7) https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattymatt/3017263513 (Matt Baume) • (Slide 8) https://www.flickr.com/photos/khawkins04/5333418174 (Ken Hawkins) • (Slide 9) https://www.flickr.com/photos/17989497@N00/541050703 (Monika) • (Slide 10) https://www.flickr.com/photos/damionroeien/11122262203 (Eigenberg Fotografie) • (Slide 11) https://www.flickr.com/photos/nooone/1795729648 (Tony ...) • https://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6355318323 (401(k) 2012) • https://www.flickr.com/photos/kkirugi/4543261380 (kkirugi) • https://www.flickr.com/photos/mundoworldmonde/5621803163 (Laurinha lii) • (Slide 12) https://www.flickr.com/photos/nathan_u/7156545068 (Nathaniel_U) • (Slide 13) https://www.flickr.com/photos/brad_t/7539784386 (Brad) • (Slide 15) https://www.flickr.com/photos/lex-photographic/15165267751 (Lex McKee) • (Slide 17) https://www.flickr.com/photos/veggiefrog/2573076568 (Veggiefrog) • (Slide 18) https://www.flickr.com/photos/philipbrookes/16646514046 (Philip Brookes)