In A Fight Between Programmatic Advertising And Ad Blocking, Who Wins?

“Who would win in a fight between ‘Superhero X’ and ‘Superhero Y?” As a father, that’s a question I hear regularly. As advertising director at alternative music publication Rock Sound (which since 2013 has been the sole title in the rock market actively increasing its ABC sales figure), I’ve found myself asking a twist on that question – “In A Fight Between Programmatic And Ad Blocking, Who Wins?”

This is because we are about to see whether programmatic advertising – for all of its data-targeting benefits – has made enough of a positive impact on web users in order to survive the slew of ad blocking options that users everywhere will have at just the touch of a button very soon.

Personally, I find it quite exciting.

In our experience, programmatic is able to serve relevant advertising messages to users more accurately than alternative options such as Google Adwords. Agencies and brands we work with also speak very highly of programmatic, but they fall silent when the subject of ad blocking is raised. The reason for this is simple; the industry just isn't sure of the impact ad blocking is going to have on campaigns over the next 12 months.

Right now, roughly 50% of all web users have some form of ad blocker, and the figure is set to increase by a further 70% during the next year. By August 2016 potentially 85% of all web users will be using the internet ad-free.

Alongside this, the way that people access the internet is changing significantly. As handheld devices continue to increase in capability, sites have seen major shifts in how their audience visits their site. In June 2015, 65% of Rocksound.tv’s traffic came from mobiles. Just one month later, this figure rose to a massive 70%. I know for a fact that we are not alone in experiencing such jumps in mobile growth.

In September we’ll see the official launch of Apple’s new operating system, iOS 9. And for the first time, web users will be able to block adverts on their handheld devices. Ad block will be available with a simple tick of a box.

From the user’s point of view there is no immediate downside in doing so. In fact, there are some brilliant upsides! Websites will load 40% faster as users will no longer have to put up with adverts taking more than a second or two to load and the battery life of a phone could as much as double! Plus, those not on an unlimited data plan can look forward to visiting a far greater array of pages due to all of their data that isn’t being used up by ads. If mobile ad blocking on iOS proves popular, it’s only a matter of time before Android follows suit.

Should users decide that their user experience (quicker browsing, massively increased battery life, etc.) is more important than allowing brands and services to advertise to them, then that’s it. Box ticked. Adverts gone.

Programmatic advertising has grown exponentially in recent times and enabled advertisers to reach their target audience more accurately than Google Adwords. As ad spots are bid for in real-time, programmatic also allows the advertiser to reach users at rates that they set for themselves, so not only does it yield generally greater rates of conversion, it does so much more efficiently.

Opportunities in digital advertising do not end there however. The platform is able to pull one pretty spectacular card (there are others!) from it’s sleeve. A card which is also the reason for why I am excited by the prospect of the Programmatic vs. Ad Blocking war that is about to ensue.

That card is branded content, and while it is hardly a new concept, a growing number of publishers are now better equipped to produce such content for their partners than they have ever been previously. Importantly, they are also far less wary of paid-for coverage, in some cases employing whole teams to work on this and this alone. In 2014, ￡500million was spent on branded content worldwide, and this figure is only set to rise.

There’s no such luxury at independent publishers such as Rock Sound, but in the last year we have worked with the likes of Vauxhall Motors, Jagermeister and fashion webstore Impericon.com – among others – in order to spread their message and weave the brands into the very fabric of Rock Sound’s world. With Impericon.com, I consult with the company regularly – brainstorming new ways to further tie the Rock Sound audience in with their brand, leading to heightened brand loyalty and ultimately greater sales over a longer period of time.

With that in mind, Rock Sound now publishes a regular fashion blog (always timed around payday) in collaboration with Impericon. In these, we draw attention to new items in the Impericon store in a blog written in house style by us. Links within the text take users to specific items in the Impericon store in order to make their purchases and we promote each article through Rock Sound’s social media platforms, where Rock Sound is followed by over a million 16-24 year olds. Our most recent piece reached 44,000 people on Facebook.

It's hardly groundbreaking work, but this type of advertising is currently untouchable by ad blocking technology. It is also known to result in greater audience engagement than banner advertising, with readers feeling that the content actually enriches their lives.

Branded content is a constant, and while programmatic and ad blocking battle it out, it is branded content that will stand firm amongst the melee. In my opinion it is therefore the best tool available going forward in order to engage a target audience and build brand loyalty and custom.