Ad blocking has been popular in Europe now for quite some time.  Internet users are generally more skeptical and less trusting than elsewhere and they generally have the highest rates of ad blocking.  With the introduction of the latest iPhone iOS 9 from Apple.  Actually the new iOS doesn’t include the ad blocker, it includes the framework for ad blocking.  With this framework users can now easily download an ad blocker.  I use Peace and for $0.99 I can block ads, social widgets, external fonts, media and hide comments.  Because it reduces the amount of data coming down, it makes the web faster and more responsive and minimizes the amount of bandwidth and bits I use on my data plan.

I must admit though that I feel guilty in installing the ad blocker, because as an individual working in marketing, I shouldn’t want to block the work of my colleagues.  Unfortunately, the user experience on the web has gotten so bad, that I finally bit the bullet and installed the ad blocker. 

Publishers losing out the most

Ad blockers though hurt publishers the most and advertisers slightly less so.  Publishers lose because they need to serve up the content but don’t get any revenue for the un-delivered impression.  With ad blocking rates growing quickly from 20% to 30% and higher, this can be a significant hit on the publishers. This leaves the other 70% to 80% having to make up the difference.  For the publishers to stay even they’ll need to deliver 20 to 30% more ads or raise their prices accordingly.  Not a good prospect for the number of ads that will need to be delivered. 

Advertisers are also hurt.  Most of the users blocking ads in the us are Millennials.  Some reports put the number at 60% of all Millennials using ad blockers.  The high use of ad blockers by this highly valuable segment means that advertisers will have to resort to other means to reach them.  Either the publishers will need to force the ads on their viewers or the advertisers will have to use more creative ways to reach these audiences.  This could be done through traditional media (probably difficult), sponsoring live events (where there is significantly less ad skipping) or product placement.  Non-traditional media may also be the new media channel to circumvent the ad blocker phenomenon.

Publishers fighting back

It will be interesting to see whether the publishers will be able to win back their advertiser’s audiences.  Some are doing this through content gating where the content can only be accessed for free if the blocker is disabled.  Others are paying the ad blocker providers to let their content through.  The digital war for the eyeballs of valuable consumers will continue and probably only get messier.

Unblocked by Apple’s new iOS however are mobile apps.  Ad’s can still make it through to the user through the use of the app.

What do you do?

Let me know what your behavior is concerning ad blockers:

Stay tuned.  We’ll be talking about this and many other topics in our upcoming 2-day workshop on Digital Analytics and ROI [https://www.prorelevant.com/digital-social-analytics-roi-training/].  We hope you can join us. 

Let me know what you think.