How Marketers are Combating AdBlockers

Over the past few years, adblockers and adblocking software have presented marketers and publishers alike with a big challenge. Adblockers are now used by most internet users to prevent intrusive and annoying advertising banners, popups, and other adverts from showing on web pages. For marketers, this means finding a way to combat adblockers to continue receiving revenue from ads.

Most marketers are rising to the challenge to get around the problems adblocking software is causing them. After all, marketers are used to challenges when it comes to looking for new and fresh ways to continue monetizing their marketing strategies.

How can you successfully market your products in the age of adblocking? This article looks at how some companies are meeting this challenge. First of all, let’s look at the history of adblocking.

The history of adblocking

Adblocking started because internet users were getting bombarded with unwanted message and ads while they were browsing the internet. Many were also concerned about their online privacy and the increase of malware.

Mobile users also took to adblocking because the time and bandwidth needed for adverts to load were using valuable resources. It was also eating into their limited data connections and costing more money. In 2015, Apple announced that ad blockers would start working on iPhones.

How adblocking affects marketers

According to PageFair’s 2017 Adblock Report, adblock usage grew by a staggering 30% in 2016. Now nearly 400 million mobile devices use adblocking technology.^[1] This creates concern for marketers, especially with the growth of internet users using mobile devices.

However, it is not all doom and gloom when it comes to using ads to market your products or services. The 2017 Adblock Report stated that over a quarter of all users in the US are still willing to view some ads and that the majority prefer to view standard display ads.

How will this impact on marketers? Here are a few ways:

• Marketers need new strategies. Marketers can no longer rely on ads for their online exposure. Internet users are also becoming more aware of marketing techniques and this is something that marketers will have to deal with.
• Find other ways to monetise. Google Adsense is no longer a sure way to make a lot of money from running an ad campaign. The same can happen to running banner ads or affiliate marketing as advertising becomes more difficult.
• Change the type of ad you run. Google makes most of its money from advertising, so advertising isn’t dead and buried. However, advertisers and marketers need to revise the type of ads they are serving to their customers to make them more relevant.

How to Combat the Effects of Adblockers

There are various ways that you can combat the effects of adblockers. Many companies are experimenting with new and novel ways of getting their message across to the widest possible audience.

For example, many marketers are using native advertising as a means to promote their products. Research data suggests that native ads are far more likely to be viewed and shared by consumers.

Let’s look at how 3 major online players are coming up with more innovative and fresh ways to combat the ad blockers.

Netflix

Netflix is specifically targeting internet users who have installed AdBlock software on their browsers. When ad blocking software is detected, the Netflix ad appears with a relevant advertisement for their promoted film.

Nn one is exactly sure how Netflix are doing this. It is possible that they have made deals with some popular sites to serve the ads directly to users or they may use Adblock Plus. Adblock plus allows some ads to show even if Adblock software is installed. However, in order for the ads to be shown they have to meet certain criteria.

Twitch

Twitch have launched a service called SureStream which aims to get around adblocking software. It does this by embedding ad content into non-ad content so that adblockers can’t identify the differencebetween the content.

Twitch hope that this will help them to continue delivering more ads.

PornHub

PornHub has come up with a novel way of getting around ad blockers by using WebSockets. If an internet user visiting PornHub’s website has ad blocking activated, the site opens a WebSocket to deliver the ads.

This type of “work around” may be short-lived as adblocking companies are trying to come with their own new ways of closing this type of loophole.

Although adblockers have changed the way marketers have to operate, there are still plenty of opportunities to promote your products and services. Make sure that your craft the right message and keep your ads relevant and connect all your channels together to reach consumers when they are likely to consider buying.

Article sources:

1. 2017 AdBlock Report by PageFair.com