Users love free content more than they hate ads.
Internet users prefer unrestricted access to free, high quality content without ads. Adblocking software has made it easy for users to fulfil their wishes, causing great damage to online publishers. However, faced with the choice of viewing ads to access content, adblocking users overwhelmingly choose to remain on the sites they love.
“Better” ads will not reduce the popularity of ad blockers.
There is no question that some ads are intrusive, unsafe and create bad user experience and therefore should be avoided. IAB’s L.E.A.N program and the Coalition for Better Ads are therefore welcomed initiatives. However, improving the ad experience alone will not prevent users from continuing to use ad blockers or installing them. Case in point, according to Adobe’s “Advertising Demand Report 2016: North America”, while 38% of U.S. respondents said they believe their online ad experience has gotten better, the share of ad blocking in the US has risen. A similar position is shared by Mark Ritson, Adjunct Professor of Marketing at Melbourne Business School, who says “it is not bad creative that consumers hate, it’s ads full stop, which means however hard the industry tries to improve their quality, the use of online adblocking software will continue to rise.”
A paid ad-free experience attracts limited audience.
Online publishers whose content is not considered by users as highly premium or exclusive will find it challenging to convince them to pay for an ad-free package. For them, a paid content service will remain a niche business that is unable to sustain their online business.
Ad blockers employ extortion practices against publishers.
There is nothing altruistic about ad blockers. These for-profit organizations take advantage of natural user tendency to opt for an “ad-free experience” to strip all websites of all ads by default, effectively seizing control of publisher online assets and holding them hostage. These cyber attacks force publishers and ad networks to pay “ransom” to unblock “acceptable ads” or to use the ad blockers’ own ad networks to serve such ads. Succumbing to ad blockers, not only fails to make up for the lost ad revenues but also makes ad blockers stronger and should therefore be avoided.
Publishers should take firm action against ad blockers.
Over the years, publishers have surrendered the ability to control their ad experience, effectively allowing ad blockers to dictate what “acceptable ad formats” are. It is time for publishers to step up, liberate themselves from the tight grip of ad blockers and regain control over their online business before it is too late. Publishers are often cautious of alienating their adblocking users and harming their brand by taking actions to protect their ad revenue. Such actions are falsely perceived as “anti-user”. We see that users remain loyal to publishers, regardless of whether or not they see ads, if they get quality content and a good user experience. Our clients can attest to that.
Publishers should not fear ad blocker retaliation.
One of the reasons publishers avoid taking action against ad blockers is the fear of being involved in damaging and on-going “cat and mouse” battles with them. Instead, publishers should employ sophisticated cyber security technologies that are immune to existing adblocking techniques and will remain ahead of the curve.
Forcing users to make a decision is less effective.
Requesting users to disable their ad blockers, or forcing them to do so by restricting access to content, has had limited success so far. In order for publishers to regain full control of their online business, they should go beyond asking. They should automatically display ads and respectfully disclose to their adblocking users the reasons for reinserting ads and which ad experience they should be expecting. We firmly believe that IAB’s D.E.A.L (“detect”, “explain”, “ask”, “lift”) should be changed to D.E.L (“detect”, “explain”, “lift”).
With great power comes even greater responsibility.
Some online publishers have lost sight of their users, inundating them with a poor ad experience. Publishers need to remember they are the gatekeepers of their websites and as such, they need to exert more control over the ads they serve and the experience they provide. Ads should be handled with the same care as the website’s content, as they are an integral part of the overall user experience.
Premium advertisers and ad agencies will play along.
In the short term, advertisers may choose to segment users based on adblock usage. Longer term, however, with the advent of positive user behavior data, we believe that any such segmentation will be artificial and become irrelevant.
