Ad blockers are going mainstream, meaning marketers must adapt or fail
As ad blockers pop up on the latest versions of the world’s most popular browsers, Butterfly CEO Liz Mclean considers what the future of digital advertising holds for marketers.
Earlier this year, Google announced it would penalise websites where content is not ‘easily accessible to a user on the transition from the mobile search results.’ This isn’t the first time Google has announced changes that would affect search rankings. In 2015, Google boosted results for sites that were mobile-friendly, forcing many companies to play catch-up as they optimised their desktop experience for mobile.
With this latest announcement, Google is taking aim at pop-ups that ‘can frustrate users because they are unable to easily access the content that they were expecting.’ Google used this opportunity to announce a new, in-built ad-blocker for its Chrome browser, slated for release next year, that will act like a filter for ads that are deemed intrusive. Apple has also followed suit, integrating a similar tool that stops videos from auto-playing on its Safari browser for Mac OS.
Google’s Senior vice president, Sridhar Ramaswamy commented: “It’s far too common that people encounter annoying, intrusive ads on the web—like the kind that blare music unexpectedly, or force you to wait 10 seconds before you can see the content on the page.” While users may rejoice at the prospect of an ad-free browsing experience, marketers have been left scratching their heads.
Great article Liz. I really like the focus on the customer: “Start with thinking about your customers, their experience and what they would expect and enjoy.” I’m really excited to hear sites that use pop-ups will be penalised. Hopefully, it will focus development on customer needs rather than customer manipulation.
The rise of ad-blocker should be used to teach student marketers the inevitable results of continuing to urinate in the town well.
Marketers must adapt by spending money on interactive experiences on their owned channels, through digital screens at venues and OOH advertising, through leveraging the opportunity for Social Stories on Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and by offering better ads with a value exchange for the consumer to engage through channels like Google Double-Click so people aren’t so bored with being spammed by video and image ads they can’t interact with. Our mission at Wayin is to give marketers the tools to do that. Forrester’s report ‘The End of Advertising As We Know It’, comes to a similar conclusion of moving ad dollars to interactive brand experiences. Only when the experiences are better will consumers turn away from ad blockers.
I have a bachelors of IT (with a minor in marketing) and always use ad blockers. online advertisements can be annoying with adverts that jump, move and make noise are a major problem. coupled with adverts that distribute malware it’s basic security to block advertising