How to beat ad-blockers: it’s not a one size fits all solution
In this guest post, Vicki Lyon explains the difference between server side and client side ad insertion, the pros and cons of both, and how to determine which one is best for your business.
According to Adobe Pagefair’s 2015 report, 18% of Australians have ad-blockers installed, and that’s estimated to have cost publishers around $4 billion in revenue lost during 2015, with projections even higher in 2016.
Media companies in Australia, such as Network Ten, are fighting back with the help of anti-ad-blocking solutions, but not all solutions are created equal.
There’s a misguidance in the industry that server-side ad insertion (SSAI) is the end-all-be-all solution to ad-blockers. That’s simply not true.
I know when a contract can be enforced and cannot be enforced. In reference to ad-blockers, the end user has the determining right if they want ads or not, it is their system. Additionally, Eyeo who makes Ad Block Plus was in court again and won as expected . Excerpt “ The judge said it is perfectly legal for people to install ad-blockers in their browsers as publishers have no contracts with their readers that insist they have to look at the ads.” And this is 100% accurate – if a contract does not exist between the site and the user the no ads can be enforced or pushed without consent. Full article here: http://fortune.com/2016/03/30/.....eddeutsche
Additionally, The ‘implied contract’ theory that we’ve agreed to view ads in exchange for free content is void because we can’t review the terms first — as soon as we follow a link, our browsers load, execute, transfer, and track everything embedded by the publisher. Our data, battery life, time, and privacy are taken by a blank check with no recourse.” Every time you visit a website with an ad, it’s an implied contract, but since you cannot view all the terms it’s void and cannot be enforced. However under contract law, the only valid contracts are those signed in ink and both parties. Something you cannot do online, and these “bluff statements” like “by continuing to use this site you agree or our terms and conditions” are not legal either.
I can see AdBlocking stats across a wide range of AU sites and it’s nowhere near 18%.
Are you saying that $4 billion worth of ad buy orders went unfulfilled?
Surely those without ad-blockers were just served all the bought impressions?
Yep. That’s smart. I’m going to target the people who are actively disengaging with ads, by getting around the blockers and pissing them off even more. Advertisers are going to get some awesome ROI on those placements, ..but as long as the publishers aren’t ‘losing’ that revenue, it’s all OK..right??
The last thing we want to do as an industry is enter an arms race with the adblockers. Adblockers are the pointy end of a large amount of dissatisfaction at advertising in general, but on mobile in particular.
Much better to focus on that dissatisfaction and improve mobile formats, creative execution and creative relevancy. Understanding mobile UX and respecting that with our ads will prove far more effective than technology in stemming the ad-blocking tide.
The claim that no ‘premium’ VPAID ads is a downside is interesting – I doubt the users you’re potentially serving them to would agree. Generally speaking, these ‘interactive’ ads are pretty user hostile and only exist to as something more expensive to sell.
Especially considering more and more eyes (especially for video content) are on mobile devices that don’t support these flash ads, as well as Flash increasingly being deprecated on desktop, this just seems like an old industry failing to update. The internet and the user’s expectations has changed since these formats were introduced.
I’m also not sure about the claims that SSAI does not have the ability to target ads to individual users in the same way that traditional ads do. Also it might appear the ads are stitched into the video itself, the inventory is still completely dynamic. While there might not be providers that do this at the moment, there’s nothing technical stopping it.
i’m a student who at the end of last year i finished a bachelors of IT and this year started a masters in marketing so i see this from both sides.
i run ad blocking on both my phone and laptop. on the phone it is literally to conserve bandwith – i don’t want to pay to be served adverts on my phone.
on my laptop i don’t want adverts because to be honest i’ve seen too many adverts that jump, flash and are generally annoying. add to this the cases where java adverts have served up malware and i’m extremely cautious about enabling adverts.
if i get useful content i’m extremely happy to allow adverts – i want my favorite websites to be paid and survive. but if i see an advert that jumps, flashes or makes noise adverts are blocked again.