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Sometimes All You Need To Do Is Ask.
Has anyone thought to ask ad block users to just — you know — disable their ad blockers? It seems like the Financial Times has and the results are pretty astounding. Forty percent of all those asked during testing whitelisted the publication.
Almost half.
The Financial Times may be able to recoup 40 percent of their lost audience by doing nothing more than asking to be whitelisted.
It begs the question, how many people even realize their ad blockers are running, and how many installed them on a whim — much like those who installed anti-virus apps during the early 2000s — and really have no real reason to keep them running?
Don’t get me wrong, ad blockers and the companies that manage them are forcing the industry to redefine itself, but there’s got to be something to the fact that people are willing to whitelist things after a mere request from a publisher.
What is the utility of an ad blocker to the average person, and does the average person really, honestly consider things like data and privacy concerns as something they should protect themselves against on a daily basis? I’m not saying they shouldn’t, the privacy concerns are real, but I am starting to seriously consider whether or not the bulk of internet users care about the debate we’re currently engaged in these last couple of years.
I keep coming back to the 2016 PageFair report and the information that there are 416 million people using browsers with ad blockers built-in by default. It seems like a scary number, but when you take a moment and break down the number based on geography, a rather interesting pattern emerges.
China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan make up 329 million of those using these "ad blocker" browsers. The United States makes up just 2.3 million of the 416 million people using these browsers.
Today’s ad blocker debate, when refocused in that context, has me wondering if we’re deep in this debate because of lost publishing revenues or if we’re in this discussion because social platforms that rely on advertising to survive see a tremendous opportunity in the explosive growth across East-Asia.
If that’s the case, does that mean the goal posts have moved for western publishers? Do we need to reframe the debate around ad blocking?
I’d love to know what you think.
Todd Garland, CEO, and Founder at BuySellAds
AdTech News And Editorial
Where Does The Disappearing Ad Dollar Go?
Most sources were not surprised to hear that 70 percent of ad dollars disappeared by the time they reached the Guardian. “In some cases, it might be even worse,” said Todd Garland, founder and CEO of digital ad network BuySellAds.
The Great Programmatic Dupefest.
Brand marketers have also been duped by the promise of automation. In reality, the system suffers from a lack of direct seller relationships that promote trust and encourages agencies to protect their investment and maximize the value they receive in their advertising spend.
IAB Outlines Standard For Dynamic Content Ads
“Having a standard [will] allow us to plumb the programmatic creative side of the business and deliver fully on the promise of programmatic,” said GroupM Chief Innovation Officer Cary Tilds.
Does Advertising Ruin Everything?
For most of human existence, who told you what to think? Preachers did. Religion did. But I think that, through advertising, business has displaced religion as the primary instructor of human deliverance.
What Data Doesn’t Tell Us
It is not an exaggeration to say we’re nearing an age where machine learning will allow advertisers to know when consumers are about to buy something before the thought has fully formed itself in their minds.
Ad Blocking
Many Ad-Blocking Readers Agree to See Ads When The Financial Times Asks
The test was conducted on 15,000 registered readers. One sub-group was asked to whitelist the newspaper's website with their ad blockers, allowing its ads to appear normally. Even though they had the option of dismissing the notice and continuing to block ads, 40% agreed to whitelist the site.
Thank Goodness For Ad Blockers?
The only certainty when it comes to ad blocking is its growing popularity. Some 86.6 million U.S. consumers, or 32% of web users, will use ad blockers in 2016, according to eMarketer up from just 69.8 in 2016.
Security
Agencies Profiting From Online Ad Fraud
Believe it or not, if fraud accounts for just 10% of the online advertising system, in 9 years ad fraud will be the second largest source of criminal activity in the world, second only to drug trafficking.
Future Of Advertising
Gannett Unveils Virtual Reality Ad Unit With New Weekly VR Show
The “cubemercial” ad, which appears between editorial content in the 7-minute long “VRtually There” episode, places the viewer within a giant virtual room—hence, the “cube” name—with content featured on each of its walls. Viewers can turn their heads to view the content around them.