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14 Smart Ways For Agencies To Deal With The Impact Of Ad Blockers

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Sourced from Forbes

Significant numbers of people use ad blockers, with estimates ranging from about a quarter to a little less than half of all internet users worldwide. The desire to rid the online experience of digital ads is understandable, given how annoying it is for users to see repetitive, intrusive pop-up ads for products in which they may have only once indicated mild interest, or not at all. But ad blockers can make it challenging for digital marketers and advertisers to execute their jobs well.

Whether their audiences are leveraging ad blocking software or using browsers with built-in ad blocking capabilities, agency pros are developing solutions to overcome the obstacles they present. Here, members of Forbes Agency Council outline different ways ad blockers affect agency work and how their agencies are addressing the impact.

1. Diversify Efforts In Less Impacted Areas

Ad blockers reduce reach, but is the reach even what we wanted to pay for? Someone who doesn’t want ads is likely to ignore them anyway. So blockers may help narrow an audience to more relevant prospects, but diversifying efforts in areas that are less impacted by blockers is the most crucial step. Leveraging email, search and helpful content will keep the right users seeing you and moving through the funnel. – Brian Walker, Statwax

2. Never Rely On Ads Alone To Help Clients

Remember when streaming was going to kill TV advertising? Remember when everything digital was going to get rid of paper? There are always changes to what we know; the truth is, we adapt or go out of business. Any agency that was relying on ads alone to help their clients was ignoring a large part of the equation. Successful marketing relies on engaging your clients at a point in time that suits them, not you! – Hamish Anderson, Three Piece Marketing

3. Collect Zero- And First-Party Data For Marketing

Ad blockers are not new to our industry, but the ways we deal with them continue to evolve. Zero- and first-party data is our best friend when it comes to implementing a worthwhile solution and practice to gather accurate and usable consumer insights. Especially now, with updated privacy efforts, how agencies and brands collect zero- and first-party data for marketing efforts makes a difference. – Josh Perlstein, Response Media

4. Use Channels Where Users Watch Ads To Access Content

Ad blockers are a customer’s choice. Instead of dealing with them, move toward channels that encourage ad viewing as a prerequisite for watching video content so that there is a trade-off of the consumers’ attention for the programming they want to view. – Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne LLC

5. Create Quality Content And New Revenue Sources

Ad blockers are here to stay, so agencies need to find ways to deal with them. Agencies can focus more on creating quality content that will be worth consumers’ time even if it cannot be monetized through advertising. Another approach is for agencies to develop new sources of revenue, such as offering services such as consulting or search engine optimization in addition to traditional advertising services. – Evan Nison, NisonCo

6. Try To Reach Audiences Through Many Platforms

It’s all about diversifying your marketing efforts. If a business was 100% dependent on ads, then ad blockers definitely put a big dent in their revenue. However, if you also reach people through social media, content marketing or emails, then the effects of ad blockers start to diminish. The key is to try to reach your audience through as many platforms as you can, including inbound. – Rafael Romis, Weberous Web Design

7. Focus More On In-App Ads Than Ads On Browsers

A lot of ad blockers are more focused on browsers, so optimizing for in-app ads that appear on people’s phones typically alleviates this issue. It’s much more difficult to block ads in apps such as Instagram. – Spencer Hadelman, Advantage Marketing

8. Create Immersive Ads Or Natural Ads

Creating immersive ads or natural ads is an effective strategy for counteracting the effects of ad blockers. Sometimes, they can be even more effective. For instance, while Netflix didn’t have ads for most of its existence, it negotiated in-content product placements that worked products into scripts in such a way that viewers didn’t even realize they were being advertised to. – Mary Ann O’Brien, OBI Creative

9. Leverage Organic Inbound Marketing And PR

Our agency focuses mainly on organic inbound marketing and public relations, so ad blocking has little to no negative impact on our campaigns. In fact, the more consumers use ad blocking and the less they trust ads, the more engagement, trust and traction we see our content and campaigns gaining on behalf of our clients. So in all honesty, ad blockers are great for adding greater demand to our agency’s solutions. – Azadeh Williams, AZK Media

10. Try Emails, Text Messages And Push Notifications

Ad blocking impacts just one channel in the grander scheme of things. As an agency owner, being creative is my job, and while ad blockers do impact numbers on digital, there are still emails and text messages and push notifications! If you see that your ads aren’t getting traction, think of other channels. – Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day

11. Pivot To Other Forms Of Digital Marketing

Ad blockers on various platforms often lead to necessary changes in ad types and audience targeting, and if necessary, even pivoting to other forms of digital marketing. For example, can’t reach Apple customers because of an iOS update? Target Android devices. If it’s getting harder to bring in new customers, focus more on incentivizing repeat purchases from your customers via email or text. – Bernard May, National Positions

12. Offer Quality Content And Email Campaigns To Opt-In Users

It’s clear that users prefer ad blockers. Google is even ending third-party cookies on Chrome to enhance privacy. Agencies dependent on ad clicks will need to adapt by offering quality content and email campaigns to users who opt in. At the end of the day, this approach will deliver more qualified leads. – Marc Hardgrove, The HOTH

13. Don’t Focus On Ad Blockers, Just Create Engaging Campaigns

Ad blockers are reality for marketers and a completely valid way for internet users to create a more private and enjoyable online experience for themselves. At our agency, we don’t see ad blockers as anything to deal with; rather, our job is to create engaging, useful and creative ad campaigns and target the most ideal users. – Dejan Popovic, PopArt Studio

14. Develop Every Channel To Reach New Audiences

If ads are blocked, the ad is non-viewable, and the impression will not be charged. For agencies, this makes ads more efficient because the user who does not engage with ads is self-removed. This also reinforces that brands should not rely on any one channel or any one platform but instead develop every channel to reach new audiences. – Justin Buckley, ATTN Agency

Sourced from Forbes

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Consumers Aren’t Using Ad Blockers, Still Like Desktop Ads & Aren’t That Keen On Video

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Sourced from B&T Magazine

A new study into advertising trends by digital marketing and advertising firm Choozle has contradicted some well-held beliefs of the advertising industry.

Admittedly a US study, the report titled 2018 Digital Advertising Trends Survey contradicted assumptions around the rise of video, voice, ad blockers, and that recent digital advertising trends might actually be aggravating consumer distaste in online advertisement. It also brought to light that many consumers are unaware of how these developments affect them.

Ad Platforms and Types

Facebook (54 per cent) and Google (44 per cent) remain the most influential platforms for advertising followed by Instagram (23 percent), Spotify (28 percent), and Pandora (24 percent). Despite increased budgets on Instagram, it still falls far behind the duopoly; however, among the 18-29 age group, 60 per cent said they were influenced by ads on Instagram.

Mobile has continually been predicted as the leading digital advertising channel in 2018. However, only 45 per cent of respondents said they were more likely click on an ad on their mobile device, while 41 per cent said they’re more likely to click on a desktop.

Despite video being a major predicted trend in 2018, 72 per cent of consumers do not prefer video ads over other types of online advertisements.

Surprisingly, it was not the youngest group (18-29) but rather 30 to 44-year-old respondents who prefer videos (38 percent) over any other age group.

Industry headlines and reports also suggest a growing opportunity for voice search advertising, however, the survey revealed that only seven percent of respondents said they’re influenced by ads served through Google Home, and six percent through Amazon’s Alexa.

Connected TV advertising budgets also do not align with consumer sentiment. Some 17 per cent of consumers agreed that they’re influenced by ads on internet-connected TV, and that number increases to 29 per cent within the 18-29 age group.

Consumer Sentiment and Behavior

The survey found that 54 per cent of respondents have not used an ad blocker in the past six months, contradicting industry reports and predictions. However, recent digital advertising trends might actually be aggravating consumer distaste in online advertisement. A further 43 per cent of respondents felt negatively towards advertisements, compared to a similar survey from April of 2017 where only 34 per cent reported a negative sentiment, which reveals that hard feelings may be on the rise. The reasoning behind the negative sentiment included being shown the same advertisement multiple times (25 per cent) and advertisements slowing down the webpage (19 per cent).

Gender sterotypes

Some 25 per cent of respondents agreed they would be more likely to buy from a brand who breaks gender stereotypes. But when asked if they’d noticed a change in gender stereotypes in advertising only 13 per cent of consumers have noticed a significant increase in brands breaking stereotypes since that time, and 27 per cent say they have not seen a change.

Personal data/privacy

Internet users are becoming more and more aware of how–and where–their data is being used. But are we doing enough to educate them on why, how, and where their data is used?

Perhaps not. When respondents were asked their level of understanding around personal data use, 44 per cent of respondents answered that they are not very knowledgeable (26 per cent) or not at all knowledgeable (18 per cent) about what personal data online companies have about them. Beyond privacy awareness, 63 per cent of respondents understand that some companies do sell their personal data to other companies to make money, and 89 per cent do not think companies are doing enough to protect their data.

Even with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) being a major news topic over the past year, 60 per cent of consumers did not know what the regulations entail or how they could be affected. However, 78 per cent of respondents think the US government should adopt stricter privacy and security standards and forty-four percent think that the websites that are showing the ads should be responsible for eliminating ads with false information.

Sourced from B&T Magazine

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Apple Stopping Ad Blockers Outside Of Safari On iOS

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According to a recent report Apple is now stopping ad blockers that are blocking adverts in third party apps in iOS.

It was reported that recently that this is something new that Apple is doing after popular apps like Adblock and Weblock are no longer having their updates approved, Apple has confirmed that this is not something new and you can see a statement from Apple below.

“This is not a new guideline. We have never allowed apps on the App Store that are designed to interfere with the performance or capabilities of other apps.” It also said it would remove other apps that offer features that block advertising in third-party apps if they “may have snuck on to the App Store.” Apple added, “We have always supported advertising as one of the many ways that developers can make money with apps.” said and Apple spokesperson.

So whilst these apps may have been available in the app store for some time, Apple has not changed its policies, rather it has started to enforce these policies which it may have not done before.

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Sourced from Geeky Gadgets

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Google Chrome to block all adverts on websites that annoy users with intrusive pop-ups

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Websites that run annoying ads such as pop-ups may find all ads blocked by Google’s Chrome browser starting next year.

The digital-ad giant’s announcement comes as hundreds of millions of internet users have already installed ad blockers on their desktop computers and phones to combat ads that track them and make browsing sites difficult.

These blockers threaten websites that rely on digital ads for revenue. Google’s version will allow ads as long as websites follow industry-created guidelines and minimize certain types of ads that consumers really hate. That includes pop-up ads, huge ads that don’t go away when visitors scroll down a page and video ads that start playing automatically with the sound on.

Google says the feature will be turned on by default, and users can turn it off. It’ll work on both the desktop and mobile versions of Chrome.

Google says that even ads it sells will be blocked on websites that don’t get rid of annoying types of ads.

But there might not be vast changes online triggered by the popular browser’s efforts. It’s a “small number of websites that are disproportionately responsible for annoying user experiences,” Google spokeswoman Suzanne Blackburn said.

“I’m sure there are some publishers who will get hurt,” said Brian Wieser, an ad analyst with Pivotal Research Group. But in the long term, he says, cracking down on irritating ads should make the internet experience better, encouraging people to visit sites and click on links. That, in turn, benefits Google.

The company is also starting a program that could help publishers deal with users who have downloaded popular ad blockers. Some individual websites have come up with their own countermeasures. Forbes.com, for example, won’t let you read stories without disabling your ad blocker or logging in with Facebook or Google accounts, so the site can track you.

Google would work with websites to set up messages telling users to disable their blockers for the site or pay for a version of it with no ads. It’ll take a 10 percent cut of those payments.

To protect its ad business, Google has tried to improve user experiences in other ways. It launched a way for websites to load faster on phones. And it used its sway as the dominant search engine to push companies to make their sites mobile-friendly. Such sites show up higher in mobile searches.

Google also has tried to address advertisers’ concerns about their ads running next to offensive content by banning its ads from some objectionable videos on YouTube, like those that promote discrimination or advocate illegal drug use. Google also won’t place its ads on web pages with objectionable content — porn, for example, and or sites that promote suicide or violence.

Facebook, too, is trying to make links from inside its universe less spammy for users. It says it’s trying to cut down on posts and ads in the news feed that lead to junky pages with “little substantive content” and “disruptive, shocking or malicious ads.”

Image: Google’s ad blocker will allow ads as long as websites follow industry-created guidelinesLeon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Sourced from International Business Times

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How to Optimize Ad Placement and Maximize Revenue

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By Matthew Toren.

Never give your audience a reason to activate their ad blockers.

For most blog, news and content website owners, ad revenue is essential, as it feeds the budget required to deliver the content your readers want. Unfortunately, in the quest to increase ad revenue, many site publishers have fallen into the trap of adopting aggressive ad placement strategies that wreck the user experience and trigger the tremendous ad blocker adoption rate that now threatens the industry’s survival.

Many content companies have responded by trying harder to cultivate relationships with readers, but site owners are also under pressure to demonstrate measurable returns on ad placements. Advertisers are raising concerns about ad “viewability” – the likelihood of an ad actually being seen by a human being — and traditional metrics are simply too imprecise to be useful measurements of an ad’s effectiveness.

Meeting these challenges requires creating a win-win-win scenario for all industry stakeholders: website owners, advertisers and audiences.

I recently spoke with Imonomy CEO Oren Dror about the state of the content monetization ecosystem and the need for better solutions.

What does Imonomy do, and how does it help publishers monetize their content?

Imonomy, a leading in-image advertising platform, has developed a solution that helps publishers meet this challenge. Its viewability optimization feature analyzes participating publishers’ sites and dynamically places ads, based on which ad inventory slots drive the most views.

This new feature is already showing promising results. Throughout Imonomy’s beta release, and after it made the viewability optimization feature available to all publishers in September, the company has seen participating publishers’ revenues increase by as much as 15 to 20 percent.

Why is the online publishing industry still focused on ad impressions and not more on earning people’s attention with ad content that delivers real value to readers? What role does an in-image platform play in the long-term?

Clearly the industry must measure results based on viewability and relevance, rather than simple ad impressions.

Publishers understand the importance of the broader ecosystem and are increasingly adopting highly engaging ad tech innovations that improve ad experiences, increase engagement and boost revenues.

In-image ads provide a viable long-term model for ads that deliver real value for readers. Our solution delivers relevant and engaging offers that consumers will actually see.

Content paywalls don’t seem to be effective, and consumers are wary of sponsored content that lacks credibility. Do you think publishers need to make a stronger case for the usefulness of ads when it comes to keeping the internet free?

Yes, you said it yourself: Content isn’t really free. It has a cost.

But if publishers are to make a strong case for ad-supported content, they must do everything they can to offer better ad experiences. They must provide users with ads that are relevant and non-intrusive.

We strongly believe that if the industry adopts a more audience-centric approach, readers will be far more willing to accept ads in exchange for content. Audiences are a crucial part of the industry ecosystem.

To what extent do you believe advertisers and media buyers are responsible for the rise of ad blockers?

Publishers want better revenue sources in the competitive online environment. As a result, they often place as many ad units on a page as they can, sometimes including intrusive ad formats that are supposed to increase their income.

While this monetization strategy may have worked years ago, it just isn’t going to cut it anymore. Users are no longer willing to put up with poor ad experiences, and they’re fighting back with ad blockers.

Improving ad quality is equally important. Publishers need to improve tracking, quality assurance for brand safety with trusted partners, and adopt industry best practices to improve the user experience.

What are some of the more surprising insights that you’ve learned about better ad placements?

We’ve found time and time again that when ads are dynamically placed to maximize viewability, users are far more likely to engage. Remember, advertisers won’t pay for ads that aren’t capable of being seen.

Publishers and advertisers often assume that above-the-fold ads are most viewable but, in many cases, ads placed in the middle of the page are far more engaging. This is because readers who scroll down tend to be more engaged.

Interestingly, in-image ads located on the bottom of mobile web pages often have the highest viewability and engagement rates.

Optimizing for the ecosystem

By shifting their focus from simple ad impressions to ads that consumers actually see, publishers and advertisers have realized they can earn higher revenues while delivering compelling experiences to their audiences.

Clearly, what works for one site and one audience won’t necessarily work for others. However, all publishers and advertisers can create the optimal experiences for their audiences using viewability optimizations and, in the process, earn more sustainable revenues.

By Matthew Toren

Matthew Toren is a serial entrepreneur, mentor, investor and co-founder of YoungEntrepreneur.com. He is co-author, with his brother Adam, of Kidpreneurs and Small Business, BIG Vision: Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made E…

Sourced from Entrepreneur

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