Just a few years ago, the advertising industry was made up simply of advertisers, publishers, marketers and ad blockers. But the industry is no longer the same and everyone involved is very much in a state of transition. The topics and predicaments around the boardroom aren’t what they used to be.
Ad blocking, and the industry it is a part of, is not only expanding in popularity among users but also across channels towards mobile. Mobile devices are at the centre of consumers’ lives and global mobile ad revenue reflects this – mobile advertising is one of the fastest-growing sources of revenues for digital media companies. Mobile ad revenue has grown by 65 per cent last year, up from $19.3bn in 2013 (IAB, IAB Europe, and IHS Technology). The arrival of the new version of Apple’s next mobile operating system, iOS 9 and the news that it will be in support of content blocking extensions in Safari is a turn for the industry, one that signals a move towards content growth on mobiles. Their arrival on the App Store has brought them to the top of the App Store download ratings. While ad blocking has been available on desktops for years, this is the first time users will be able to install an app to block ads, and its associated tracking, on the iPhone’s browser.
In the last year, the ad industry has firmly stepped up its criticism for ad blocking. While Larry Page, Google CEO, admits that the industry needs to do a better job at producing ads that are more user-focused and less annoying, ad blocking is still considered to be one of the key problems facing publishers, and is heavily censured by almost all players. Ad blocking growth has been a natural response to invasive advertising, and users have spoken against this with their downloads. Instead of acknowledging a chance for change, to better reach consumers, as Larry Page has encouraged, the industry has chosen an anti-user approach: anti-ad blockers. Anti-ad blocking attempts have been around since ad blocking, but recently a crop of new companies have sprung up offering publishers a way to reserve ads to people who have blocked them.
In essence, it’s a case of the user being aggressively retargeted by these “circumventers” of user will with the same ads they have previously chosen to block, and at the same time charging publishers for targeting these users. Clearly this is not a workable model and that is why a dramatic rethink is needed.
Creating less intrusive, more likeable advertising that is contextually relevant is a more efficient strategy than ambushing those who are most resentful of ads. Anti-consumer reactions to online advertising challenges are why we are in this situation in the first place.
Advertisers are wrong to assume users don’t want to view ads, or want to block all ads. Users don’t oppose the concept of online ads altogether they just don’t want a model that accepts intrusive, irrelevant pop-ups that steal your screen.
Ad blocking isn’t about creating an ad-free internet. Ad blocking has arisen from a need to give users more freedom, to encourage the industry to adopt more consumer-directed advertising tactics.
At the centre of these industry innovations, ad blocking is inevitably evolving. We are living in an online culture that increasingly inspires users to demand more control of their internet and within this ad blocking has a significant role to play. Ad blocking should be a means of providing for all users across all devices and all connections, in line with an initiative focused on acceptable and non-intrusive ad blocking, and that is what Adblock Plus are working towards.
By Ben Williams, Head of Operations at Adblock Plus.
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