From the start of the internet, one of its great strengths was the fact that people suddenly had free access to unlimited amounts of information. Except for the cost of your ISP, there was no further expense incurred for accessing various sites. Everything was cheaper and easier to find by a few simple clicks.
For many websites, the answer to their financial concerns was discovered in the form of online advertising. The concept which is as old as the publishing industry itself was that the more readers your site could attract, the bigger the price advertisers would be prepared to pay to feature on your website. For the last few years, advertising spent on the internet has grown at a rapid pace, with overall online internet advertising revenue expected to exceed TV advertising worldwide back in 2016.
The Next Big Problem – Ad Blockers
There is, however, a rather large problem coming over the horizon. Various companies have developed ad blockers for various platforms. These small pieces of software are designed to prevent website visitors from even seeing a site’s adverts, and this is destined to cause certain problems further down the line.
According to the 2017 PageFair Adblock report, the use of ad block software worldwide is drastically up. In general, ads are only paid for when they are shown to the site visitor, so every time a visitor lands on a website with an active ad blocker in place, that site owner has to pay.
The report also tells states that about 11% of the global population now uses ad-blocking software, and 62% of the devices using ad blocking software are mobile devices. This presents a huge problem because over 50%of Google’s ad revenue comes from mobile devices, and that is forecast to continue to rise, and nearly all because of Facebook. If ad blocking software becomes the norm, then companies on the internet are going to lose out on huge sums of money.
In 2015 alone, ad blocking in the USA grew by approximately 48%. Ad blocking is costing publishers huge amounts of money and has the potential to cause many e-commerce sites to close their electronic doors permanently. It is estimated that ad blocking software will cost the internet industry about $20 billion within four years.
Domain/ URL How Can Publishers Counteract The Use of Ad Blockers
There is always a solution to every problem, so rather than simply giving up, companies and publishers can try to minimize the use of ad blockers. Here are some suggestions that can help to ensure that your clients don’t resort to the use of ad blocking software.
Know Your Customer – Have you ever been watching a kid’s TV show with your family, when a commercial for beer was shown? This may be an extreme example, but it is used to explain one of the number one complaints given by internet users. It is this reason more than any other that encourages the user to install ad blocking software.
They are being served up adverts that are not targeted in any way, or perhaps even worse, ads that prevent them from reading the information they originally sought out. On a mobile device, certain adverts pop up over the content and effectively prevent you from using your phone any further until you react to the advert.
Very quickly readers learn which sites are blocking their access, which in turn makes them ignore that specific site in the future. By knowing your ideal customer, you will be able to serve up relevant adverts that appeal to your audience. Because the ads interest your readers, they are more likely to whitelist your site since they are genuinely interested in what you are offering. From a revenue perspective, knowing your ideal customer is also likely to result in better click-through rates, and therefore potentially increase your site’s revenue.
Create Ads That Provide Useful Content And Information – Try to design adverts that fit in with the site in question, both aesthetically and informationally. Around 70%of people stated that they would much rather prefer to learn about products via informative and interesting content, than from traditional advertising. Use this knowledge to your advantage, and you will effectively solve a problem and gain a reader all at once.
With technology and the digital marketing landscape constantly changing, it is important that you keep up-to-date with all of the changes in the industry. Here at Arcalea, our business is to keep track of all the changes and online news, so keep informed with all the important changes by regularly visiting our blog.
