Last week we all saw the news that Facebook was disabling ad blocking software for people who use Facebook on their desktop. A few days later came the news that AdblockPlus had changed their software to bypass Facebook’s disabling measures. And then within hours came more news that Facebook had blocked AdBlock’s workaround. All of this angst over ads is a reminder that almost nothing is free on the internet. You either pay information publishers directly, or pay them indirectly by being exposed to advertising from the companies who are paying the publishers.
- The arms race in ad-block land (Online Spin | Maarten Albarda) “It is not a ‘winnable war,’ since engineers on both sides are clearly capable of outdoing each other turn by turn. It is also not a solution consumers will appreciate. Those who want an ad blocker will be annoyed by a product that does not deliver ad blocking, and will blame Facebook for its perceived ignorance of users’ needs. And the ad industry (marketers, agencies, media platforms) will lose, since they will never know if today is a day that ads are served or not served, depending on who has the winning patch that day.”
- Most ad-blocker users concerned with intrusiveness of ads, YouGov survey reveals (Mumbrella | Miranda Ward) “The YouGov poll, which quizzed a [Australia] national sample of 1,000 people, discovered that 58% of the respondents have installed an ad-blocker on a personal device while 39% have installed one on their work device. Of the respondents polled, the group with an ad-blocker installed cited intrusiveness of ads as the main reason for installing an ad-blocker while 62% said they were concerned about malware coming through an ad, and just over half said ads increased the loading time of pages.”
- IAB: Two-thirds of ad block users are open to turning off software (Ad Age | George Slefo) “The IAB [Interactive Advertising Bureau] says that respondents would be more likely to turn off ad blockers should publishers adopt its LEAN principles for ads: Light, Encrypted, Ad choice supported and Non-invasive. According to the IAB, men aged 18-34 are the most likely group to run ad blockers on desktop, but also the group most inclined to turn off blocking if a site adheres to LEAN principles.”
- Publishers plan to boost mobile investments despite ad blocker woes (Wireless Week | Diana Goovaerts) “According to AOL’s 2016 Publisher Outlook, 75 percent of publishers are looking to bump up their mobile investment in the coming year, with nearly half planning to increase spending by up to 25 percent and more than 10 percent expecting to boost spending by 50 percent to 100 percent. The anticipated rise in spending comes despite publishers’ ongoing battle with ad blockers, which nearly half of publishers said was their main challenge in mobile advertising.”
Articles from Ohio Web Library:
- Do you recognize its brand? The effectiveness of online in-stream video advertisements. (Journal of Advertising, 2015, p.208-218 | Hao Li and Hui-Yi Lo)
- Ad blocking killed the video star. (Marketing Week, 2/18/2016, p.27-29 | Mindi Chahal)
- Thin slice impressions: How advertising evaluation depends on exposure duration. (Journal of Marketing Research, Aug.2016, p.563-579 | Millie Elsen, Rik Pieters and Michel Wedel)
