Ad Blocking - What are you doing about it?
 

Anyone that runs a website with any decent amount of traffic will know, that ad blockers is on the rise. No doubt about it, you can read this article from 2013 and see that now, two years later, their estimates for growth is pretty much spot on. Our findings is that at least 40% of the visitors are using ad blockers of some sort and that number is growing. That is a LOT of revenue that's just lost....And if the trend continues, ad blockers will be in and enabled on almost every browser by the year 2018.

Today a lot of webmasters rely on selling ads, so if you are one of them the question stands:

What are you doing about users blocking your ads? Education? Intrusion? Redirection? Nothing?

Do people who use an Ad Blocker, do it because they want to click on ads. Or because they don't?

Like Spam Arrest, do we use it because we want spam, or don't want it?

Can't you detect adblock and replace the ad with a text promo?

Did you answer your own question or what? It's not that simple and you can't really compare it with blocking spam. That would be simplifying it.

From what I can read, research shows that many people started using ad blockers because:

1. Websites had very intrusive and loud ads.
2. YouTube.

YouTube has started adding adds to everything, sometimes to watch a 30 second cat video some people had to watch 45 seconds of commercials.

I would assume that people who use ad blockers want to block ads. I also assume that a large portion of these people don't want to start paying for shit. They want things to stay free. Not just talking adult here, in general.

So there is a discrepant between what people do and what they want. Why? How can we overcome this? What can we do?

Sure, that's no problem at all. We can do whatever we want, we can detect them, display ads/text to them, redirect them or do nothing. But what do we want to do? I am not sure.

My initial thoughts as I said, people use ad blockers because they want to block the annoying ads. The ones that blink, make noise, interrupts their content consumption - but I am not sure that they actually mind having relevant ads displayed that matches what they are looking at. Something that they might even feel gives an added value to the product.

But I am interested at hearing what other people do about this? Right now I am doing nothing... and I feel like I am leaving money on the table.

Some sites I hit do see I use and "advise" to turn it off as I'm missing all the great offer, or pay to join the forum.

Like that's why I installed it, to turn it off and load ads. :upsidedow

The problem some face is a lot of "webmastering is easy. Ad buying, selling, emailing, etc. A lot of people do this and a lot of it requires the "rinse and repeat" method.

Which is great if you sell or deliver a product like Spam Arrest or Ad Blocker.

As for porn blogs, so few are worth reading. When it comes to news, cooking, dog training/caring blogs. I'm reading every line.

mark, adblock hide everything now even some normal pics... i'm a bit worried about this issue too :) .

i try to avoid iframes etc.

Can you post an example and the site? I'd like to reach out and talk to the owner to see how they did with it. I don't care if it's a site about cats and camels, just to hear their experiences.

Well I know what I can do about it, I'd just love to hear what peoples experiences are with the different options. But it's something to worry about/consider for sure!

I mix Text Ads w/ Banner Ads and...

...A lot of the popular ad blockers will block by banner sizes that are written in their *rules*, example 468x60, 120x60, 160x60 skyscraper, 728x90 leaderboard. I have creatives done slightly larger or smaller.

Yes, try to avoid Iframes and JS ads where possible.

I started using ad block because most viruses come from rouge flash ads. Even ads supplied by Google.

So, is there any adult ad networks working with ad blockers to have their ad service on an approved ad list, or is everyone still just trying to fight it? https://adblockplus.org/en/acceptable-ads
My guess is the first to accept and adapt will control the adult ad business :thumbsup

You can still opt out of the ads easily even if you're white listed. Wait until Adblock hits mobile - that was the biggest news of out of the last Mac developers conference. That safari would allow extensions for Adblock - which hasn't been allowed before - presumably to mess with Google.

Because we all haven't had our mobile browsers hijacked before, right?

Also, some carriers in Europe are pissed Google won't split ad revenue with them. So they are teaming up with smaller companies on their own proprietary ad blocks where all future phones will be pre-loaded with AdBlock.

It becomes simple. Pay them if you want your ads to load, or don't pay them and no one earns.

The irony? Technology is here to serve PEOPLE not businesses. Meaning, people will use technology to get what they want - an ad-free environment where everything on the Internet is free - and businesses can just cry about it.

Here's the dirty little secret about capitalism: you cannot FORCE someone to buy your shit. Not yet anyway. :)

Just don't put shit like "banner" in your image name and it doesn't get blocked.

Nothing, just discounting the value of the network ads we buy to the value of what is really seen. There is no solution as it client side and you cannot force them to see your ad :2 cents:

Move on and work with the 85% (or less) that can see your ads and that you could get a click thru from. There are very few websites that have no competition so as to afford excluding people using an ad blocker -- that just would lower the traffic counts they use to sell ads. Pissing in the wind -- get over it. It's a lose-lose scenario and a fool's battle :2 cents:

I posted a thread about this a few weeks ago.

If you can detect and ad blocker, why not shut of all content to anyone who has one on, the just have a banner (or text) that says "please turn your ad-blocker off to see this site"

Pop-unders, pop-overs, redirects, auto-installers, multiple pop-unders/overs, scripts to overcome console blocking. Even now, ya'll are looking for a way to overcome ad blocking.

Overuse of useful means of advertising has forced the user to run away from all ads just to get away from the hell most of you put them through....

Necessity is the mother of invention and I'm sure new means of advertising have yet to come to fruition but even as it does spread through the marketplace, it too will be overused and even blocked.

You Reap What You Sow

The more technologically advanced we become the further back the industry will be forced to retreat to..... hard coded text ads

So use the script that detects ad blocking and show a version of your website that displays them instead.

Pain in the ass to be sure, but don't for a second believe they aren't effective. This industry was built on them.....

QFT.

:thumbsup:thumbsup

Run shitty sites, get shitty customers.

Offer something that engages your viewers instead of pissing them off, same as it has been forever.

Reading that link just pisses me off. Who are they to dictate how I format my ads on my website? (yes yes I know they have a ton of installed plugins, but I can circumvent it).

I fully agree, this problem is only growing. The question still is what we do about it.

I think you assume too much Barry. The assumption that people who use ad blockers solely do so because they don't want to see any ads is mistaken IMO. While it is true for a (large) part of them, there is a also a part that has it either pre-installed or does it because they don't want intrusive ads.

Now I would never block the content, I think that's a bad solution and one that makes no sense. I can't force people to turn off their ad-blocker. I can circumvent it, sure, but what's the best way to do it without pissing off the surfer and still get some income from that ad-spot...? It's also way more than 15% of surfers that use ad blockers btw.

I agree. Going back to showing hard coded text ads or static ads is not the way forward. Contextual and integrated marketing of products are - I just wish someone had some awesome examples with some findings on how the ad blocking surfers react to this.

Well we are talking about sites that are monetized by advertising here - so your statement isn't really relevant. Or helpful :thumbsup

Well said, although it is nothing compared to the battle an email marketer must fight. Still, good post. Text links are where the money is at in both camps.

Yes, those sites chose a shitty path. Promote things that your viewers will enjoy in a non asshole manner and you would be fine. Fill the site with shitty banners to sites that rip them off and you lose all good will you might have ever had.

Deserved.

if your solution is always about "winning" and "perpetually beating those who oppose you" and not in addressing the root causes for the proliferation of adblock software to begin with (guarding against a shitty user experience)... then you'll ultimately lose the battle no matter how many more workarounds people come up with.

Okay then. I guess sites like YouTube and Facebook choose a shitty path. If someone installed an ad blocker because of YOUR site, I'd agree with you.

But we are talking about the ad driven business model here... so... but yea, creating engaging awesome sites is always good advice. Thanks.

True. But the fact remains, 40% or more use them. That's a lot of traffic lost, because they had a bad user experience somewhere else. Like on Youtube.

I can't change that, I can only deal with the fact that I have 40% that do not see my ads. I can "let it be" or I can do something about it :)

Youtube ads suck but they offer a product unmatched by any others. Facebook ads that work are generally liked by the userbase there. They are already spreading stupid shit around in droves for free and advertisers accommodated.

For a porn tube, selling ads is not optimal. It's just lazy webmastering.

I am buying not selling. People ignore ads or close them as soon as they can. We pay for millions of bulk ads a week: 99.8%+ of them don't convert. So, as an ad buyer it makes little difference.

Our affiliates are not having difficulties with our promo tools being blocked that I have been made aware of and that is only real issue to me.

First and foremost, we don't flash notices, or redirect users, or other things like try to "educate" those visiting our sites. Secondly, we don't rely 100% on banners.

What we do is create a fallback that if an adblocker is present, we present an alternative. For example, we might instead use a text block using simple CSS and a PHP if/else (we do the same with mobile traffic).

The way we see it, every person to your site(s) is a potential customer. So you have two choice:

1. Spend time trying to circumvent an adblocker, or redirect the person, or "educate" them, etc. OR
2. Add some simple code to detect the adblocker's presence, and provide an alternate engagement and call to action mechanism.

In our case, #2 will win every single time. Anything else is cost prohibitive.

I know short codes can be blocked, but what about link cloaking by Affiliate Link Protector or just using direct linking which is offered by Post Affiliate Pro. Both of these remove the need for an affiliate code in the link.

Ad Blocker might block some of this, but I doubt all of it. It should make the ad a little less identifiable.

One other thing you can do is create a css container and load your banner as a background for that container, and then add a css overlay on hover that has the link. It's a bit more work, but if you get a little creative, it's certainly an option you can use to your advantage.

QFT. :thumbsup

Yes, that will make a difference. As the scoot onto the next site offering exactly the same.

QFT :thumbsup

Here's the real world. The odds on your ads being so amazing, so wonderful that they would click on them. Are so remote it's pointless to worry about it.

Compare it to the real world. Busy Mall and someone without asking thrusts a leaflet in front of you, or there's a rack of leaflets outside every shop. Or your mailbox full of leaflets. How long before you ignore them all?

Go back to selling a product, it's so easy. PM me for tips.

:2 cents::thumbsup Yup, we're testing number two now. Thanks for the feedback!

I use uBlock. It's much better than Ad Block Plus. Oh. You mean....well...

"Adapt or die"

Sound familiar, Markul? :)

Seriously go to text ads or in-content ads. Make the ads part of the content and vice-versa. That is the way forward.

Read up.

There's a ticking time bomb inside the online advertising market.

However you can demand something in return for what you provide. The other party then accepts or declines, that is capitalism.

In this case you can for example redirect visitors away because of ad blockers. "You are being redirected because you use ad blocker. Bye, bye." :)

The visitors won't see neither good or bad ads if ads are blocked. Unless there is some good or bad ad detector. Assuming that ads are used for promotion.

Many medias have solved this problem by blurring the line between content and the ads. There is not much or at all real journalism. Everything is just a ad in a way or another. However, for example our laws say that ads/ marketing have to be such that those can be recognized as ads/ marketing.

I give my surfers what they want. 15 years and never banners or ads on my sites.

How do you think you can be successful redirecting surfers from what they want and trying to make them see ads they dont want to see?

Chuckling inside thinking of stolen content on sites relying on ads for income :1orglaugh:1orglaugh

None of this is directed @ Markul, I don't know his operation, just making general statements on the topic. :thumbsup

This topic has come up a few times..

It is possible to recover ads from ad blocker, there are a few methods to do so.

The good and the bad about removing the ads.

You will be able to recover and increase ad impressions by about 10-20%
But the clicks on the ads will not also go up by the same % good luck even getting an overall increase of 5%.

So the over all CTR value of the ads will drop.
If you are selling ads this may lead to a CPM value drop to of set the quality of the ad spots.
Unless you are keeping the recovered ads for yourself and not forcing the original ads to load..
Then you have the time and energy spent keeping the ad recovery going.
You can find that the ROI on recovering ads to be a loss.

A higher ROI can be found in changing things up a little by putting Ads in non traditional placements (example : NTV's on the left and not the right)
This can recover ads for people that have become ad blind on your site.

The answer is pretty much the same as with making people buy. I want something, but it pays, what I do? Considering the subject of this thread and your post, please don't answer that give it free and use ad based business model. :)

Ad based business model is serious and pretty much the only business model for many businesses. For newspapers for example. Their revenue is even in best case scenarios about 50/50 from ads versus subscription. It really isn't very viable option to say that don't show ads. And many people like to see ads. For real, people even order shopping magazines (ads).

Not sure exactly what you're saying.

Just to be clear, anyone with a site havibg ads blocked needs to adapt.

Trying to find a way to serve blocked ads will not work and Google will likely see it as blackhat, same for sites who alter content based on the presence of an ad blocker.

I am saying that people don't want to spend money. Unless it is some sort of a status symbol or issue about fairness, they prefer to get what they want for free. So; they don't want to pay, nor they don't want to see ads (the generalization). The issue is that you don't always get what you want.

The only way to adapt is not giving it totally free, as you probably know as you sell subscriptions, not give those for free. However, selling subscriptions is not the only way to make people "pay". But both cases includes making people to do something they don't want to do (pay). Both includes giving people what they want (but just not for free, in the end at least).

A bit complicated explanation, but I am quite sure you got it.

Interesting link from that page .. hmmm

https://moz.com/blog/online-advertising-fraud

Read it to the end ... at least skim through the high-points.

All ad traffic that is coming into our network is being spot monitored in real-time now. Hadoop noSQL :P

I can see the proxies behind any click -- we have the technology ...
This includes ALL referrals.:2 cents:

Yes I understand. :)

The irony: I have paysites people pay to subscribe to.

Thieves steal from me, what people pay for.

They then post it for free, attracting leechers, hoping the leacher will click their ads and BUY :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

There were a couple nuggets of advice others gave so far. In the end, any advertiser who wants to make money needs to provide a place that attracts spenders, not leechers. You then need to respect how they want to see your site/ad, and refer them to where they're expecting to go. Anything else is a waste of time.

I have business idea for you and totally free (not even ad income for this one).

What about establishing own pirate sites pirating your own content? Sell to the "leechers" and for the rest of the folks too, but not the same stuff (as the leechers are not willing to pay for the pirated stuff). :)

This is a GREAT idea! Promote cloned copies of all the top tubes, with NO ADVERTISING totally free! Ad free tubes. Encourage people to upload from their favorite tubes to the ad free version :D

As for me, I've been feeding alternate versions of my content to the thieves (criminal network) for months now. :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:thumbsup it's cat and mouse with them. They are very selfish & determined to steal, keep switching identities:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

- Change banners sizes from the traditional, for example, instead of 300x250 , try doing a 302x252 (and resize it in CSS)
- Avoid "banner", "ad", in image src.

...

I know Captain Obvious, strikes again.

The problem is buying/selling traffic which is what ads are essentially. Is so easy everyone does it, it's over done, the sites promoting are pretty poor beyond being a free wank. And the returns are appalling. s everyone's fretting over people who aren't going to buy not wanting the ads/spam.

A good approach. If you're not giving away, a free wank, that someone else is. It works. Catch 22.

Offer something the consumer will pay for, that he can't get for free. And it's a win, win situation.

Which is why bottled water sells when tap water is free. It's the "coolness" and convenience when impulse/need buying, of bottled of water. However why people buy large bottles of plain water for home, is beyond me. :1orglaugh