Ad Blocking is... Good?

Ad blocking is good?

In digital advertising, technology is always top of mind. Agencies and tech companies often struggle to find a healthy balance between positive ad experiences and publisher accountability. Now that ad blocking is on the rise, we find ourselves reinventing our media strategies to combat resistant users. After countless hours of research, webinars and sales calls, we’ve decided that ad blocking is good.

Here is what you need to know.

1. Approximately 16 percent of the online US population have ad blocking software (up 41 percent year over year).
2. 18-29-year-old males are most likely to use ad blockers.
3. Consumers spend approximately 87 percent of their time on mobile devices using apps. Ad blockers are not implemented in the apps.
4. An estimated loss of global revenue due to blocked advertising in 2015 was $21.8 billion; $5.8 of which was in the US. 

Why is this good for us?

1. Users who are downloading ad blockers have proven to be a disengaged audience, and therefore we don’t want to target them and waste impressions and dollars.
2. By having the disengaged removed, our digital banners have the ability to be served to a more affluent audience. The affluent audience is good because they are more willing to take action.
3. With the standard desktop, mobile and tablet ads having the possibility of being blocked, we are forced to develop innovative ad executions. These must not only dodge blocking technology but also deliver a positive ad experience.

Ad blocking requires us to be more creative and strategic. We are forced outside of the standard digital executions in efforts to cheat the (ad blocking) system and deliver the highest quality ad formats. In other words, media mavens alike will now be in hunger games like a war where only the ‘fittest’ ads survive the marketplace. May the ads be ever in your favor.

-Christina Sokol, Digital Media Strategist 

Photo Credit: blog.demandware