5 Galvanised by fear, the online advertising industry will more aggressively respond to ad blockers
Digital Advertising Fights Back
Digital advertising has had its wake up call and can no longer hit the snooze button. The industry has been jolted into action by the continued rise of ad blocking software across desktop and mobile devices, and forecasts of billions in lost advertising revenue. We predict marketers will fight back with genuine improvements for consumers.
In 2015, IAB Tech Lab launched a programme of “lean” ad principles, advocating that digital ads should be light, encrypted, non-invasive, and support a user’s decision to choose what ads they see. September 2016 saw the launch of the impressively broad Coalition for Better Ads, and the industry will soon launch a new ad portfolio which should kill off pop-ups, forced countdowns and auto expands – the most annoying and disruptive of ad formats.
More confident that UX basics will be addressed, publishers will be proactive in trying to win the hearts, minds and screen space of consumers. Marketing campaigns will focus both on deterring new ad blocking users and discouraging existing users. The ethics of ad blocking will also be questioned as software providers increasingly attempt to profit from ad authorisation.
Meanwhile, the technical pingpong against ad blockers will continue. This will return short-term dollars to publishers but will override consumer wishes, so the safer long-term strategy will be to address the core concerns which have drawn people to ad blocking.
In 2017, the online ad industry will turn a corner by adopting better ad formats and proactively persuading audiences not to block ads.
In 2017, the online ad industry will turn a corner by adopting better ad formats and proactively persuading audiences not to block ads.
Kantar Millward Brown’s annual Adreaction study, to be released in January, identifies the top three reasons people install ad blockers: ads interrupt and annoy them; they are concerned that ads slow down their devices, and they don’t find ads relevant. Expect to see the digital advertising industry urgently responding to these specific challenges throughout the coming year.