Tag: ad blocking

How Publishers Are Dealing With Ad-Blockers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
In recent months, ad-blocking has become a hot topic among advertisers and online publishers, thanks to Apple’s decision of adding ad-blocking Safari extensions in iOS 9. According to a report from Adobe and PageFair, ad-blockers have claimed 198 million active global users as of June 2015, and that number is expected to double by the end of this year. Therefore, it is no surprise that some major online publishers have started taking active measures to fight off ad-blockers with varied degrees of aggressiveness. Here’s a roundup.

• Forbes and GQ are among the most forceful in their stance against ad-blocking. The two sites have been preventing ad-blocker users from accessing their content completely, instead displaying a page asking them to disable their ad blockers or join their memberships.

• Slate is taking a slightly gentler approach, nudging its readers to turn off their ad-blockers or sign up for membership with a subtle banner at the bottom of its pages. The publisher is also reportedly working on eliminating intrusive ads on its site.

• Huffington Post is working with parent company AOL’s user experience team to monitor its sites and remove ads that are deemed intrusive or dissatisfactory, while also making sure its native ads are clearly disclosed. It has also set up a task force to learn about ad-blocker usage on a global scale.

• Bloomberg also aims to fight ad-blockers by focusing on improving the ad experience for readers, cleaning up its ad placement and design with more white space, less animation and more lower-case fonts.

• Imgur is hoping to make a case for disabling ad-blockers on it site by delivering true user value with its native ads. The image-sharing site is pairing advertisers with its in-house creatives to ensure the messaging and design are fit for its site.

What Brands Need To Do
As online publishers experiment with various ways to combat ad-blocking and attempt to reclaim their lost ad revenues, brands also need to figure out a communications strategy that will get their brand messages across and not blocked. While denying access may work wonders in the short-term (Forbes cites 44% of users complied and disabled their ad-blockers for access), it is hardly a sustainable approach. Instead, brands need to work on winning the consumer trust with more than just annoying pop-ups or intrusive interstitials. Actively working with content partners to create branded content that are entertaining, engaging, or informative would be the key to convince today’s consumers to turn off their ad-blockers.

 

Source: Digiday

Best Of The Lab 2015: How To Cope With The Rise Of Ad-Blockers

Posted on by Lab Team

Welcome to the Lab’s year-end review, looking back at some of our best and most popular posts from 2015.

Ever since Apple added support for content-blocking Safari extensions to iOS 9, ad-blockers rocketed to the front pages and become a hot topic among advertisers and online publishers. While the scope of its impact may still be up for debate, one thing is undeniable: today’s tech-savvy consumers are starting to realize they can avoid ads by using ad-blockers. How will your brand cope? Here are some actionable suggestions from the Lab.

Fast Forward: Ad Blocking in iOS 9 Safari & What You Need to Do
Popular Ad-blocking Extension Adblock Now Allows Whitelisting
Why Ad-Blockers On iOS 9 Might Not Be What You Think
How Adblockers Are Messing Up Retailers’ Websites

 

Mozilla Debuts Content Blocker For iOS

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Tuesday, Mozilla launched an iOS content blocker named Focus by Firefox, promising to block out all tracking codes on mobile webpages. It will most certainly wipe out the ads as well, given that most online ads today have some sort of tracking code built in.

What Brands Need To Do
Following Apple’s decision to allow ad-blocking extensions in iOS 9, a handful of ad-blocking apps have been making waves among mobile users. While it is still debatable how much damage it will do to online publishers and advertisers, there is no denying that today’s consumers are becoming increasingly aware that they are being tracked, and that personal data holds value to advertisers. Therefore, publishers and ad tech providers will have to figure out new ways to acquire the audience data they need for retargeting and analytics. For one, offering consumers added value to incentivize them to volunteer their personal information and data is a good way to bypass the rising trend of ad avoidance.

Source: VentureBeat

The IAB Introduces L.E.A.N. Ads Program In Response To Ad Blocking

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Facing mounting pressure of the rapid adoption of ad blocking technologies, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) introduced the L.E.A.N. Ads program — the acronym standing for Light, Encrypted, Ad choice supported, Non-invasive — on Thursday. It is meant to provide advertisers with a set of principles intended to “guide the next phases” of technical standards for the digital advertising supply chain. With L.E.A.N. Ads, the IAB hopes to increase ad efficiency, address the volume of ads per page, as well as continue on the path to viewability, which it also sets the industry standard for.

What Agencies Need To Do
As ad-blockers continue to gain momentum among users, agencies should feel incentivized to figure out ways to actively respond to the challenges that ad-blocking brings. The L.E.A.N. Ads program provides a good reference that advertisers should take into consideration. For more actionable suggestions on how advertisers can deal with the rise of ad-blockers, click here to read our in-depth Fast Forward analysis on this hot topic.

 

Source: IAB

Popular Ad-blocking Extension Adblock Now Allows Whitelisting

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Friday, Adblock was sold to an unnamed new owner and now supports EyeO’s acceptable advertising — which allows advertisers to buy their way onto the whitelist — through the filter. Boasting over 40 million users, Adblock is among one of the most popular ad-blocking browser extensions in Chrome and Safari for the desktop.

What Brands Need To Do
This mysterious change of ownership comes at an interesting time when the advertising and media industry debate over the impacts of widespread usage of ad-blockers, largely thanks to Apple’s recently added support for ad-blocking Safari extensions, allowing iOS users to block ads in their mobile browser for the first time. For brands, Adblock’s new whitelisting feature presents a way to bypass the obstacle and reach a highly coveted key demo, as study shows that ad-blocker usage is highest among high-earning Millennials. Therefore, brands should work with agencies to seize the opportunity and ensure the ad networks of choice are on the whitelist.

 

Source: The Next Web

How Adblockers Are Messing Up Retailers’ Websites

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
The perils that Apple’s ad-blocking extension in iOS 9 inflicted on digital publishers has been well–documented, but one lesser-known impact of those ad-blockers is that it can cause problems with retailers’ ecommerce sites. According to Fortune’s hands-on experiments, multiple major retailers’ digital sales channels would be negatively impacted when popular iOS ad-blocker Crystal is enabled.

The damage varies from site to site: Sears and Walgreens would have an entire webpage wipes out, whereas mobile sites of Lululemon and Walmart lose functioning online shopping carts with Crystal enabled. This is likely a result of some retailers using ad servers as part of their web platform to aid in retargeting, which in turn caused adblockers to wipe out their actual content. What’s more, ad-blockers can also strip out backend shopper behavior-tracking codes like Google Analytics or Adobe’s Omniture, which some retailers rely on for real-time customer insights.

What Brands Need To Do
Just as digital publishers have to get creative and move towards social and native ads in order to deal with the rise of ad-blockers, retailers too need to make it a priority to update the backend of their sites to prevent their web content from being misidentified as ads and getting blocked. Moreover, retailers should consider exploring social commerce enabled by buy buttons or, if resource permits, developing their own branded mobile apps, which the ad-blockers don’t affect, to offer customers a truly controlled mobile shopping experience.

 

Source: Fortune

Why Ad-Blockers On iOS 9 Might Not Be What You Think

Posted on by Richard Yao

Today  marks the official release of iOS 9, Apple’s newest operating system upgrade for its mobile devices. Along with it comes the much hyped mobile ad-blockers. TechCrunch tested three new content blockers for iOS 9 – 1Blocker, Blockr and Crystal. Popular desktop ad-blocker AdBlock Plus will also introduce an ad-blocking extension following iOS 9’s debut. So far, the ad industry appears to be somewhere between unconcerned and challenged, while most digital publishers seem to see this as a “frightening reckoning” and “potential nightmare.”

It is important to note that Apple is only adding support for content filtering extensions for Safari which must be downloaded and installed. Therefore they are not a system-wide feature that users  can simply switch on to block all digital display ads with a simple swipe in settings. Instead, users seeking to block ads on their mobile browsers will have to install a third-party app, and jump through several steps in order to get it to work with Safari. While the process varies from app to app after downloading, generally users need to then enable content blocking extensions in Settings –> Safari –> Content Blockers, before returning to the app to customize the configurations. This process is akin to installing a third-party keyboard, and it can seem rather complicated for non-power users.

That being said, the well-documented, wide-ranging benefits that those ad-blocking extensions can bring to mobile browsing experience will likely motivate a significant portion of users to jump through hoops to set up the extensions. With the popularization of pop-ups, interstitials, and autoplay videos, digital display ads on websites have only grown aggressive over the past few years. Usage of the new content filters will only accelerate the ongoing shift towards native advertising and publishing directly to social networks and platforms that can help monetize content without the use of third-party ad networks. Moreover, as the extensions only work with Safari, all the ads served in apps, where users spends over 85% of their time on mobile devices, won’t be affected at all.

For more actionable suggestions on how brands can deal with the rise of ad-blockers, click here to read our in-depth Fast Forward analysis on this buzzing subject matter.

 

Adblock Plus Releases Mobile Browser App

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Eyeo, the creator behind popular ad-blocking extension Adblock Plus, has launched its own mobile browser apps for both iOS and Android devices, beating Apple at releasing content blocking tools with the upcoming iOS 9. Adblock Plus’ browser is free, and built on top of an extensible iOS browser called Kitt, which suggests that it is unlikely to be as efficient as Apple’s upcoming tools.

What Brands Should Do
Regardless of its efficiency and the fact that not many mobile users would actively seek out third-party browsers, this new browser from Adblock Plus continues the ascent of ad-blockers and the resulting debate among ad industry and online publishers. We details several ways that brands and media owners can do to minimize its impact in one of our most recent Fast Forward analysis, including adapting with native advertising and partnering with data owners that don’t rely on ad network tracking.

 

Source: The Next Web

Ad Blocking in iOS 9 Safari: What You Need to Do

Posted on by Lab Team

Ansible and Magna Global contributed to this report.

Fast Forward is your guide to tech-driven changes in the media landscape by IPG Media Lab. A fast read for you and a forward for your clients and team.

  • iOS 9 will allow ad-blocking extensions for Safari, distributed through the App Store
  • Ad delivery and data tracking abilities will be impacted for a significant number of users who opt in
  • Brands and publishers can adapt with native advertising or partnering with data owners that don’t rely on ad network tracking


What Happened
Important details have recently emerged about a new feature in Apple’s default web browser in iOS 9, Safari. Apple promises developers a “fast and efficient way to block cookies, images, resources, pop-ups, and other content.” That means that ads and ad-network tracking scripts will never get delivered to some portion of iOS 9 users. Recent tests removing ad-tracker javascript with a pre-release version of iOS 9 reduced page loading times by as much as 80%, from 11 seconds to 2 seconds.

How Media Owners Should Respond

  • Deliver the best possible experience in a native app. Ads delivered in your app are unaffected as this only affects web ads and trackers.
  • Tests of your ability to serve highly-targeted and engaging advertisements on the web have been accelerated as Apple has pushed forward the timetable.
  • Integrate with Apple News and Facebook Instant Articles and others that own the user data necessary for precise targeting without hopping all over the internet to get it.


How Advertisers Should Respond

  • Focus on in-app advertising, either through a network like iAd or through direct sponsorships.
  • Look for more ways to integrate native advertising into your plans.
  • Consider significant new investment in media properties that own enough user data that they can sufficiently target without going through an ad exchange. Seek out Facebook Instant Articles or Apple News. Google, Verizon, Yahoo and publications with niche audiences and direct ad sales are the other beneficiaries here.


Market Impact
As digital ad revenue has transitioned from desktop to mobile, most has found its way to in-app ads instead of on the web. This nearly matches attention. Whereas 81% of time spent on a smartphone is in-app, only 76% of ad spend is in-app.

Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 3.16.02 PM
We expect these new ways to block mobile web ads to more than close that gap, especially because of the importance of Safari. As the default web browser on iOS devices, Safari accounts for roughly 40% of mobile web traffic worldwide and more than half in the US.

Screen-Shot-2015-08-10-at-6.03.28-AM-800x492
Ad-blocking extensions are appealing to users because they can better protect their privacy, improve webpage load times, save battery life, as well as blocking the pop-ups and banner ads that disrupt basic browsing experience. Ad-blocking on the desktop is used by about 25% of users worldwide and the most popular extension for the desktop version of Safari is AdBlock.

Therefore, there is little doubt that such extensions would catch on with a significant number of users, especially when aided by the ease of App Store distribution. Ads blocked in this way on both the desktop and in the future on mobile aren’t billed to the advertiser, and will have a bigger impact on publisher revenue than on advertisers. Wide adoption could lead to a devastating impact on web publishers and ad tech providers, as an extension can shut out most ad views and cuts off the resulting ad revenues and tracking data.

We expect two main groups to be heavy adopters of these new content blockers, for different reasons. First, the higher-income, early adopter crowd is a prime candidate to incorporate these extensions, as they are more likely to know about them. Second, because content blockers have a large impact on page data size and battery life, consumers with low data caps or electricity concerns, particularly across Africa and India, are also likely to install a content-blocking extension sooner than later.

We expect the biggest tech companies and especially social networks to benefit, as they can deliver ads with sufficient targeting without relying on ad network trackers. Though Facebook’s Instant Articles has had a slow roll out, these ad-blocking extensions will accelerate publishers’ incentive to partner with Facebook. Similarly, the new Apple News is the carrot to balance the ad-blocking stick. Few other media owners can target as well as Google, Facebook and Apple, but that list includes Verizon/AOL, Yahoo, Pinterest and Twitter.

In the short term, Google’s revenue from web ads makes them unlikely to offer similar functionality in Android, but this could change if content blockers become a key selling point of iOS. Now, ad blockers are allowed on Android but are stand-alone browsers and do not integrate with Chrome, the default web browser.

For More Information
Please contact Engagement Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) at the IPG Media Lab if you would like more detail or to schedule a visit to the Lab to discuss how the feedback loop on this could play out over the next couple years.

For previous editions of Fast Forward, please visit www-stage.ipglab.com. Please reply with any constructive criticism or feedback. We want these to be as useful as possible for you and your clients, and your feedback will help us immensely.

 

For Additional Reading:

Paul Hudson:
This should also show you how Apple has managed to introduce content blockers without compromising on privacy: apps tell Safari the kind of content that should be blocked, but they do it indirectly and the communication only ever flows one way: apps have no knowledge of any user behavior whatsoever.

Ben Thompson:
[A]rguably the biggest takeaway should be that the chief objection to Facebook’s [Instant Articles] offer — that publishers are giving up their independence — is a red herring. Publishers are already slaves to the ad networks, and their primary decision at this point is which master — ad networks or Facebook — is preferable?

Jean-Louis Gassée:
As users, we understand that we’re not really entitled to free browsing; we pay our bills with our selves: When The Product Is Free, We Are the Product. The problem is that we feel betrayed when we find out we’ve been overpaying.

Joshua Benton:
A report from 2014 found that adblock usage was up 70 percent year-over-year, with over 140 million people blocking ads worldwide, including 41 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds.

Apple Adds Ad-Blocking Extension To iOS 9 – IPG Media Lab

Apple’s Support of Ad Blocking May Upend How the Web Works – Wired

Safari Content Blocker, Before and After – Daring Fireball

Ad Tech Is Killing The Online Experience – The Guardian

 

 

Apple Adds Ad-Blocking Extension To iOS 9

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: 9to5Mac

Preview of the upcoming iOS 9 reveals a new ad-blocking extension in Safari, which would prevent specified web resources (like images and scripts) from loading in Apple’s native browser, which affects the entire supply chain of digital media.

Two weeks ago, we reported on the increasing usage of ad-blocking, especially on mobile devices, and recommended brands and marketers to look into native ads as a way to circumvent the trend. Apple’s new move seems to be mostly targeted at cutting down Google’s ad revenues from iOS devices, as its AdWord serves the majority of digital ads, and Apple’s own iAd platform is unlikely to be affected. Therefore, it may be worthy for media owners and publishers to migrate from mobile web into apps, or Apple’s very timely News app, to avoid further hemorrhaging ad revenues due to ad-blocking.