The solution to adblocking

07 May The solution to adblocking

We learned at a young age that wishing for something nasty to go away didn’t necessarily make it go away. The annoying little brother, homework, green vegetables, they all stuck around despite our desire for them not to. So to adblocking: advertisers have been putting their fingers in their ears, wishing it would go away for a few years now, but unfortunately for them that wish hasn’t come true.

The only organisation which measures the proportion of the global population who ad-block is PageFair, and according to their data, in the past few years adblocking in developed countries averages out at 20% of the population. There has been no sharp rise or decline in the number of people who block advertising on their devices since 2015, which probably contributed to the facts being ignored. But stable stats also highlight fact that it ain’t going away!

Who is blocking who here?
For how long can advertisers put on the metaphorical noise-cancelling headphones and block the issue themselves?! With audiences already dissipating across more and more media channels, ad-free subscription services on the rise, you would think that further shrinkage would be an issue worthy of discussion and resolution.

As a consumer, I am sure you have experienced the feeling of commercial bombardment. After spending time in ad-free environments like Netflix and Apple Music, exposure to heavy advertising is confronting. However, not everyone takes the next step of blocking ads entirely, that may seem too extreme but 20% of the population is hardly fringe extremism!

The parties adblockers are raging against can be split into 3 camps:

1. The publisher for over-commercialising their website
2. The advertiser for creating irritating ads
3. The data analysers who misread audiences and serve up irrelevant messages
   

What can be done?
Publishers can invest in technology that automatically renders ads as formats that directly address users’ issues of security, privacy and bandwidth. They can also reduce the number of ads on their sites, improve their ad relevance thresholds and then charge more for ads that are more likely to work.

Advertisers can hold publishers accountable or vote with their wallets and only invest media dollars with sites that respect the user experience first and foremost. They can also invest in creative and copy that resonates and ad-targeting technologies that add value to users.

However, if tweaking the existing model sounds futile, there is a more permanent solution which accepts adblocking figures are high, empathises with customers’ resistance to over-commercialisation and communicates from the inside-out.

Inside-out Marketing rises above the adblocking problem
This new model genuinely connects people with brands by starting from the inside-out and puts your brand, your assets and your customers at the heart of what you do:

1. You start with your owned media, delighting customers with better experiences and more powerful content through the channels you create and control
2. Then share these experiences through relevant social channels (attracting people who share attributes with your customers
3. Finally, advertising in paid media then becomes more effective because the message or experience a person has with the communication will be that much more relevant

You can learn more about reframing your marketing through this short video or you can continue to rage against the tide of advertising rejection.