Three Reasons Why Digital Marketers Should Embrace Ad-Blocking

Ad blocker— Online user’s savior. Digital marketer’s nemesis.

The implementation of ad-blocking conflicts with the largest shift of online and mobile spend in advertising history. However, living in a mobile-first world, digital marketers need to focus on enhancing the mobile user’s experience. Ads are causing users to undergo frustration due to slow downloads, battery exhaustion, intrusive ad placement, and a surplus of data usage. With the help of ad blockers, users’ aggravations will diminish. No longer should they be viewed as foes, but as allies.

Users Are Sick of Ads. Plain and Simple.

According to an IAB study, 26% of desktop and 15% of mobile users enable ad blockers. The most popular demo for this ad-blocking love affair are men and women ages 18-34. Consumers using ad blockers were irritated by animated, moving and auto play ads the most. Ads that covered up content and long video promos were also an annoyance. Ad-blocking is an inevitable response by consumers. It’s time digital marketers accept this behavior, and revise their strategies.

 Mobile Ads Don’t Even Load Correctly

When scrolling down a webpage, how many times have you seen an empty box outlined with the word “Advertisement” or “ad” located in the top right corner? I call these "ghost ads." An ad that I know should be there, but all I see is awkward negative space. Whether you’re tapped into 3G or 4G networks, you know what I’m talking about. This is a result of JavaScript tracking tags taking forever and a day to render the ad. Not only does the unit load slowly, but it also can load incorrectly! Either way, businesses are charged for that precious impression. That’s a load of sugar, honey, and iced tea (as my grandma likes to say).

In a recent report, The New York Times found that the homepage of Boston.com, along with many other sites they audited, took on average 19.4 megabytes to load. A whopping 14.9 megabytes were ads. They then found that it took 39 seconds for the average site to load regularly, versus eight seconds once an ad blocker was installed. Today, 53% of mobile site users bounce off pages that take longer than 3 seconds to load. So, 39 seconds feels like a century!

We’re Living in A Skippable Era

The verdict is in. People like to skip ads. Auto expand, mobile in-app, outstream video, native ads, you name it, they skip it. Google is recognizing mobile user’s addiction to the skip button and are penalizing sites that host this nonsense by lowering their SERP ranking. For this reason, publishers have now started to sell ad real-estate based on time on site, rather than CPM. Furthermore, revenue from skippable ads is surpassing non-skippable ads. 

It's Time to Lower the Noise

Let’s face the facts. The people have become desensitized to the constant noise while surfing the Internet. By limiting the noise with ad blockers, brands' messaging will be appreciated more by other types of sponsored content, leaving a stronger and lasting impression.

Ad-blocking should encourage publishers to clean up their sites and improve their UX design. Brands need to step up their game and digital marketers need to wake up and smell the freshly brewed coffee. It's time to rise and revise your online marketing strategies, because ad blockers are here to stay!