Comments on: Ad Blockers — Friend or Foe?

By: Nick Liebman

Nick Liebman — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 17:15:18 +0000

In reply to Jonathan. Hi Jonathan, and thanks so much for commenting. Your sentiment is certainly echoed by many in the industry. You can see in this analysis of one UK site, they are blocking users from accessing content if they detect ad blocking software. We note this issue and more in our recent Ecommerce Digest.

By: Nick Liebman

Nick Liebman — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 15:37:18 +0000

In reply to Spitt. Thanks so much for the comment. Your strategy for managing ad blocking technology sounds quite innovative. When you adopted the banner ad strategy, did you see a major change in your advertising revenue?

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 02:28:16 +0000

I feel like viewing ads is part of the deal if users want content to be free. The use of ad blocking software breaks that implicit contract. What’s more is that the vast majority of visitors who use ad blockers aren’t interested in making even a small payment in exchange for an advertising free site.

By: Spitt

Spitt — Sun, 01 Nov 2015 00:46:33 +0000

I run a website, and I have a couple solutions for this issue. The biggest solution that I use, is that I don’t use ad networks. Ad networks when they first popped up, monetized sites. These days, 1000 impressions might earn you a couple cents. Then it was a few dollars for 1000 impressions. Second I do advertising, but I directly host the images. The only way to get rid of the ads, is to manually block them. I also use a link cloaking software, which again makes it harder for the ad blocking to “see” that these are ads, rather then just my own site liking within. Last, I have been using a subscription model for years now. I hide the “good stuff” for members only. The rest of it, is free but driven by affiliate banners, which aren’t blockable.

Really, the bad guys are the Ad sales teams, who pocket most of the profits, which in turn has lead website owners to find more invasive ways to get ads to the consumer. Hell, I use ad blocking software, uBlock Origin and Ghostery, both. Way too many ads on some of those sites (but I do unblock those whom I cannot support otherwise, and deserve the ad revenue for providing a good service).