When you're a user, you're usually looking for a way to free yourself from the advertising world around you, especially on the web.
But when you go through the looking glass, as an publisher, advertising is sometimes the only way to make yourself known and share your product/service. Advertising blockers are therefore becoming a problem for these digital companies.
How do we know if our users use an Adblocker? How to get around it? Don't panic, there are solutions!
How Ad Blockers impact businesses?
Today, a website is almost a prerequisite to keep a business going. Some are even established exclusively on the internet via websites or business models based on applications. But digital has a price that advertising helps to offset. Advertising blockers can be a real drag on the start-up and growth of these companies and kill many of the projects that are launched due to lack of exposure.
There is also a different model than the cost per click (generated by a click on the part of the user on advertising) such as the cost per thousand (CPM) impression model that a website wins exclusively to display ads, even if users don't click on any ads (for example, $5 per thousand impressions, with no clicks). Adblockers block everything, even the display of advertisements, which affects the income of the site.
Yet, online advertising doesn't have that bad side. It is often the most effective way for some to continue to offer free services (and we are happy as a user)!
Why people use Ad Blockers?
To know how to get around them, you need to know the reasons for their use. There are several reasons for a user to use an Ad Blocker. We asked the opinion of Internet users! Here are the 4 main reasons (Source: Hubspot):
Ads are annoying and intrusive (64%)
In excess, the ads can be stifling: pop-ups that appear without warning at the slightest click, offers that have nothing to do with the site you visit ... as much visual and sometimes auditory inconvenience to which users are exposed which pushes them to protect themselves.
Ads are disruptive (54%)
Auto-play video ads are rather hated by Internet users because they tend to interrupt it suddenly in his navigation with content that is often undesirable (and then, who hasn't had the problem of looking for where the sound comes from!)
Ads create security concerns (39%)
Many websites host third-party advertisements distributed by advertising publishers. It is therefore very difficult for the administrator of a website to control the quality of the content of the advertisements it displays or to ensure their security. This break in quality and security between the web host and the advertising publisher has pushed many seasoned users to block with an Adblocker.
Ads affect load time and bandwidth usage (36%)
- 47% of online browsers expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less (Source: Kissmetric)
- 74% of people will abandon a mobile website that takes more than 5 seconds to load (Source: Google)
Your Internet users are not very patient and, unfortunately, heavy advertisements considerably increase the loading time of a website.
To better understand the advantages and disadvantages of Adblockers for users, see our article on the subject!
How can publishers detect if someone is using an Ad Blocker?
Websites can use a combination of simple methods that indicate whether or not a visitor is using an ad blocker. Typically, this is done as a "bait" script, consisting of snippets of code that an ad blocker is likely to perceive as an advertisement.
Here's an example of a website item that will work as a bait and will be hidden by AdBlock:
- <div class="banner_ad">...</div>
The part that would trigger each ad blocker in the example above is the class name "banner_ad", which is easily found among many other elements associated with advertising and has a similar name in most Ad Blocker blacklists.
Detectadblock
One of the easiest ways to get around adblock is to use a bait. "Ads.js" is an example of a common file name that will invariably trigger each script blocking ads. Knowing this, detectadblock.com offers a method that requires saving a piece of JavaScript code, creates a hidden section (div) in a file called "ads.js" and places it in the root directory of your website.
var e=document.createElement('div');
e.id='RZfrHsidDwbG';
e.style.display='none';
document.body.appendChild(e);
Publishers insert the following JavaScript code into the HTML source code of their website, just above the </ body> tag. Its purpose is to check if the masked div created in "ads.js" exists (ads are allowed) or not (ads are blocked).
<script src="/ads.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
if(document.getElementById('RZfrHsidDwbG')){
alert('Blocking Ads: No');
} else {
alert('Blocking Ads: Yes');
}
</script>
How to counter Ad Blocker?
AdBlocker Notify
AdBlocker Notify detects if the visitor is using some sort of ad blocking extension. If so, you have the option to display a small personalized message.
AdBlock X
AdBlock X is a good option that allows you to access statistics showing the impact of AdBlockers on your website. The interface, quite clear and user-friendly, displays the data in the form of grids and graphs.
Adblocker detector
Adblocker Detector is a plug-in that provides you with abbreviated codes that you can use to bypass AdBlock detection. It allows you to communicate with your visitors through your activated ad blocking extension by delivering a personalized message to the blocked ad's placement.
Simple AdBlock Notice
As the name implies, it is a simple plug-in that displays a notification in case visitors use an ad blocking extension. It comes with a fairly basic free version that only provides an option to set how often the notification is displayed. If you choose to upgrade to the premium version (which costs only $5 USD), you will be able to customize the notification message, the title and the pages where the message will appear.
How to make users accept my ads
There are opportunities for your ad to pass through an ad blocker. Here are a few:
Make the request to your users
You can notify your visitors of the importance of putting your website on the "White list" by highlighting the advantages. You may be surprised to see the disposition of your users to disable their ad blocker when the content is of good quality.
Contact the main advertising blocking services
Advertising blocking services base their business model on including businesses on what they call the "White List". Thus, up to a certain level, and under condition of a properly filled specifications, all your ads will appear and the service will be free. However, the blocker will ask you to "contribute" to the development of the software once the defined print threshold is exceeded.
Use native advertising
Unlike classic ads, which are sometimes annoying and intrusive, native ads are based on the user's field of vision and adapt to the contexts of use (ex: on every social network, a native advertisement will take the form of a publication classic with a mention "sponsored link"). This is a very good alternative that can be advantageous.
Be an ethical publisher
It's simple: "Don't do to others what you would not like them to do to you." We are generally not thrilled that someone enters our living space without having announced as pop-ups and various intrusive ads can do. Earn the trust of your users by reflecting your content according to these!
Ad blockers figures
In recent months, ClarityRay, a leading provider of online fraud detection, has made a thorough and rigorous attempt to measure the pervasiveness of ad blocking software, auditing more than 100 million impressions across multiple publishers prominent in North America and Europe.
Here are the main conclusions:
- Impressions: On average 9.26% impressions were blocked, with some sites reaching 50%.
- Site types: The average of the technology sites is 17.79%, followed by news (15.58%) and culture (9.94%). Commercial, real estate and travel sites are lower.
- Geographical areas: Advertising blockage is higher in North America (8.72%) and in the EU: the main blocking countries are Austria (22.50%), Hungary (21.52%) and Germany (19.44%).
- Browsers: The blocking rate is rated as the highest among Firefox users (17.81%), followed by Safari (11.30%) and Chrome (10.06%). The rate for Explorer is on average 3.86%.
- Operating Systems: Linux users have an amazing blocking rate of 29.04%, compared to 12.95% for Mac users and 9.25% for Windows users.
- Features: Mobile blocking is gaining popularity: Android has a 2.24% blocking rate and iOS 1.33%
- The results suggest that the blocking of advertisements would increase significantly among consumers.
What you must remember
If you have a website that you want to highlight, it's quite normal that you want to make the most of your time and investment. But it is not necessary to make advertising blockers your enemy n°1! Think about your ads, use small tips to get your visitors to trust and push them to disable their blocker for you. And as a last resort, you can always get in touch with the main Ad Blockers to benefit from their programs and be one of the lucky people on the "White List".
Need help?
The 8P team knows a lot about advertising! Come and tell us about your project, and we will find a custom solution to help you succeed in your web marketing campaign!
By the way, here is an article that will help you properly plan a web marketing campaign by following 6 key steps! It will already be a great step forward in your advertising project :-)