It is commonly observed that nowadays, publishers grapple with declining revenues. It appears that the easiest way to keep earnings stable or increased is to drive more traffic. However it isn’t necessary. Is worth to realize that up to 50% of your ad impressions are being lost. And an ad blockers bears responsibility for that.

How ad blocks work?

As the name suggests, ad blocks don’t allow ads to be displayed. The reason of creating them were intrusive advertisements, which irritated users.They decided to create a product that causes that they will not see advertisements.

However, when an ad is blocked, impressions aren’t counted on your ad server and data are incorrectly analyzed causing a loss of revenue.

But who are ad blocks users?

These people are clearly communicating that do not wish to see an intrusive ads. How to reach them? What forms of advertising may convince them? The answer to these questions is a big challenge for advertisers.

How to stop ad blocks?

One method is to politely ask users to turn off an ad block. Publishers can put a message on they website where can explain that people do a real work when create content. Therefore web owners must be paid, because it is often the only source of their income.

And I think that it’s obvious that creating good quality content is time- and energy consuming.

There is also a different approach to the problem: publishers realize that users don’t want to see ads, so they ask them for financial support (eg. $ 5 donation).

In relation to Adblock, how different websites coped with the revenue problem?

Ars Technica had hidden all the content (‘an adblock wall’) – users with ad block did see anything on this website. This was an extreme approach with poor result because users decided to go elsewhere.

Andrew Sullivan, blogger of The Daily Dish, resigned from advertising to generate income from the paywall (paid subscription). Despite the skeptical voices, he managed to earn (⅔ intended purpose of the financial year he earned in 2 months).

However it is noteworthy, that paywalls works on websites with unique content. If user can easily find the content elsewhere without payng, he / she will go there.

In turn, Spotify provides content for free, but its users are obligated to accept an ads. However, if someone really hates advertising, he / she can buy a premium account and enjoy the music without ads. The Golden Mean? Certainly for Spotify.

It should be remembered that  individually approach to each website or product is the key. Every publisher should choose for him / her the appropriate method.

Conclusion

• let’s educate our visitors – teach them that ad blocks ‘steals’ publishers revenue
• try to reach out to “hidden” users – ie ones who use ad blocks

• respect the fact that some people don’t want to watch advertisements at all – talk to them; look for the appropriate output for all parties