A staggering 34.4% increase in US adblocker usage from 2015-2016 has damaged advertiser revenue and threatens free online content. Content marketing and native advertising are the most effective current strategies for combating lost revenue as they are not blocked. However, native ads raise ethical concerns about transparency. As adblocking grows in popularity, especially on mobile, advertisers must adapt or risk losing more revenue and endangering free services online.

1. Damaging Effects of Blocking Ads
and Mitigating Them
By Brett Kammer
Photo Credit: captplanetrocksmysocks on Flickr

3. Photo Credit: Jack Zalium on Flickr

4. Photo Credit: Kyle Pearce on Flickr
A staggering 34.4% increase in United States
adblocker usage occurred from 2015-2016,
signaling its increasing popularity. (eMarketer)

5. Certain websites have
significantly chance of
their users blocking
their ads than others.
Tech related websites
such as gaming websites
see 26.5% of their users
block ads. (Pagefair)
Less tech related, for
example Real Estate
websites see only 5% of
their ads blocked. (Pagefair)

6. But why block ads?
“(I) Clicked a green
button…and few than 10
seconds later ads had
vanished.This (web surfing
with adblock) immediately
became Web surfing nirvana:
pages loaded faster, my
browser stopped randomly
crashing, my whole computer
ran better.” (Rosenwald)
In a nutshell adblockers provide:
• Better Performance
• Less Annoyance
• Easy Installation

7. Many companies are losing
significant revenue due to adblocking.
An estimated 6 billion dollars of revenue
is lost annually by Google alone because
of adblockers. (Mortished)

8. But who cares?
How would this
affect the
average user?

9. Photo Credit: Kyle Pearce on Flickr
“We believe that ads help
fund free services and
content on the Web.”
(Rosenwald)
“Users are inadvertently
putting their favourite
websites out of business.”
(Rosenwald)
If too much ad revenue disappears
many services typically offered for
free will likely disappear or become
paid services.

10. With the
popularity of
adblocking the
problem will
only get worse.
Advertisers
must change to
stay relevant.

11. There are a number of
existing strategies to
circumvent or reduce
adblocking

12. Four available strategies for combating adblocking:
Customer Payments
Blocking Adblock
Native Advertising
Content Marketing
Photo Credit: Tony …. on Flickr
Photo Credit: 401(K) 2012 on Flickr
Photo Credit: kkirugi on Flickr
Photo Credit: Laurinha Lii on Flickr

13. Photo Credit: Nathaniel_U on Flickr
Customer
Payments
One way to recover some of the lost revenue
is to provide a service where the users pay a
small fee to remove ads of the site. (Rosenwald)
Both parties are happy, but this is
not an effective strategy.
“Most users are unwilling to
subscribe online (11%) and few would
pay to make ads go away.” (Rosenwald)
Since most users don’t want to pay
therefore another strategy is
needed.

14. Photo Credit: Brad on Flickr
Blocking
Adblock
The practice of having
a program block the
user from seeing any
of the websites
content unless they
are whitelisted on the
user’s adblocker. This
ensures the users see
ads. (Anderson)
There is a
major problem
with this
technique
however.
Websites that employ
this technique usually
see a significant
decrease in user base.
When Forbes introduced
this strategy their daily
page views decrease by
9% over one year.
(Anderson)
Again,
a better
strategy is
needed.

15. Native
Advertising
or
“Sponsored
Content”
The method of promoting a good
or service in an article or video
in a way that is similar to how
content would normally appear
on a particular platform.
(Campbell)
Currently
this type of
advertising
cannot be
blocked.
“Another means of reducing
viewer disruption is by crafting
native advertisements that
blend in with the surrounding
content. ” (Campbell)
This technique is
successful because
it takes advantage of
user’s high trust
levels for seemingly
non-advertising
content. (Campbell)
Much criticism has
arose from the use of
this technique.

16. Native Advertising is
Controversial “Our findings show that no
matter what steps publishers
have taken, there is still
significant confusion on the part
of readers as to what constitutes
an article and what constitutes
an ad.” (Lazauskas)
The inability to distinguish native
advertisements from genuine
articles has raised ethical
concerns. (Mombourquette)

17. Content Marketing
Non-traditional advertising strategy where the brand
releases content with value to the target audience.
(CMI)
John Deere releasing “The Furrow” magazine with content
relevant to their user base while being clearly from John
Deere is an example of Content Marketing. (CMI)

18. From 2014-2015
approximately 73% more
content marketing was
produced. (Teicher)
Content marketing is
becoming a leading form
of advertising for many
companies as adblocking
becomes more popular.
“49% of marketers rate
their content as somewhat
or very effective” (Teicher)

19. The problem is going
to get worse before it
gets better.
36% of Cellphones in the
Asia-Pacific region engage
in Adblocking (Scott)
“It’s only a matter of time
until mobile ad blocking
comes to the West.”(Scott)

20. Conclusion
As adblocking’s
popularity
increases risks
to user content
and advertiser’s
revenue
increase.
Advertisers have
to use new
techniques to
combat lost
revenue and
prevent loss of
user content.
Content
marketing and
Native
advertising are
the best current
options for
advertisers.

21. Works Cited
• Anderson, Martin. “Sites That Block Adblockers Seem to Be Suffering.” The Stack. N.p., 21 Apr. 2016.
Web. 1 Mar. 2017.
• Bilton, Ricardo. “What Is Ad Blocking?” Digiday. N.p., 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.
• Campbell, Colin. “Good Native Advertising Isn’t a Secret.” Science Direct. N.p., Dec. 2015. Web. 1 Mar.
2017.
• CMI. “What Is Content Marketing?” Content Marketing Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.
• eMarketer. “US Ad Blocking to Jump by Double Digits This Year - eMarketer.” N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.
• Lazauskas, Joe. “Article or Ad? When It Comes to Native Advertising, No One Knows.” The Content
Strategist. N.p., 8 Sept. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.
• Mombourquette, Angela. “A Look at the Ethically Complex World of Native Advertising | J-Source.” J
Source. N.p., 1 June 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.
• Mortished, Carl. “Canadian Periodicals Index Quarterly - Document - Readers Have Declared War on
Publishers.” Globe & Mail. N.p., 3 July 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
• PageFair. “The 2015 Ad Blocking Report.” PageFair. N.p., 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.
• Rosenwald, Michael. “The Digital Media Industry Needs to React to Ad Blockers … or Else.” Columbia
Journalism Review. N.p., Oct. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
• Scott, Mark. “Rise of Ad-Blocking Software Threatens Online Revenue.” The New York Times 30 May
2016. NYTimes.com. Web. 2 Mar. 2017.
• Teicher, Jordan. “Content Marketing 2016: Staffing, Measurement, and Effectiveness Across the
Industry.” The Content Strategist. N.p., 11 Jan. 2016. Web. 2 Mar. 2017.

22. Extended Photo Credits
• (Title) https://www.flickr.com/photos/34997486@N02/5441104104/ (Captplanetrocksmysocks)
• (Slide 1) https://www.flickr.com/photos/joojaebum/8047664173 (Jaebum Joo)
• (Slide 2) https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaiban/3514043632 (Jack Zalium)
• (Slide 3) https://www.flickr.com/photos/keepitsurreal/5236525729 (Kyle Pearce)
• (Slide 4) https://www.flickr.com/photos/23119666@N03/5424139604 (Mark Bonica)
• (slide 5) https://www.flickr.com/photos/sidewalk_flying/226536207 (Seth Sawyers)
• (Slide 6) https://www.flickr.com/photos/cesnet/5870529678 (Cesar Solozano)
• (Slide 7) https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattymatt/3017263513 (Matt Baume)
• (Slide 8) https://www.flickr.com/photos/khawkins04/5333418174 (Ken Hawkins)
• (Slide 9) https://www.flickr.com/photos/17989497@N00/541050703 (Monika)
• (Slide 10) https://www.flickr.com/photos/damionroeien/11122262203 (Eigenberg Fotografie)
• (Slide 11) https://www.flickr.com/photos/nooone/1795729648 (Tony ...)
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6355318323 (401(k) 2012)
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/kkirugi/4543261380 (kkirugi)
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/mundoworldmonde/5621803163 (Laurinha lii)
• (Slide 12) https://www.flickr.com/photos/nathan_u/7156545068 (Nathaniel_U)
• (Slide 13) https://www.flickr.com/photos/brad_t/7539784386 (Brad)
• (Slide 15) https://www.flickr.com/photos/lex-photographic/15165267751 (Lex McKee)
• (Slide 17) https://www.flickr.com/photos/veggiefrog/2573076568 (Veggiefrog)
• (Slide 18) https://www.flickr.com/photos/philipbrookes/16646514046 (Philip Brookes)