Advertising Technology

All You Need To Know About Ad Blocking, Ad Filtering, and Ad Recovery

A recent visitor to my site contacted me and chuckled that he had to turn off his ad blocker to get to my content. The feature is built into my site, and I can disable it… but I won’t for a few reasons. My publication is both a passion and a hobby. I enjoy assisting others with the information or solutions I discover. I don’t offer paid subscriptions or a paywall, so advertising revenue is the small (very small) price of admission for my readers. I think that’s a pretty fair deal. The site is still free!

Publishers typically lose from 15-30% of ad revenue to adblockers.

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)

Ad Blocking

Ad blockers are software tools that users install in their web browsers to prevent ads from being displayed. Ad Recovery refers to restoring online advertisements blocked or removed by ad blockers.

By Q2 2023, there were 912 million active ad-blocking users worldwide, up 11% from Q4 2021

AdMonsters
ad blocking statistics
Source: GWI

While ad blocking enhances the browsing experience for some users, it poses challenges for businesses and publishers who rely on ad revenue. Ad blockers filter out website advertising content, providing users a cleaner and often faster browsing experience. Here’s how they typically work:

  1. Browser Extension or Standalone Application: Most ad blockers are either browser extensions or standalone applications. As browser extensions, they integrate directly into the web browser, while standalone applications run separately but can affect multiple browsers or even the entire system.
  2. Filter Lists: Ad blockers use sets of rules known as filter lists to determine what should be blocked or allowed on a webpage. These lists are regularly updated and can be customized by users. They contain patterns or specific criteria to identify ad-related content.
  3. Content Analysis: When a webpage is loaded, the ad blocker scans the content against its filter lists. This includes everything from banner ads and video ads to pop-ups and tracking scripts.
  4. Blocking or Hiding Ads: Once the ad blocker identifies content that matches its filter list, it either prevents the content from loading (blocking) or hides it from view (hiding). Blocking stops the ad from being downloaded, speeding up page loading times and reducing data usage.
  5. Additional Features: Many ad blockers also offer additional features, such as tracking protection, which blocks third-party trackers that monitor user behavior across websites. Some also provide options to block specific types of content or manually whitelist certain websites.

Ad blockers can significantly affect online marketing strategies. Marketers often need to find alternative ways to reach their audience, such as through content marketing, social media engagement, or native advertising that blends more seamlessly with the user experience and is less likely to be blocked.

Ad Filtering

Ad Filtering users crossed the 300 million mark in 2023, up 42% from 216 million in Q4 2021.

Acceptable Ads

Ad filtering is the selectively blocking or altering advertising content in a web browser or an application. This is typically done to improve user experience (UX), reduce clutter, and minimize distractions caused by advertisements. Here’s a closer look at ad filtering:

  1. Selective Blocking: Unlike ad blocking, which removes all ads, ad filtering allows some ads to be displayed based on specific criteria. This could include allowing non-intrusive ads or ads from certain sources while blocking others.
  2. User Preferences and Settings: Many ad filtering tools offer customizable settings, enabling users to specify the ads they want to see. Users can often adjust these settings to filter out certain kinds of ads, like pop-ups, auto-playing videos, or large banner ads.
  3. Compliance with Standards: Some ad filtering solutions adhere to certain standards, like the “Acceptable Ads” initiative. This initiative defines criteria for what constitutes non-intrusive advertising, and ads meeting these criteria are allowed through the filter.
  4. Benefits to Users: The primary benefit of ad filtering is a cleaner, more streamlined browsing experience. It can also help with faster page loading times and reduce data usage, particularly important for users with limited data plans.
  5. Impact on Advertisers and Publishers: Ad filtering is a more balanced approach compared to ad blocking. It allows advertisers and publishers to reach their audience, provided they conform to the standards of non-intrusive advertising. This encourages the creation of more user-friendly ads.
  6. Ethical and Legal Considerations: Ad filtering raises questions about the ethics and legality of modifying web content. While it enhances user experience, it can also impact the revenue of websites that rely on advertising. Thus, a balance must be struck between user preferences and the financial needs of content providers.

Understanding ad filtering practices helps design advertising strategies that are more likely to be accepted by both filtering tools and end users, potentially leading to better engagement and conversion rates.

Ad Recovery

In 2024, ad blocking is expected to cost publishers $54 billion in lost advertising revenue, which is ~8% of the total projected global digital ad spend of $695 billion

Eye/O

The Ad Recovery process involves identifying and bypassing ad blockers to redisplay ads or replace them with less intrusive ones. This is often done in an acceptable way to both the user and the ad blocker software, aiming to strike a balance between user experience and the need for advertising revenue. Techniques used in Ad Recovery include modifying ad delivery methods to evade detection, using less intrusive ad formats, or seeking explicit user consent to display ads.

Ad Blocking Recovery Strategies

  • Registration – You may request your visitors to subscribe via email to nurture those subscribed users. It’s quite easy in most content management systems to detect a logged-in user and disable your ad integrations. This could also include adding a paywall and requiring a subscription fee.
  • Server-Side Content – Many articles I share use affiliate links that monetize the content without any necessary advertising. I could also share sponsored posts, embed banners, or have paid links, none of which are accessible to ad-blocking technology.
  • Acceptable AdsAcceptable Ads allow you to reach ad-blocking users with welcomed, high-quality ads.
  • Better Ad Standards – The Coalition for Better Ads addresses consumer expectations and seeks to reduce frustration with ads that disrupt experience, interrupt content, and slow browsing. Several third-party ad block recovery platforms can insert lighter, acceptable ads when an ad blocker is present. These include platforms like Blockthrough.
  • Ad Server – If your site has quite a bit of traffic, you may want to operate your own ad server and allow advertisers to self-service. Because a known third-party ad platform doesn’t load these ads, blocking them with ad-blocking or ad-filtering platforms is impossible.
  • Request – If you monetize your site with Google Adsense, you can add an Ad Recovery popup to encourage users to allow ads. In Google Adsense, navigate to Privacy & Messaging > Ad blocking recovery.
google adsense ad blocking recovery

It’s important to note that Ad Recovery practices must be transparent and respectful of user preferences to maintain a positive relationship with the audience and adhere to legal and ethical standards.

Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is CMO of OpenINSIGHTS and the founder of the Martech Zone. Douglas has helped dozens of successful MarTech startups, has assisted in the due diligence of over $5 bil in Martech acquisitions and investments, and continues to assist companies in implementing and automating their sales and marketing strategies. Douglas is an internationally recognized digital transformation and MarTech expert and speaker. Douglas is also a published author of a Dummie's guide and a business leadership book.

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