Tag: acceptable ads

Why would an ad blocking user agree to see… ads?

Posted on by 10404pwpadmin

The short answer? It’s a way to actively support the free web.

The long answer? That involves the demographics of ad blocking users, their commitment to journalism and publishing, and the types of ads they want to block.

We’re going to tackle all of that.

“A Very Savvy Demographic”

Tim Cronin, AAX VP of Sales, used the opportunity of speaking at Digiday Publishing Summit, Budapest to describe just who ad blocking users are.

“They’re a very savvy demographic,” he said. “They’re younger, they’re well-educated, they’re tech savvy, and they index high for consuming media.”

The numbers prove it: US-American ad blocking users, 64% of whom are under the age of forty-five, are 1.5x more likely than the average American to have a bachelor’s degree. And that number goes up to 3x when only the 18-24 year olds are considered. (Source)

These young, well-educated ad blocking users not only enjoy consuming media, but they have an understanding of the value of media. For example, they’re more likely to pay for online subscriptions to magazines and news services than their non-ad blocking counterparts. (GlobalWebIndex, 2019)

“The Value of a Free Press”

All of the factors that make the ad blocking demographic unique—age, education, and interest in participating in the value exchange of online media—coalesce around the question of publishers.

The desire for content access is matched by a growing understanding that ad revenue helps keep publishers’ lights on. Publishers have become vocal about the fact that ad revenue is what allows them to hire talent, create content, and maintain a high standard of quality.

Websites often suggest that browsers subscribe or donate in order to keep browsing. And this tactic seems to have been moderately successful: 15% of users are willing to either pay for the content they enjoy or donate money directly.

Another tactic is suggesting that users turn off their ad blockers. This is successful approximately one-third of the time: 31% would be fine with seeing ads in order to support websites. This includes writer Mark Wilson, who asserts he doesn’t install an ad blocker because he “cares about the value of a free press.”

The vast majority of users also care about the value of a free press, but they’re still concerned about the nature of ads being served. 68% agree with the statement “I’m fine with seeing ads, but only if they’re not annoying.”

As Tim Cronin puts it, “[Ad blocking users] need their favorite publishers to continue to exist. If they don’t subscribe, they’re willing to receive unobtrusive ads.”

“They Just Hate Certain Types of Ads”

When users were asked which ads they considered annoying, they overwhelmingly spoke of pop-ups and video ads. These are the ones that users “dislike”—according to the 2018 Hubspot Survey “Why People Block Ads, and What It Means For Marketers and Advertisers,” a full 73% of users disapproved of pop-ups.

When this is compared to percentage of users who disliked magazine and print ads (18%) and billboard ads (21%), it becomes apparent that it’s not the fact of the ad itself that’s annoying.

With ads, the medium is the message. A static, text-and-image ad is respectful. A glittery pop-up, however? That’s obnoxious

At Digiday Budapest, Tim Cronin summarized the relationship between ad blocking users and ads: “Ad blocking users don’t hate all ads. They just hate certain types of ads—the ones that feel intrusive.”

The banner ad celebrates its 25th birthday

Posted on by 10404pwpadmin

A quarter of a century ago, the haunting melodies on The Cranberries’ No Need To Argue were rapidly going multiple platinum. Theaters were corralling lines of moviegoers eager to see Pulp Fiction. Children and adults alike were a) wearing head-to-toe sunflower print and b) buying investment Beanie Babies by the dozen.

And on the home computer—that blocky behemoth that took up a corner of the living room—things were rapidly evolving.

Once you got past the chirping whirr of the dial-up, you could order delivery pizza online…as long as you lived in Santa Cruz, California, that is. Webcrawler could connect you to one of a staggering 4,000 websites using the power of full text search.

And on October 27, 1994, the world’s first banner ad appeared on HotWired.com.

It’s not a moment that a lot of people think of with fond nostalgia. In fact, the banner ad is often thought of annoying at best, damaging at worst.

But Mat Bennett, Co-Founder of OKO, suggests celebrating the existence of the banner ad. He also suggests spending a moment thinking of how banner ads have shaped and improved the browsing experience for users worldwide.

In an opinion piece for The Drum, he writes:

“Ads support the online content we consume. Without advertising to support online business, it is estimated that the average American internet users would need to pay $420 per year to pay for those ad-supported services. That is a lot of value that variations of banner ads currently contribute a very large proportion of. Whilst a small proportion of users might be happy to pay that sum to avoid banner ads, reducing that to a dollar value greatly undersells the benefits of providing that value without a cost to the end-user.

The biggest of those benefits is the democracy that a free, ad-supported web offers. A banner, or the page serving it, doesn’t care whether you are prince or pauper when you access ad supported content. I’m not aware of any website that restricts content based on the bids they receive for an impression, so banners and other digital advertising work not only to keep content free but to keep it open to all.

The idea of an ad-free “pay to play” internet also ignores the practicalities of that. Whilst some users might be willing to pay for an ad-free experience on the sites they access daily, the model falls apart when it comes to the long tail of the web. The website that settles a pub argument, a local forum of the town you are visiting, the odd niche site that explains your child’s maths homework problem to you and the thousands of other sites we use but have no need to return to.

These sites don’t fit a subscription model and are even more reliant on the pennies that arrive through banner impressions. That vibrant, independent, free and open long tail that exists outside of corporate ownership only continues to do so thanks to the humble banner ad.

We want to echo Bennett and say thanks to the humble banner ad.  And on October 27th we’ll put on a ridiculous party hat, eat some sheet cake, and belt out “Happy Birthday To You” in honor of the banner ad.

What are Acceptable Ads? A crash course

Posted on by 10404pwpadmin

The AAX team attended the Digiday Publishing Summit in Key Biscayne Florida with a particular mission: instead of talking about AAX, we wanted to take a step back and discuss the Acceptable Ads initiative.

But in order to get the full picture, and understand how ad blockers have, over the years, evolved into ad filterers, we need to start at the beginning.

How Did We Get Here?

What are the causes of ad blocking? If you ask an ad blocker, you’ll usually hear something along the lines of “There are too many ads.”

But when you dig deep, exploring the causes of these “too many ads,” you’ll find the culprit is a supply and demand imbalance that has long posed a challenge to premium publishers.

What happens in a marketplace when there’s a supply and demand imbalance is that the seller—in this case, the publisher—finds themselves in a weakened position. That means that the buyer, the advertiser, moves into a position of strength. This has lead to a squeeze on the publisher: the publisher has to serve more ads, bigger ads, and more intrusive ads.

It was exactly this dynamic that lead to a dramatic increase in ad blockers.

Ad blocking is the Biggest Boycott In Human History– Doc Searls

At a conference like Digiday Publishing, ad blocking is always the elephant in the room. And in this case it’s not just a question of standing out. It’s also a question of sheer size: the scope of ad blocking is massive.

  • One billion people worldwide use ad blockers.
  • In the USA, a publisher can expect 15-20% of their visitors to have an ad blocker.
  • In places like Germany and France, the percentage ad blocking visitors reaches 45%.

These numbers are astounding.

But there’s another number to consider: 90% of ad blockers users can receive ads.

Solutions To Ad Blocking and Benefits To Publishers

When an ad blocker is installed, the ad block user is given an option: to opt in and consent to be served acceptable ads. The fact that 90% choose this option speaks to the fact that ad block users don’t hate all ads—just the kind of invasive, flashy ads that prompted the mass boycott of ad blocking.

It also speaks to the particulars of the ad blocking demographic. These users are young, highly educated, tech savvy, and index high for consuming media online. In other words, they understand the balance of the ecosystem relies on advertising, and that a browsing experience can actually be augmented by the presence of respectful, non-intrusive ads—by the presence, in other words, of Acceptable Ads.

The criteria for what determines an Acceptable Ad is defined by the Acceptable Ads Committee, a fully independent third party committee made up of industry insiders, privacy organizations, users, consumers, publishers. The criteria is straightforward: an ad can be deemed Acceptable if it

  • is a static banner instead of an animated banner
  • there is no video present
  • the ads don’t represent more than 15% above the fold…
  • …or 25% below the fold

Ultimately, what the Acceptable Ads initiative—along with AAX, an ad exchange that serves only Acceptable Ads—is committed to is achieving is a balance between consumer experience, browsing experience, and content monetization.