[ed. See also: X Marks the Spot That Makes Online Ads So Maddening]
Last week, I was in Berlin for a presentation of the Digital News Initiative created by Google and a group of publishers (see a previous story on the Accelerated Mobile Pages program). Needless to say, ad blockers was the talk of the town.
In a detailed lecture, Dr. Thomas Schreiber, who works with European publishers, exposed the first step of Google’s approach. Unsurprisingly, the search giant will first collect facts. In a wide study to be conducted globally in the coming months, Google will try to ascertain what exactly motivates a web user to install an ad blocker. A (large) unspecified number of people will go through what is called a Cognitive Load Test in which users are compensated for reading as many articles as possible. Different series of stories will carry various ads formats, ranging from the most invasive to the lightest. Applied on a large sample, the study will provide valuable information on ad intolerance. The Google survey will also yield reliable numbers for people using ad blockers, especially in Asia where mobile web browsing runs high.
As often, averages don’t provide the whole picture. Stating that 25% or 30% of users have installed an ad blocker is close to meaningless. We know the oldest segment of the internet doesn’t block ads very much. By contrast, the rate will skyrocket for a younger, more tech-savvy crowd. I recently took a quick show of hands while giving a couple of lectures to young audiences: more than eight out of ten admitted using an ad blocker. A few months ago, the operator of a large gaming site told me that 90% of its users were blocking ads.
Clearly, entire categories of digital properties are being wrecked.
The study should also confirm that people who are ideologically opposed to advertising are a minority compared to the ones who have installed an ad blocker simply because digital promotions and tracking have become unbearable. Richard Gingras, who oversees news products at Google, said on stage that the invasion of ad blockers “…is the reaction to a user experience gone bad”.
All conversations I had with conference attendees confirmed a growing resentment from publishers who denounce the ad community’s “let’s milk the cow until it dies” approach. The whole food chain is seen as way too tolerant of invasive ads. More important, some publishers begin to question the ability of their own sales force to adapt quickly enough. The future of advertising revenue rests on adopting a “less is more” attitude: less annoying formats will eventually generate more revenue.
This implies two major shifts.
by Frédéric Filloux, Monday Note | Read more:
Last week, I was in Berlin for a presentation of the Digital News Initiative created by Google and a group of publishers (see a previous story on the Accelerated Mobile Pages program). Needless to say, ad blockers was the talk of the town.
In a detailed lecture, Dr. Thomas Schreiber, who works with European publishers, exposed the first step of Google’s approach. Unsurprisingly, the search giant will first collect facts. In a wide study to be conducted globally in the coming months, Google will try to ascertain what exactly motivates a web user to install an ad blocker. A (large) unspecified number of people will go through what is called a Cognitive Load Test in which users are compensated for reading as many articles as possible. Different series of stories will carry various ads formats, ranging from the most invasive to the lightest. Applied on a large sample, the study will provide valuable information on ad intolerance. The Google survey will also yield reliable numbers for people using ad blockers, especially in Asia where mobile web browsing runs high.As often, averages don’t provide the whole picture. Stating that 25% or 30% of users have installed an ad blocker is close to meaningless. We know the oldest segment of the internet doesn’t block ads very much. By contrast, the rate will skyrocket for a younger, more tech-savvy crowd. I recently took a quick show of hands while giving a couple of lectures to young audiences: more than eight out of ten admitted using an ad blocker. A few months ago, the operator of a large gaming site told me that 90% of its users were blocking ads.
Clearly, entire categories of digital properties are being wrecked.
The study should also confirm that people who are ideologically opposed to advertising are a minority compared to the ones who have installed an ad blocker simply because digital promotions and tracking have become unbearable. Richard Gingras, who oversees news products at Google, said on stage that the invasion of ad blockers “…is the reaction to a user experience gone bad”.
All conversations I had with conference attendees confirmed a growing resentment from publishers who denounce the ad community’s “let’s milk the cow until it dies” approach. The whole food chain is seen as way too tolerant of invasive ads. More important, some publishers begin to question the ability of their own sales force to adapt quickly enough. The future of advertising revenue rests on adopting a “less is more” attitude: less annoying formats will eventually generate more revenue.
This implies two major shifts.
by Frédéric Filloux, Monday Note | Read more:
Image: uncredited
