Counter Measure against budding concern of Ad Blocking

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Counter Measures against Budding Concern of Ad
Blocking
Despite Ad servers and net-workers suffer
indirect ad revenue losses, they choose to avoid
the issue altogether leaving it as the
publisher's exclusive concern. Therefore, ad
publishers found themselves alone facing the most
damage, and forced to confront the issue and to
regain the control of their online ads. If you're
an online ad publisher, properly, like millions
of online ad publishers and website owners, you
already started using or thought of using ad
blocking' common solutions Ad Block Walls,
where a website asks a visitor to disable the ad
blocker on their browsers, Paywall,
conditioning viewing the website's contents to a
paid, Using AdzSafe tools to disable ad
block instantly. Many people already know that it
is no longer an exaggeration that the free online
contents are on the brink of slow vanishing if no
solution is found to disable the growing impact
and damages of ad blocking. This as today, one
thing that really matters to the online ad
publishing industry is 'ad blocking' software and
extensions which are been gaining more and more
attention over the past few time. Some people
consider ad blocking software as a devastator, a
savior or a budding problem to online ads
depending on whether you're an online ad
publisher or an online ad viewer, it affects to
some extent in both aspects. Apparently, ad
blocking is a proliferating concern which is been
climbing at an
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alarming rate and is expected to rise even more
in the future and has the potential to negatively
impact both advertisers and online ad publishers.
The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK believes
in an ad-funded internet. ??? History Of Ad
Blocking Ad blocking for TV Commercials An
American inventor named Robert Adler experimented
with a process which would enable remote control
of a television using radio waves and produce
high frequency tones in order to change channels.
This remote device got modified to allow
ultrasonic signals to communicate complex
commands to television sets thereby enabling the
operator of the remote to block ads by changing
the channel during a commercial break and got
perfected in the 1960's. The 1st Ad Blocker
for the web the first web ad blocker originated
in the 1980s which was created especially for a
portal named Prodigy used to provided news,
weather forecasts, games, expert content, and
other services, as well as ad banners. 'Ad
Muncher' popularity the first relatively mass
product came in market was 'Ad Muncher' that
became popular in 1990's. It needed no
installation and was used to remove ads in all
the applications. Light, modest in system
requirements, needed no installation, executed in
Windows and removing ads in all applications.
The 1st adblock browser extension First adblock
browser extension was 'Ad block' which was
created in 2002 for Firefox browser, which was
used to hide already downloaded ads instead of
blocking page requests to ad
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services. Ad blocker use started to grow fairly
dramatically in late 2012 to early 2013 when the
estimated number of ad blocker users jumped from
around 39 million users to 54 million users from
mid-2012 to January 2013, according to a 2015
report by PageFair and delegated by Adobe. This
project was given up by the author of this
extension and taken by Wladimir Palant who
entirely changed the program code and make the
extension capable of blocking the page requests
and called it 'Adblock plus'. It particularly
makes commercial revenue as a money-making
company by charging larger publishers to get
their ads white-listed. Paywall debuted in
industry on 28th may, 2011. It facilitated for
monetizing online and other digital information
by preventing visitors from accessing web sites
and similar content providers from where access
is restricted to Internet content via a paid
subscription. According to Peter Marsh, most
publishers with hard paywalls average as low as
15-20 on retention rates and retention rates for
newspapers using metered paywalls average 58.5,
with some reporting as much as 90 reader
retention. According to one survey, 73 are
currently charging readers to access online
content, and almost 40 of them have erected a
hard paywall and remaining 60 use a soft or
metered paywall. Controversy 'Adblock'
joined the Acceptable ads initiative. It is a set
of criteria developed by Ad block plus for
identifying non-intrusive ad formats that are
accepted by ad blocking users and allow content
creators to monetize their content. Around 92 of
Adblock Plus's users have joined Acceptable Ads.
Eyeo is the parent company of Adblock Plus which
decides
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who will decide which online ads some of the
world's most popular ad blockers will white-list.
Eyeo gets large fees from known advertising
companies like Google, Criteo, Taboola, and
Amazon to white-list their advertisements.
The 1st browser plugin In 2012 the first browser
'plugin' that hides ad blockers from detecting
technologies found. Launching of 'Imonomy'
In 2012, one ad blocking solution 'Imonomy' got
launched which was an effective monetizing
platform. It provides viewable ads, enhances
user's experience and offers mobile-friendly
in-image ads thereby ensuring ads being served
are relevant to their users. But it is not able
to crush the ad blockers completely. This ad
blocking solution was not able to work in the
presence of ad blockers in the user's browser.
Launching of 'Sourcepoint' Ad blocking
solution named 'Sourcepoint' came in 2014. It
creates compensation choice for publishers and
consumers and provides the data needed to make
informed decisions about content compensation. It
helps publishers to activate messages to give
clarification about value exchange when people
consume content. But it do not work when an ad
blocker extension is being downloaded in the
browser, it do not work. Hence, it proved an
ineffective ad blocking solution. Release of
'Secret media' In the same year the 'Secret
media' launched, one another ad blocking solution
came into market named 'Secret media'. It
amenities for developing a better user experience
around the ads by restoring blocked ad
impressions, especially video ad impressions, and
offers analytics that help publishers to overcome
ad blocking. This solution
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is able to regain blocked ad impressions only. It
seems unproductive because it is not capable in
terms of removing ad blocks completely. Release
of Adblock plus as an android mobile browser In
August 2015, 'Adblock Plus' released as an
Android mobile browser of its own and stepped in
Google play store thereby fought against ad
blocking apps. Apple's announcement Apple
announced in early 2015 to enable ad blocking for
users who have upgraded to iOS 9, its latest
operating system which added fuel to an already
growing hunger for ad blockers. Release of
'NeverBlock' Another ad blocking solution
released which maximizes revenues instantly. It
bypasses ad blockers to recapture all your ad
revenue losses and works on all browsers and on
all platforms and devices. But only when the user
disables the ad blocker extension. It is not
capable of providing protection to ads in the
presence of ad blockers. Survey by Hubspot
and Adblock plus According to the survey by
Hubspot and Adblock plus, In June 2016, 18 of
the ad blocking users in the US, UK, Germany and
France said they white listed sites that served
what they considered a reasonable and appropriate
ad experience. Use of Adblock walls A
stronger step some publishers are taking is to
set up ad block walls. These walls notify users
that unless they do whitelist the site, they
won't be able to access any of its content. If
the user is using ad blocking software, typically
it show an ad block wall that asks the user to
turn off the ad blocker or whistle list the
visited website. Then whenever the user view that
website and he/she has some kind of ad blocking
software enabled, the website shows a little
banner saying the users that
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the ad revenue supports the website or project
instead of showing the actual ads thereby
considering that adblock is being turned off.
According to Page Fair 2017 Report, 74 of
adblock users say that they leave websites when
they find such an Adblock wall. This makes
Adblock walls ineffective at motivating most
adblock users to disable ad block software, even
temporarily. Unless the website in question has
valued content that cannot be obtained elsewhere,
an Adblock wall is likely to be ineffective at
combating adblock usage at any significant
rate. Banning Ad Blockers In 2016, Google
banned for ad blocking apps from their store
after so many warnings to ad blocking developers
about the rule. Ad Blocking Increase in
2017 According to Pagefair 2016 mobile ad
blocking report, people had started to use
blockers for mobile devices at an increase of
102 during 2015. Adblock usage grew 30 globally
in 2016. By March 2016, there were about 298
million users of mobile ad blocking browsers that
block ads by default and 16 of all mobile
devices already had blockers installed in June
2016. An estimated 30 million users have been
using it for Firefox for Android and 24 million
users have been using it for Opera Mini and
Maxthon for blocking ads. The first Ad
Blocking Solution In 2017, AdzSafe launched
"Free Internet Protection" tools that
successfully evade being detected by Ad Blocker,
and instantly disable Ad blocker software. It was
praised for its ability to subside Ad blocker
software fully, and for not requiring online ad
publishers to change their ad providers.
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Ad Blocking in 2017 almost 615 million
people have downloaded ad blocking software.
Mobile adblock usage has grown by 108 million to
reach 380 million devices whereas Desktop adblock
usage has grown by 34 million to reach 236
million devices according to 2017 adblock
report. ??? What is ad blocking? Purpose of
ad blocking The main purpose of ad blocking
technologies is to interrupt online ads on
desktop and phone apps from being displayed. The
technologies behind adblock efficiently make
users unreachable to online advertisers, so they
do not receive any pop-ups banner, large sticky
and prestitial ads online video re-targeting
etc. Ad blocking software doesn't block anything
by default and it can target not only display
online ads but all kind of video and native ads
too. The vast issue surrounding ad blocking is
not of necessity how it affects small businesses
or even consumers, but how it affects publishers
and therefore, access to the web. Adblock options
range from browser add-ons to various
applications. Online advertisers are anxious
to find a solution that reduces Adblock impacts
on marketing, as well as ad Publishers seeks
crushing them with any possible solution.
Advertisers only pay for online advertisements
that have been served. Publishers don't get paid
for the advertisements until they appear on
desktop or mobile device. Every time your online
ad interacts with Ad Block without being
protected by a sustainable solution, you lose one
opportunity for your ad to be seen by an end
user, advertisers will find another ad
impressions against which to serve the same.
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??? How does ad blocking work?
Understanding how adblock works is important
to help you choose the best solution for your
website or phone app. Ad blocking software works
at various levels and is commonly called as an
'ad blocker' which is a piece of software that
usually comes as a browser extension or an app
which can be downloaded by consumers in order to
remove ads. It is usually installed as an adblock
extension or adblock plugin into a browser like
Mozilla Firefox and Google chrome. These browsers
have thousands of extensions. They have been
since 2002 and 2008 respectively. Microsoft edge
has 23 extensions. Ad block extensions work
inside a web browser and block ads on web pages
which are being visited in the browser they are
installed in. These extensions are to be
installed for each browser you're using.
Black List Regardless of the names of the
extensions, most of them rely on a black list and
a filter to block the URL of the ad providers to
your website before the online ads appear on the
browser. This starts by their efforts to include
a large data in their black lists about online
ads and the URLs of ad providers. Then, at the
moment an ad provider sends the ad to your page,
the filter blocks the ad provider's URL
instantly. Namely, online Ad Block simply blocks
the connections between your website or phone app
with the ad provider's URL, and instead, it
replaces the online ads with a blank space. Ad
blockers use effectively pre-determined
blacklists to identify which types of ads are
blocked and which publishers are affected.
Blocking Ad Placement Websites have dedicated
spaces for the component of online. Ads, which
seem like ad containers hidden within the
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site, and are called Ad Placements. Ad Placements
tend to have certain names and tags which make
them easily predictable and detectable by Ad
blockers so they can hide their online ad
component. More troubling, with this method, ad
blocker software mistakenly block other non- ad
components of your website or app. The web
address URLs which load the ad requests and their
file names tend to have certain parts that are
consistent and predictable. Those are targeted
and blocked by ad blockers to not load.
Blocking Anti Adblock scripts A third method is
blocking tracking scripts which in turn prevent
third-party ad networks from serving
advertisements. Ad blocking software is mostly
configurable by the user. Hence, anyone can
white-list a site they support or blacklist a
site that isn't on the default list. Using
anti adblock killer This extension allows to
keep Adblock software active, when you visit a
website which has scripts or other
countermeasures set up to block access and it
asks you to disable. It essentially tricks
websites into thinking that you aren't running
ad-block at all times. Through anti Adblock
killer, ads will be blocked on more than 99 of
websites that ask to disable the adblock tool
thereby removing annoying and sometimes
horrifying ads such as pop up or pop under ads.
They can't block all type of ads. Most in-app,
in-feed native ads tend not to be picked up by ad
blockers, as most ad blocking software intercepts
calls from third-party ad servers. However,
in-app advertising could also be affected with
the emergence of mobile ad blocking companies
which operate at the mobile network level in-app
advertising could also be affected.
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Causes of ad blocking
People use ad blockers due to obnoxious,
offensive, loathsome and extremely excessive
advertisements and use of heavy JavaScript codes
that can slow down a device. Sometimes online ads
take over the whole screen and have a tiny close
in a random place along the edge of an
advertisement. Websites are being developed
around the ads to pull in an ungodly amount of
online ad views instead of the content and to
distribute malware via ads leading to poor user
experiences. Some online ads also cause security
challenges as they are served by third party
sites whose authenticity might be questionable
and in many cases, it's a lot of intrusive and
sheer amount of them is overwhelming. According
to Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK, "The
primary motivation for blocking ads was that they
interrupt what people are doing." Other reasons
for ad blocking in this survey showed that people
think ads slow down the web experience, and that
digital ads are not perceived to be relevant to
the individual. Ad formats have been grown to the
height of unwelcoming with things such as video
which appears instantly in between the paragraphs
or in the middle of web pages which infuriate
exasperate users and disrupt the content from
being viewed which leave adverse impact on
advertisers and publishers. For that, people do
use ad blockers for improved privacy, for more
protection against malware, faster loading
websites, for saving data on limited connections,
for insulating themselves against a relentless
barrage of advertising while browsing the web and
for having streamlined and safe internet
experience.
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? Repercussions of ad blocking
Ad blocking is not a long term internet-friendly
solution. Ad blockers block pop-ups banner,
large sticky and prestitial ads thereby hurting
the site revenue which discourages publishers to
create freely accessible content. The impact can
also have repercussions for hundreds of authors,
bloggers, journalists, columnists, content
creators, researchers and editors, who earn from
the online content industry by providing
insightful ideas and knowledge. It's the revenues
of ads that pay them. There are many cases where
million-dollar businesses shake hands with
popular ad blocker companies for getting their
sites white-listed which allow ads to appear in
order the user to support the channel by giving
view time to ads. Small online ad publishers
might not have that bandwidth hence they keep to
take the hit with eventual results of being shut
down. Therefore, blocking may result in an uneven
field of competition in these cases. The impact
of ad blocking is affecting online ad publishers
earning through cost per click (CPC) based
advertisements and ad impressions (CPM) suffer
from revenue losses. These impressions translate
into money which is paid to authors, bloggers,
journalists, columnists, content creators,
researchers, editors and to itself if presumably
they have any profits left. Each time an
advertisement is displayed on the screen, it is
counted as an ad impression. According to HubSpot
Product Manager Lars Osterberg, "Google AdWords
ads are often whitelisted by default by many
popular ad blockers since they're seen to be
useful." Due to proliferation and strengthening
of ad blocking technologies, the online
advertising is no longer a viable solution for
profiting revenue. In
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accordance with Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB)
UK study, "56 of respondents were not even aware
that blocking ads meant that websites would lose
revenue."According to PageFair, adblock usage is
driven by specific problems with the delivery of
online advertising and is not a rejection of
digital advertising itself. Many critics of have
argued that by viewing online content, users
enter into an 'implied moral contract' with the
publisher in which by agreeing to view the
content, user is also agreeing to view the
advertisement that pays for it according to eavi.
Blocking ads limits the ability of internet users
to explore and get to know new things though they
amenities the users to choose what to accept as
users might filtered away with them. Actually not
all users find ads as annoying or waste of their
time. Many advertisements are informative and
have insightful knowledge with which users can
get to know about new things. Another drawback of
ad blocking is that if online ads don't get
downloaded, the publishers won't be able to
determine how much money they should make from
their advertisement. Forbes said, "The escalating
battle between ad-dependent publishers and ad
blocking has a new front." ? Counter-measures
against ad blocking Ad blocking is an
internationally proliferating issue requiring a
cross industry global approach. Some publishers
have opted to employ software which detects ad
blockers as a way to communicate with consumers
about the effects of using ad blocking software,
which prompts consumers to unblock in order to
access content. Another option some publishers
are trialing is to redirect users to a
subscription or donation page.
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Adblock detection It is the observed action of
the script that detects whether the user is using
ad blocking software when any website is being
viewed Adblock detection works by putting bail
content within the website pages and performs a
range of tests to identify if the content is
still visible. The ad blocking detector code
checks the properties of bail content which is
being implemented and identifies whether the
content is visible. Although invisible to the
user, this bait content is implemented so as to
appear to ad blockers as advertising content.
After the web page has finished loading, the
detection code checks the properties of the bait
content to ascertain whether it is still visible.
The detection code knows that an ad blocker is
active if the bail content has been hidden. Then
the code will give a message to the browser's
JavaScript console to indicate whether an ad
blocker has been detected. Anti adblock software
Anti ad blocking technologies are stepping into
anti ad blocking software which is designed to
counteract the effects of ad blocking. Anti ad
blocking software has Anti adblock scripts which
do not report specifically which ad blocking
plugins are installed on a user's system but
report what users have installed on their
systems. Adblock scripts guess based on the
performance of a user's browser. Those guesses
are made by using the same standard JavaScript
functionality that is used by millions of
websites which don't detect Adblock JavaScript.
Anti adblock scripts do not require persistent
storage or installation on a users' system to
function. JavaScript feature detection is a vital
part of most modern web pages. JavaScript knows
only what it is permitted to know by the browser.
JavaScript can't give information whether the
user is blocking ads or not. It knows only what
is allowed to know by the browser.
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The only exception is known so far to push anti
ad block scripts to new boundaries, comes from
AdzSafe, where the anti adblock script
automatically blocks ad blocker software once it
is dedicated. Unsurprisingly, this is the main
reason that many online ad publishers already
abandoned the traditional ad block walls, to use
AdzSafe trend. Correctly, the goal is not only to
detect ad blockers, but to stop adblock
completely from interfering with online ads.
Counter ad blocking solution also exists, in the
form of companies such as AdDefend. It
effectively reverses the internet user's choice
to opt out of ads thereby replace the ad by
circumventing the ad blocker. The battle of
publishers vs. ad blockers is a long-term problem
as ad blockers have been improving and publishers
have been responding in kind. Advertisers and
publishers will be forced to find new ways to
reach their targeted customers and to make up
their loss in revenues as adblock usage is
increasing as a response to privacy concerns and
advertising overload. Ad blockers could cost an
estimated 21.8 billion dollars of loss in revenue
a year according to BBC. According to one survey
of Forbes, 81.7 of users would disable ad
blocker under some set of conditions. In which
44.5 of them said they would disable ad blocker
then and there, while 22.3 of them said they
would disable ad blocker as long as annoying ads
weren't shown. And 14.9 said they would disable
ad blocker if the ads were relevant to the
content. Only 16.9 said they'd never disable
their ad blocker. That is promising and it shows
clearly that there's a path forwards. Global
economic costs of the ad blocking trend are going
to continue to rise in 2017, but there are few
popular ad blocking solutions such as Ad block
wall, paywall and AdzSafe. In addition to this,
there are some more ad blocking solutions which
are PageFair, Adrecover, Sourcepoint, Secret
media, Imonomy and Never block.
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These solutions enable a publisher to decide how
to present a message to a web visitor who has an
ad blocker installed. 1) AdzSafe when it is
compared to the current available methods and
solutions, AdzSafe proved itself as the only
effective and reliable anti ad blocker that fully
and instantly block adblock software from
operating in the browser. It does so without
asking ad publishers to replace their online Ad
providers with a different one, like other anti
adblock methods require. AdzSafe allows online
ads to be loaded and be seen, regardless if the
visitor's browser includes an ad blocker or not.
It squashes the ad blockers completely from
interfering with online ads. It ceases the ad
revenue losses. When AdzSafe stops adblock
instantly, it simple supported Ads safely loaded
and viewed without interference by Ad Blockers
and turns bare and fragile online ad into an
ironclad online ad. 2) Adblock walls It
amenities for hiding your website contents or
minimizing functions or services and demanding
from visitors to first disable the ad blocker in
their browsers. A stronger step some publishers
are taking is to set up ad block walls. These
walls notify users that unless they do whitelist
the site. 3) Paywall It amenities for paid
subscription to view your content and provides
trusted insights and markets coverage. It helps
to manage, sell and protect online content,
products and services by premium subscription. 4)
PageFair It is an authorized analytic tool
that helps publishers to measure adblock. It
understands the way to make a difference by
listening everyone's needs and find win-win
solutions thereby helping publishers to improve
the ad
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blocking issues. As a result, advertisers don't
have as much competition on each page and users
have less clutter. In addition to this, PageFair
enables them to use first party data and create a
premium sector for readers who are willing to pay
for content. 5) Adrecover Adrecover helps to
measure and monetize ad impressions being lost to
ad blocking. It helps to display fast-loading
UX-compliant ads to your website's adblock user
traffic. It strictly adheres to very high UX
standards for ensuring that the ads are
visitor-friendly and not obtrusive in anyway. It
keeps a constant check on the ad media, with a
zero-tolerance policy. 6) Imonomy It
amenities for effective monetizing platform,
provide viewable ads and enhances user's
experience. It offers mobile-friendly in-image
ads that ensure a great user experience for
readers. It uses big data, plus contextual and
behavioral analysis for ensuring that all the ads
being served are relevant to their users. 7)
Secret media It helps the premium publishers to
develop a better user experience around the ads.
It restores blocked ad impressions, especially
video ad impressions, and offers analytics that
help publishers to manage the rise of ad
blocking. 8) Sourcepoint It creates
compensation choice for publishers and consumers.
It provides the data needed to make informed
decisions about content compensation. It helps
publishers to activate messages to give
clarification about value exchange when people
consume content, and it offers the multiple
options for the consumers for paying for the
content they want whether prefers a free,
ad-based experience, or another way to compensate
the publisher.
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9) Never block It is a proven circumventing ad
blocking solution that maximizes revenues
instantly. It bypasses ad blockers to recapture
all your ad revenue losses and works on all
browsers and on all platforms and devices. It
places a line of code on website thereby ensuring
that advertisements still get shown even if a
user has ad blocking software installed and
switched on.
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