Are you set up to beat ad blocking in 2016?
Ad blocking has quickly become one of the most talked about topics in digital publishing media. One of the more frustrating things about ad blocking is the fact that as of right now, publishers do not have much power in the equation. By the nature of the epidemic, digital publishers are the victims of the very readers they’re trying to attract. Ad blocking poses a direct threat to the ecosystem that fuels the Internet and the content we’ve all come to rely on.
As a digital publisher, you probably already know a fair bit about ad blocking and its affect on your business. In case you don’t, here’s a brief definition:
Ad blocking is a content filtering and ad blocking extension that allows users to prevent ads from being displayed.
As a publisher, you’re on the front lines when it comes to combatting ad blocking. If you rely on display advertising to help fund your website project, you’re probably now wondering how you can beat it. We’ve done some work with our Ad Operations Team and dedicated Sovrn publishers to come up with a quick checklist for you when planning how to deal with ad blocking.
Here’s how we recommend you approach ad blocking in 2016:
- Site Quality Audit: The main reason readers rely on ad blocking it because they want a better experience with your website. If you can provide your readers with a better user experience, there should be no need for ad blocking. Our Ad Operations Team helped us put together this Site Quality Checklist.
- Standardize Your Ads: One of the reasons people install ad blocking technologies is because they don’t want to deal with all the intrusive pop-ups, take-overs, auto-audios, etc. The best way to ensure you’re serving standard ads is to stick with the standard ad unit sizes: 728×90, 300×600, 300×250, 160×600 (for display). You can read more on these sizes here.
- The Rule Of Five: There is such thing as too many ads. This might sound weird coming from an ad provider, but we recommend you limit the number of ads you have on a single webpage to 5…. maaaaaaybe 6. The reason is because if you have more than 6 ads on a webpage, advertisers begin to value your traffic less because the ad space becomes less valuable. You can read more on that here.
- The Company You Keep: There are a lot of companies out there that want to help you make money from your website through different display advertising options. While most of these companies are quite competent when it comes to helping you make money, they might not always have your best interest at heart. You want to partner with digital advertising companies that will help maintain the high site quality that you’ve worked so hard for.
