Everyone today has an opinion about what is wrong with mobile advertising. As consumers of online content we understand the “unpleasantries” of intrusive advertising, however as marketers and advertisers we also understand its importance and the necessary role it plays. So as you can see it’s a touchy subject.
But this debate puts the ad industry in an interesting predicament. What consumers really want it isn’t that black & white. According to a recent study by Hubspot, 77% of people surveyed “wish there were a way to ad-filter instead of ad-block completely.” And 83% of people say “Not all ads are bad, but I want to be able to filter out the really obnoxious ones.” So with this I think it’s fair to say people don’t hate ads, they just hate bad ads; and it looks like the industry agrees.
Which brings us where we are today. Tomorrow, Google will release an update that will turn on its built-in Chrome ad blocker that will block out ads that are considered intrusive. These include units such as pop-up ads, prestitial ads, ads with density greater than 30%, flashing animated ads, autoplay video ads with sound, post-stitial ads with countdown, full-screen scroll-over ads, and large sticky ads.
When you first hear this news, you may think, how can Google even do this? Do they have that much power? Some people may say the answer is yes, but in reality it is not actually Google choosing which ads are considered “intrusive”, they are just following the guidelines set forth by a larger industry entity, Coalition for Better Ads and their Better Ads Experience Program. The Coalition is formed by leading international trade associations and companies involved in online media who intend to work towards improving consumers’ experience with online advertising. Imagine them as your friend’s overprotective mom. They can sometimes get in the way of the fun stuff you want to do with your buddy, but you know deep down she has good intentions.
It’s great that these restrictions are coming into play from a user experience standpoint but what does this mean for advertisers? Will this heavily impact desktop and mobile advertising as we know it today? In short the answer is no, but you need to be aware that this is happening and some ways of the past are about to change.
So let’s deep dive:
Firstly, the good news. Google says that roughly only 1% of publishers aren’t compliant with third-party ad blocking standards. What this means is that the vast majority of web-publishers will not be impacted by the install of this new within Chrome because publishers have already been making the effort to change their inventory and no longer offer non-complicit formats.
The bad news. The formats many advertisers have become accustomed to on mobile are going to become irrelevant.
What does this mean for JUICE and our advertisers? We won’t say no effect, but we will say almost no effect. We believe in developing ads that tell the story people want to see not ones that they are forced to see. And we are genuinely excited about these new regulations coming into play. For the past few years we have been constantly evolving our creative offerings from our Creative Studio, as well as working with our publisher partners to support progressive formats, such as interscroller and vertical videos that captivate the screen, while respecting the user experience. We have seen nothing but positive results and have been seeing a growing adoption of these alternative formats from our clients.
We look forward to these changes coming more to the forefront and being able to grow with them. As Albert Einstein said “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” So let’s make sure we keep working towards something different…and better!
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