Anti Ad blocker Revisiting

[frankleeceo]

I recently installed Avast anti virus on my computer, and just realized that they have default ad blocking browser enabled. So ad blocker just got back in my mind again.

What do you guys do about ad blocking features? Is there scripts or plugins that you have tested that might have results?

I am thinking about just maybe a nudge or notice to ask visitors to whitelists my sites every day or so. Or there are better methods?

Thanks!

[RedBar]

I have absolutely no idea about this however does whitelisting actually work? Is the extra one or two per thousand / ten thousand / million extra worth the "effort"?

Of course those promoting the product have a vested interest however they would need to prove it with some compelling independent evidence for me to be convinced.

For those displaying the cookies banner I have seen some with whitelisting incorporated into that. I have no idea how effective that is.

[Pjman]

I would recommend you first get some data to prove it is worth your time at all.

Use google tag manager to track adblocking events and see how prevalent it is on your site first, then see if it a problem.

For some of my sites, its 10% others which I don't bother with or sites are near half, that's a problem.

[JorgeV]

Hello,

Use google tag manager to track adblocking events and see how prevalent it is on your site first, then see if it a problem.

You know, most of ad blockers are blocking google tags too.

[tangor]

Some new browser versions are also moving in the direction of ad blocking behavior.

[RedBar]

^^^ Yep, my Firefox has had built-in blocker for what, 3-4 years now? Use DDG's browser all the time on my iPhone with built-in blocker.

The difference is fantastic, some newspaper sites are actually usable!

From a purely personal point of view, if anyone's purposely using an ad blocker why aggravate them with requests to whitelist them?

[JorgeV]

Hello,

The difference is fantastic, some newspaper sites are actually usable!

Good for you. Hopefully journalists are working for free to deliver the articles you are reading.

[frankleeceo]

I think my problem isn't someone purposely go install ad blocker, I respect that and I don't consider them as my target audiences.

My concern is now ad blocker is come built in with some browser installation. That is the issue that is really drawing my attention unlike before.

[RedBar]

Hopefully journalists are working for free to deliver the articles you are reading.

Yep, don't post anything if you don't want it copied or read for free.

Don't try a guilt trip on me, do you / they expect a contribution from everyone who reads a physical newspaper etc?

If they didn't cram so many ads on their pages they may just be worth readiing, as it is mostly they're not.

[JorgeV]

Hello,

Don't try a guilt trip on me, do you / they expect a contribution from everyone who reads a physical newspaper etc?

In physical newspaper, there are advertisers too, and these advertisers pay based on the reading audience of a newspaper. It's based on the idea that for one copy sold, 3 different persons will read it, so newspapers are charging advertisers accordingly.
This is the same for ads on TV.

If they didn't cram so many ads on their pages they may just be worth readiing, as it is mostly they're not

But with your adblocker turned on all the time, in fact, no matter if a site is displaying too many ads or not, you treat them all the same way, you get free resources, and don't want those who produced it get something from their work. Big publishers will always survive, they'll cut on their expenses, fire journalists, hire others, cheaper from asia, and will still be profitable. Small publishers, will just close door.

As I said, eat or be eaten, the law of the stronger, and you contribute to enforce this.

[lucy24]

It is possible to persuade users to whitelist your site. I know this, because I use an adblocker and have disabled it on certain sites.* The one thing they all have in common is that they did NOT start with a huge popup preventing me from viewing any and all content.


* One of which seemingly got revenge by repeatedly putting up the most revolting ad I have ever seen in my life. When I drew attention to it, the site administrator said “Yikes, is that disgusting thing back?” or words to that effect and promptly blocked the ad. This is the kind of response that encourages people to whitelist you.

[frankleeceo]

Thank you Lucy24,

I would assume that you are using some type of anti adblocker banner or requests. After implementing this, can you tell that if people do whitelist over a long period of time? Or if search engine ranking / traffic were hurt?

I implemented it on one of my site a couple of days ago, waiting for some type of feedback before I roll it out to the rest of my properties.

[lucy24]

Sorry, I'm talking from the other side, as a user. I meant that there's a right way and a wrong way to induce people to turn off their ad blocker, and it may vary by site. For example, one site put up a nice little message in one of the sidebars that would ordinarily be occupied by an ad. I never thought to look at the HTML, but I imagine this could be done very easily by hard-coding some content, which would then be overwritten by an ad if the user permits ad display.