Block the blockers ( abp )

[SmokeyBear]

I wrote a little code to test this recently and found theres alot more people blocking my ads than i thought.

but i found a simple way around it.

I will explain the code so you can make your own.

by inserting a small iframe ad on your site to a known advertiser you can check if the ad has loaded by using the event handler "onload"

first we will assume everyone has a blocker on

var adblocker="on";

we will then change that variable if the target ad loads

<iframe src=http://adsense onload="turnoff();">

function turnoff(){
adblocker = "off";
}
we set a timer that will function only if ad has not loaded

setTimeout ( "test()", 5000 );

function test(){
if(adblocker == "on"){

alert('Your browser has blocked important parts of this page, please reload the page and turn off any ad blocking software');

}
}

[SmokeyBear]

there are a multitude of ways to use this method, you could redirect the user if an adblocker is found, you can guilt them into unblocking the ads, you could deny them access to the page or put up an alternative ad in its place

[wyweb]

or put up an alternative ad in its place

That's the smart money.

[SmokeyBear]

if(adblocker == "on"){

document.getElementById("iframeid").src="http://alternatead.com";

}

[SmokeyBear]

the best method i have found is using a dummy iframe width=0 height=0 as the adblock tester, loading a known bocked domain ( for speed ) if the iframe is not loaded ( i.e. they have adblocker software on ) i inform the user through a div overlay, the user has a choice to proceed after disabling adblock or to continue without disabling , if the user continues without disabling the adblocker a popunder will be made when they click continue but they will still be ale to view the site, warning is set to cookies so they only see it once

[HuskyPup]

I think if I were using an adblocker I may get slightly pi$$ed with your actions if I'm understanding them correctly.

[wyweb]

I think if I were using an adblocker I may get slightly pi$$ed with your actions

Well, whoop-tee-do... I hope they do get pissed.

Your response now, or rather anyone using this adblocker, is to find a new and improved ad-blocker, and I'm sure there's one in the works as we speak.

The publishers response will be to find better and more effective ways around this new and improved adblocker.

Which in turn will create a new round of V3 adblocking software, which in turn will... which in turn will...which in turn will...

And this as much as anything else, as much as gaming and as much as pron, has been responsible for the webs technical evolution.

Gotta love it....

[Leonard0]

theres alot more people blocking my ads than i thought.

SmokeyBear, what percentage of your visitors are blocking ads?

I think if I were using an adblocker I may get slightly pi$$ed with your actions...

If more of us web publishers started raising awareness about the importance of advertising in providing users with free content maybe people will be less likely to block ads.
Most ads are unobtrusive. It's not like television ads (back in the day) where you had to wait two minutes to get back to the program.

[nomis5]

Why try to show ads to an audience who clearly don't want to see them? The logic of doing that is totally mangled.

If I implement an ad blocker and a site then bypasses that and still shows me ads then I am also pissed off. I just may be so pissed off that I do more than just avoid that site in the future.

Why make enemies of viewers who will will never click on your ads? It only drops your CTR. What's the logic in that?

[Frank_Rizzo]

Just accept that some people do not want ads thrust upon them.

Move on. Give your time to creating more great content, rather than trying to defeat adblockers.

[SmokeyBear]

"Why try to show ads to an audience who clearly don't want to see them? The logic of doing that is totally mangled."

tv has been doing it for decades and it seems to work really really well for them.

Just accept that some people do not want ads thrust upon them.

Just accept the fact some people don't want to give out something for free, i don't want unprofitable surfers thrust upon me either.

[SmokeyBear]

nobody wants telemarketers to call, yet obviously people use them or they wouldn't still be trying.

Nobody "wants" tv commercials yet they still work even though they are "thrust upon" you

I dont have stats for how many people block the ads , i will figure it out and post back , but i do know people that are blocking ads and are shown alternative ads , are buying .. You are currently throwing that potential customer away by showing him/her nothing. I am making money from them , they are costing you money , using up your resources , and earning you nothing . The logic of THAT is totally mangled

[incrediBILL]

Why try to show ads to an audience who clearly don't want to see them? The logic of doing that is totally mangled.

Quote often the audience isn't always aware they're even blocking ads.

When my mom installed an upgrade to Norton it started blocking all sorts of things for "security purposes" so ads were simply out of sight, out of mind, she didn't even do it!

[Demaestro]

What happens if users have JS turned off? Do you require that too?

I would test this with the addon: AdChange for adblock plus

This app loads custom images into the frames, from your hard drive, which may pass your test.

Also have you considered people who don't have the technical understanding to change their blocking software when something lie Norton is doing the blocking?

[Edge]

Well, it seems there are two camps of folks posting here - those whom are pursuing customers and those whom are pursuing people or traffic.

I fall in the "customer’s camp" as my web business is how I pay the bills. It is pretty simple with me - If you can't make money, don't do it.

Most of my customers are business-to-business customers and many companies have firewalls that actually block AdSense and other advertisements. I have found that it is best to serve an alternative ad or website-promotion in the place of the blocked ad.

At over a million unique visitors monthly, I don’t give a second thought at lost unconvertible traffic (customers) because they don’t like advertisements...

[iamlost]

I also have long taken the position of serving alternate ads to those with ad block software enabled or javascript disabled.

Developing direct advertisers to decrease the need for third party ad networks has been a deliberate effort for years. And when all else fails fill the spot with cross site self-promotion. I view a blank space as a sign of failure.

[bumpski]

There's another reason entirely to block ads!

Adsense ads almost double, to triple, the page load time of my sites! Other ads; for example Amazon, load much, much faster!

My site's render their content long before the ads render, but many sites pretty much hold the scroll bar hostage until the ads render.

With Adsense SO SLOW no wonder many surfers are blocking ads. It's nothing to do with ads, it's the massive time delay, and terrible performance, on many sites.

[bumpski]

setTimeout ( "test()", 5000 );

Smokey

I don't know where you put your test IFrame in your code, but frequently I've seen Adsense ads take longer to load than your timeout! So if your test Iframe is blocked by the Adsense ads render time .....?

[alephh]

Couple of comments:

1) People who use ad-blockers are usually the heavy-weight Internet-users, who generate most of the links. I'm not so sure I want to annoy them. Personally I remove all the links to the sites that are too annoying (popups, pushing their subscribe-option too hard, etc).

2) If you get too creative with your scripts, there is a chance somebody/somebot labels your site black-hat/hacker and your site ends up being removed from Google Index for the next 10 years.

3) People who use ad-blockers won't click the ads anyways. Why decrease your CTR and confuse the algo about what ads work (adsense may show your most expensive ad to these people 1000 times, and after getting no clicks decides to show that very expensive ad less).

4) There is huge number of browsers, versions of them, add-ons, etc. Might get tiresome to make sure your script works in all of them.

5) It's super-embarrassing if the script cannot be handled and ends up as a messy screen - "this dude cannot even code html, I need to out of this amateur site".

6) It creates the impression that you don't care about your site or visitors at all, just money.

[scotland]

alephh
Good comments except I don't agree with "People who use ad-blockers are usually the heavy-weight Internet-users" as many users barely know how to switch on the computer and they accept the default settings of their internet security software - which may be to block all adverts - in many cases the user has no idea how to change this setting.
I agree many adverts are annoying - however so is a lot of Internet Security and badly designed ad blockers

[incrediBILL]

With Adsense SO SLOW no wonder many surfers are blocking ads. It's nothing to do with ads, it's the massive time delay, and terrible performance, on many sites.

That has more to do with page design than AdSense load times.

My pages display with a gap where the ads will eventually display, when they get around to displaying, doesn't slow down the basic page load itself whatsoever.

So the concept here is to make your pages more visitor friendly regardless of the ad network.

[Demaestro]

tv has been doing it for decades and it seems to work really really well for them.

True, but does your Tv channel try to detect if the volume is muted and blocks the channel with a message saying.

"Your Tv has blocked important parts of this channel, please come back later with sound enabled"

What would your reaction to this be?

[jimbeetle]

the best method i have found is using a dummy iframe width=0 height=0

Might get picked up as a possible malware injection.

[gmb21]

"Your Tv has blocked important parts of this channel, please come back later with sound enabled"

LOL!

[piatkow]

When my mom installed an upgrade to Norton it started blocking all sorts of things for "security purposes" so ads were simply out of sight, out of mind, she didn't even do it!

All sorts of things - sometimes including site's own images and internal navigation in my experience.

[bumpski]

My pages display with a gap where the ads will eventually display, when they get around to displaying, doesn't slow down the basic page load itself whatsoever.

Yes my pages render their content in very short order as well and then the ads trickle in very slowly, BUT, for all of us the "Onload" event does not trigger until the ads render. Google has made this an important issue!

Google is rating our sites performance using the Onload event time via the Toolbar and Pagerank mechanism. This onload event may trigger long after your site appears to be completely rendered. Some "flash" ads lock up the scroll bar till they render. (As an Amazon customer, I've complained to them numerous times about their "flash" ads locking up the scroll bar so much that I stop shopping! I want to buy something and their ads are preventing it!)

Slow ad rendering (especially flash) definitely encourages users to use ad blockers. My sites are fast enough that you can surf many pages and basically never see any Adsense ads. Meanwhile Amazon has no problem at all keeping up rendering their ads fast and fully asynchronously.

Hopefully Google will cleanup these performance issues especially for image/flash ads or there will be more and more ad blockers.

[DaStarBuG]

I don't care if people use Ad Blocker Software.
These people won't click on Ads anyway.
Ok granted, they create Ad Impressions that count towards
CPM campaigns but blocking them completely ruins the
reputation of my website (in my opinion).

Luckily I am in a niche where most visitors are not very
tech savvy so most of them don't use Ad blocker.

[ThatsBoBo]

Many large corporations and government agencies have ad blockers installed on all user workstations. Google Ads do not show.

After installing alternative ads to appear in place of Adsense when an adBlocker is detected, profits increased and my visitors did in fact click on and purchase from these alternative ads at just about the same CTR as my blocked ads.

As many visitors do their web browsing and buying from work and have the adblocker forced upon THEM by their employer, I find that "blocking the ad blockers" is beneficial.

From what I see on my stats, most of my visitors with adblockers installed are these employees in large corporate or government offices. They probably have no idea an adblocker is even active on their workstation.

If the users who are at home block ads and get PO’d when my alts come up, they can simply go else ware. I gotta eat…

[piatkow]

Many large corporations and government agencies have ad blockers installed on all user workstations.

We don't have an ad blocker but our firewall blocks "unsuitable" sites and replaces them with stern warnings of disciplinary action. Often these replace ads on sites that we are visiting legitimately. Luckily nobody actually checkes the logs to follow up on these warnings.

[Edge]

From what I see on my stats, most of my visitors with adblockers installed are these employees in large corporate or government offices. They probably have no idea an adblocker is even active on their workstation.

Yes, and this is why I serve a different unrecognized-by-blocker ad. Without the ads some of my webpages look amateurish, so serving a graphic or a different ad leaves a better perception.

Few folks in my web space are blocking ads because they hate ads. It looks like approximately 8% of my users have an ad blocker. That’s significant change (ad revenue) on my site.

My ads are NOT positioned intrusive; moreover most of the ads are helping my visitor find solutions. I’m not a hobby site…