Firefox and Adblock Plus

Losing lots of income

[greatstart]

Since last year, my earnings have dropped by more than 50%. The popularity of Firefox and Adblock Plus has gone way up. Almost everyone I know is running it.

As a result, my AdSense is not being displayed on my site, thus losing lots of potential clicks.

Any script or code that can be embedded into my pages to bypass the AdBlocker would be a great way around it, but I'm not sure it is possible. Any ideas?

[frankbomarito]

I serve ads using OpenX and keep daily records for ad requests and fills.

I compare these with the stats that each of the companies that provide my ads (Adsense, Valueclick, BurstMedia, Tribal and a couple more) and find I always am paid for at least 90% of my requests.

Firefox is the top browser my visitors use and I although the site is not in a techie niche the SF Bay Area provides about half my traffic.

Considering that some ads dont completely load I doubt that more than a few percent of my visitors are using ad blocking software.

[motorhaven]

Years ago I tried an experiment. I put &adsense in the URL parameter list of all navigation links on the site, but only for real users (not search engines/crawlers). It caused these links to disappear.

It was a very large forum site, and there was a notice up that some content blockers might interfere with the the proper operation of the site.

The result? Revenue shot up. Then the previously blocking users who stuck around became immune to the ads and the click rate was only slightly above where it had been before the test.

Something else also happened, predictable in hindsight. Exit/bounce rates shot up and daily user registrations went down. I could see the writing on the wall, that I would end up costing the site longer term growth and revenue for short term gain. The experiment ended and I decided to find better ways to monetize the site rather than "block the blockers."

What I ended up doing was writing my own contextual CPC program in PHP for my direct advertisers. Links were created based on keywords in posts and articles. Each href tag had a random page link without any discernible pattern (to foil blocking them) but on the server side I could decode them and redirect to the client's site. It worked well enough and earned earn that I no longer paid much attention to ad blockers.

Moral: When people install blockers, you have to get smarter and learn how to embed ads for those users in the actual content, in such a way they can't be easily blocked. Content is king, make part of your ad campaigns part of the content, not just something lumped on the side in a design.

[edited by: motorhaven at 8:41 pm (utc) on Jun 19, 2012]

[Leosghost]

I wrote pretty much the same about php ( or other serverside systems ) ad serving being a way that the search engines could ( Yahoo already use it ) get around the ad serving being blocked clientside, in a recent adsense thread in late May or early June..but it was cut out along with other peoples comments on the subject....never did get any explanation nor notification..

But I have it somewhere in my "records"..

found it.. originally posted may 20th 2012 and then was "gone"..maybe this time it will stay it is/ was relevant ..rather than edit out the parts that refer to the thread it came from, I'll leave it entire..it is a rare area in which I would disagree with netmeg's "take" on where Google will probably go re "forced ads"..

Those whose sites are monetised by ads but who do not sell their adspace direct and who think that Microsoft will somehow "rescue" webmasters from being "dependent" on Google for income, might like to reflect on those figures..

We need a balance between the market share of search engines..

But Microsoft is no more the friend of small to medium sized website owners ( measured in traffic terms ) than Google..

I don't believe that Google will continue adsense in the present form indefinitely, certainly not via "add a few lines of javascript", because the numbers of those blocking javascript will increase..so either they will move to "serverside" adserving to avoid this..or they will move still further down the road of "personalised"..

Given that they are under pressure to "do not track"..and have just acquiesced to to that pressure ( they have agreed to allow a "do not track" button / setting in chrome in the very near future ) and that the majority of users are not on fixed IP ( even if they were via IPv6 , not all IP addresses have just one user behind them, ads for "dad" are not the same as ads for "daughter" on a "home machine" ) IMO they will have to move to "serverside" a la Yahoo! and Microsoft "partners"..

Setting up serverside ad serving ( or as it actually is "server hosted scripts which call to external adservers" and then present their output in the page subsequently served to the browser ) is not very difficult..but is beyond the knowledge and ability of very many of those who currently use adsense..

Unless Google decide to give the serverside scripts and their installation instructions as a "kit" to webmasters, ( and then risk bad / corrupt / fraudulent / hi-jacking ) "installations"..any of which would tarnish Google's image with the "general search user"..or "hand hold" each publisher ( can't see that happening on past Google "form" )..Then they'll have to be very much more restrictive about who can use whatever form adsense becomes ( and make those entry restrictions retrospectively applied, ie; drop a huge number of current publishers that don't make significant money for Google, in other words apply the Microsoft, Yahoo! approach ) ..or bring all adsense publishers "in house" and only accept those whoa re hosted on Google's own servers and only allow limited access to the "back end" by the publishers..

or

Simply close the adsense system ..and possibly use a variant of their knowledge graph use of wikipedia and other sites to place ads around content "framed" or served directly from Google in ways that the browsers will not block..

They, Google may be loath to do so ( serve "unstoppable ads" ) but as this is already the way that Yahoo and Microsoft do serve ads via their "partners", one could not in all honesty accuse them of breaching any "line"..and I think that they will eventually have to take this step..

Whichever method they use..IMO the days of the small to medium traffic websites being able to exist via ads placed via javascript by Google are limited..if this is how you earn your living ? you should start making alternative arrangements ( if you have not done so already ;-)..this is not going to last forever, and the ride may be much shorter than you would think or wish for..

[cabbie]

I have a website compliant with the EU regulations on cookies that, before visitors can load the page, they are asked if they would like a ad free version of my site or the full version.
If they choose the ad free version, I have a line of text where the ads would normally be and let them know that that advertising is used to support the site.Then give them a option to change their mind
I have no stats on what people choose.My ctr is down , however my cpc is way up so revenue is pretty much the same before I gave visitors a option

[Digmen1]

What pisses people off and makes them want to get Adblockers is all the pop up and pup under ads.
And the ones that won't let you click out of them easily.

This is making it hard for legitamate banner ad advertisers.

[Marshall]

What pisses people off and makes them want to get Adblockers is all the pop up and pup under ads.

The REAL annoying ones are those that start an audio file when your mouse passes over the ad, IMHO.

Marshall

[Leosghost]

The REAL annoying ones are those that start an audio file when your mouse passes over the ad, IMHO.

or the farm game ones that start squawking, bleating and mooing to hillbilly music on page load..G was one of the networks running them for a while via adsense image ads..now only adbrite seem to ..stopped me wearing headphones to surf..if you left the tab open they just kept on going..and going ..and going ...

[daniel142005]

If no one has yet learned from the media industry vs pirate war, if someone wants something (or in this case doesn't want something) they will find a way to do it and if not, they will take their business elsewhere or just leave.

On that note, here are the options you pretty much have (from a user perspective):

1. As some have said, find another way to monetize your site. Offering a subscription based ad-free version with a very reasonable price is a great example, but it's all about the price. Figure out how much you get per user per month from advertising and use that for the subscription price. If it's a very low number it may be easier to charge every 60 days or offer longer options. If you add new features you can continue to adjust the subscription cost. Also, personally I would say avoid auto-pay subscriptions and let them pay for X amount of time manually. It's becoming rather annoying to cancel small payments for so many sites.

2. If #1 isn't something you want to deal with or if your website isn't ready for that step yet, detect if they are blocking ads and offer them some options. For instance, you can ask them to enable ads for just your site and explain to them the type of non-intrusive ads you use. You would be surprised how many people would do so especially if they're a frequent visitor. The thing about Adblock is that it's pretty much install-and-forget, so some may not even know there were ads to begin with. Others will just not care, and that's always going to be the case, but like some have said you will likely lose people if you forced them, especially without first offering options.

Of course there's multiple versions of 1 & 2, and other methods that would work, but NEVER force them on people without at least first offering options.

[moTi]

The thing about Adblock is that it's pretty much install-and-forget, so some may not even know there were ads to begin with.

important point. spammers and cheaters destroy the online advertising market with their intrusive ads. most people don't mind a few text ads or simple image ads. what p*sses us off is a) the extensive use in general and b) the tricky flashing noisy annoying banners, popups and popunders.

in this light, the argument "people hate ads in general" or "don't force ads on them" doesn't quite hold true. users block any kind of ads, because it's much more convenient. no one wants to take the trouble to check on every single website he visits if he is willing to whitelist certain ads. the easiest way is to get rid of all of the stuff at once - set and forget. the decent, cool or interesting ads along with the rubbish. point is, they can't distinguish because they don't see them.

[PCInk]

AdBlocking software blocks what it *thinks* are adverts.

You can use this to block the important parts of your content too by confusing the adblocker. Then, just add a donate/subscribe button and allow logged in customers that have paid to see your full content without the bit of code that makes the adblocker software think it is an advert so they now get the full content on your pages and you have some money.

[Rosalind]

I'm very aware that webmasters need to make a living, so I wasn't keen to install Adblock. However when my son started visiting a popular wiki site it got to the point where he was picking up malware from it every other day. So I installed the blocker, and since then everything's been much cleaner. So it's not always about pop-ups or distractions, it's been a question of keeping the computer secure. My son is also far from the stereotype of the highly techie user.

I allow Adsense as an exception (plus a couple of others), but it uses so many different urls that this doesn't always work.

I think there's a future for ads sold directly, made to custom sizes, and placed in non-standard folders. The real problem is the massive, unmonitored ad networks that tend to get abused by malware writers.

[loner]

... Content is king, make part of your ad campaigns part of the content, not just something lumped on the side in a design.

Wouldn't that be considered selling links by Goo?

[netmeg]

You can run all the direct ads you want on your site. Just slap a nofollow on them if you're worried about G.

[motorhaven]

Wouldn't that be considered selling links by Goo?

Nope. They aren't buying specific links. They are buying CPC clicks, and they can change which advertiser they point to, as well as which keywords are links dynamically. The links point to my server and use nofollow inside of a javascript tag.

User clicks, it does basic checks to make sure its a real user, and only routes those to the advertiser's page. All others get a 403.

[Digmen1]

"I'm very aware that webmasters need to make a living, so I wasn't keen to install Adblock. However when my son started visiting a popular wiki site it got to the point where he was picking up malware from it every other day. So I installed the blocker, and since then everything's been much cleaner. So it's not always about pop-ups or distractions, it's been a question of keeping the computer secure. My son is also far from the stereotype of the highly techie user. "

Yes that is a major problem, Adblockers tend to get rid of all those Malware popups and popunders.

But the problems is that genuine advertisers get blocked as well.

[gouri]

If someone who is using an adblocking program visits a site that has Adsense, will that visit count as an Adsense impression?

[Leosghost]

yes..if it is adblock..because it loads the adsense..but hides it..

[lucy24]

AdBlocking software blocks what it *thinks* are adverts.

You can use this to block the important parts of your content too by confusing the adblocker.

Heh. I've had whole chunks of e-books disappear on me because I put the advertising supplement (dating from before 1923) in a div whose name contained some variant of "ads". Well, the browser is absolutely right, it is advertising-- only it's not that kind of advertising.

People who watch advertising-- in any medium-- subsidize the people who fast-forward past it.

People who pay for public TV (in the US) subsidize people who don't.

People who register their cars where they live subsidize people who register from their mother's address in a cheaper state.

People who pay taxes subsidize people who pay accountants.

Et cetera. I don't think "how to override the block" is really a useful discussion.

Besides, daytime TV runs the same six ads over and over again. I've seen 'em.

:: pause to contemplate upper right corner of WebmasterWorld window, currently advertising a service whose robot I block ::

[levo]

yes..if it is adblock..because it loads the adsense..but hides it..

AFAIK, it blocks the script and doesn't load anything...

[backdraft7]

Are these decreases due to ad blockers or Google's own algo tweaking?
I have noticed in just the past two months a drastic decline in Adsense revenue, yet an increase in my Adwords spending. I have made zero changes to either account. In the same time, the Penguin algo update has turned our traffic upside down.

While the ad blocker theory is fine, I seriously doubt that many people are savvy enough to have suddenly started using browser based ad blockers.

One the other hand, it makes very good sense for Google to manipulate traffic in a way that reduces traffic from organic results then steer your users through Adwords ads instead. Have you fully researched changes in your organic results?

The bottom line is that we used to make double on Adsense that we paid to Adwords, now, over 7 years later, they have finally tweaked it so we pay more in Adwords than we make in Adsense. Again, both accounts have been pretty much "hands off" during that time.

[motorhaven]

backdraft7,

Google has made many moves in the past several years to minimize "arbitrage" sites which funnel in users via Adwords only to funnel them back out via Adsense. I don't know anything about your site(s), but if its strictly that type... they tend to be thin on useful content.

[backdraft7]

@motor - no, my site is a paid content site (might be considered an authority site) with a sales info front end of about 75 pages. The back end contains no adsense ads since my members have paid access for that area. The front end contains only one adsense tower ad in the right sidebar.

What I am seeing is that since Penguin, Google has simply removed a few of our top performing key phrases entirely from the organic results, while at the same time leaving many of the lower performing yet highly semantically related terms in tact. This has results in a drastic change in the balance of income / expense. For the terms they removed, I am now finding my site listed as an adwords ad in the serps. These ads appear to be generate via the "keyword matching" process, which has become quite liberal with my money.

I guess I have a hard time buying the ad blocker theory because while I'm savvy enough to use one, adsense ads never bothered me at all. It's those pop ups that suck.

[blend27]

@moTi

in this light, the argument "people hate ads in general" or "don't force ads on them" doesn't quite hold true. users block any kind of ads, because it's much more convenient. no one wants to take the trouble to check on every single website he visits if he is willing to whitelist certain ads. the easiest way is to get rid of all of the stuff at once - set and forget. the decent, cool or interesting ads along with the rubbish. point is, they can't distinguish because they don't see them.

100% on the Spot. Adblock Plus, NoScript and on top of that winhelp2002.mvps[dot]org provides a juicy hosts file that routes all the Ads to localhost IP.

As a matter of fact I know of few companies where IT Departments have Adblock Plus & NoScript as a part of installation image for FireFox Browser.

At the local Pub there is a Girl known as a "Laptop Speeder-Upper",stops by once a week or so. All she does to help the poor souls is install FF, Adblock Plus & NoScript and there you go, clean Web. And as an added bonus if she could get her hands on hosts file in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc directory the first lines of an "attack" are:

127.0.0.1 domains.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 adservices.google.com
127.0.0.1 video-stats.video.google.com
127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 4.afs.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 feedads.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 imageads.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 partner.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 www.googleadservices.com

[motorhaven]

People who watch advertising-- in any medium-- subsidize the people who fast-forward past it.

Agreed.

People who pay for public TV (in the US) subsidize people who don't.

As well as the government.

People who register their cars where they live subsidize people who register from their mother's address in a cheaper state.

I don't think the analogy quite fits. People who register their cars where they live are law abiding. The others are cheats. Besides, the majority of taxes for roads comes from taxes everyone pays at the fuel pump.

People who pay taxes subsidize people who pay accountants.

People who pay accountants don't pay taxes? Its probably quite the opposite. People on the higher end of the income scale pay the greatest percentage of taxes in the USA, and utilize accountants/CPA far more often than those lower down the income scales.

I don't use my accountant to not pay taxes, I use my accountant to deal with the complex tax system, paying all I'm legally obligated to but no more. I make better use of my time and productivity paying an accountant, and I bet I pay more taxes than the average person does. :-(

The online world is a bit different. Cable TV, satellite and over the air tv have certain fixed costs. If 10 people watch a show or a million people do, the signal is still delivered to all the same homes if its over the air, to all cable/satellite subscribers if its not over the air.

Online, the more people who visit my site the more my cost increases in the form of bandwidth and increased need for higher end hardware. Like it or not, they are going to view ads. If they block Adsense and other networks, they will see embedded links which they cannot:

1. Block via hosts/dns since its the same domain name.
2. Block via noscript since its generated server side.
3. Block via wildcard since each link URL is pseudo random with no pattern to match.
4. Block via DIV, because the embedded links are in the same DIV as content (the links are words in the content itself).

Embedded text links are a great solution. The are non-intrusive, do not use additional screen space, and do not increase page size significantly enough to make a difference even with those few still using dialup.

Properly done they work. It has to be direct ad sales which 301 directly to the advertiser's site. Not affiliate links or a back end 301 to an ad network, because Adblock Plus would block that type of thing.

[Digmen1]

I'd say that Adwords is a very big part of Google's income.
Maybe they sell Google maps to some companies
Most other stuff they do they give away for free!

[Digmen1]

"Is that true? I thought Adsense / Adwords was only a very small part of Google's income. Can anyone clarify how much?"

So where do you think Google gets most of its income from ?

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Google will have to do something. 97% of their money comes from AdSense / AdWords

Not really, a lot of their adsense revenue comes from Google's own pages and they make more from the affiliate offers they promote on any product related serp, as well as their *shopping* portal which is essentially the worlds biggest thin affiliate site. They make BILLIONS per quarter and 3rd party adsense is only a fraction of that.

[Digmen1]

Yes, but how much of their income comes from Adwords ?

[Leosghost]

The first key to succeeding with search engines is to learn how to use them to find what you want ..this data is found by using the obvious search string..
##google financials 2012 adwords##

results are..

[wordstream.com...]

[corporate-eye.com...]

[investor.google.com...]

result 97% of Google income is from advertising..

Unless you learn to use search engines, you cannot be successful in serps..

To know how much of that is due to adsense or adwords..?

if you add the word adsense to the search string ..you get ..##google financials 2012 adwords adsense##

results..

[investor.google.com...]

28% of their total revenue is due to adsense partners..

Do the math ..

HTH:) ..Now go fish :)