The soft approach won’t work, and other things we learned about ad blocking
With 200 million people globally blocking ads, costing $22 billion to the ad business in 2015, publishers are naturally concerned with falling ad revenues. At our WTF Ad Blocking event in the U.K., Digiday gathered publishers to discuss ad blocking. Here’s what we learned.
Better advertising won’t solve the problem
Ad blocking is the result of bad ads, but making better advertising won’t address the cause of the problem, according to Stefan Betzold, managing director of Bild. Publishers are still penalized by bad ads across the Internet that are prompting people to install ad blockers.
The soft approach doesn’t work
Der Spiegel politely asked people to turn off blockers three years ago, but to no avail. PageFair tested polite messaging on 220 websites and found just 0.3 percent of readers responded by turning off their blocker. Publishers are getting tougher. Trinity Mirror is keeping people with ad blockers from accessing content on regional title Birmingham Mail. And Bild’s hardline approach has led to 80 percent fewer ad blockers on its desktop site, according to Betzold.
Learn lessons from native before it’s too late
While native advertising has been touted as part of the antidote to ad blocking, it’s unlikely to scale to the extent needed to make up the revenues lost to ad blocking. Native ads often are just as likely to be blocked as display ads.
“We need to tell great stories with the same level of authority as the editorial content surrounding it,” said Oliver Lewis, head of digital at News U.K., who explained that video and native content will be at the heart of the Sun’s upcoming redesign. “Great storytelling can include brand endorsements so long as there’s synergy between content and audience.”
Different business models are needed
ESI Media’s decision to take the Independent out of print circulation and be completely focused on digital makes it all the more important to find a solution to ad blocking. Jon O’Donnell, group commercial director there, said ESI Media plans to combat ad blocking by making readers log in and giving them a more personalized reading experience.
“Our future is digital so we have more at stake compared to other news brands,” he said, “It’s really important we find a solution to this model.”
-
How one publisher is using generative AI to publish thousands of evergreen posts, create a chatbot
Ingenio has used generative AI technology to publish over 11,000 articles and will soon launch a spiritual guide chatbot.
-
Wirecutter tests new content on different platforms to increase affiliate revenue
Wirecutter is hoping to deepen its relationships with readers to become a go-to source not only for making a purchase, but also for early stage product discovery.
-
How Dotdash Meredith worked through the challenge of integrating two major publishers’ tech stacks
At the Digiday Publishing Summit, Dotdash Meredith product chief Adam McClean shared why he had initially expected the integration to be done by summer 2022 and why the work is still ongoing.
-
SponsoredMarketers are driving ad effectiveness and engagement with digital audio
Ann Piper, head of client partnerships, vertical team, Spotify Advertising As an increasing number of people engage with digital audio, marketers are keen to understand what keeps listeners engaged — and how they can tap into their attention. Recent reports anticipate the global digital audio advertising market will top $8.9 billion this year. In 2022, […]
-
Digiday+ Research: Publishers come out on the side of hybrid work as the pandemic dust settles
Being in the office full time might be a thing of the past for publishers, who voiced a clear preference for a hybrid-style workforce.
-
Newsletter publishers cautiously plan to expand editorial and sales teams
Publishers with newsletter-focused businesses are looking to grow their editorial and sales teams this year — but cautiously, to keep spending down during a time of economic uncertainty.
