The ad-block war is escalating. The most recent news is that Yahoo Mail was testing on shutting out users with ad-block on. Before that, iOS9 release of ad block technology has been the first from a mobile behemoth. Ad blockers for smartphones are gradually gaining popularity, and media companies are estimated to lose over $20 billion in revenue by the end of 2015 due to this. The most popular tool, AdBlock was bought in October and implanted an Acceptable Ads program. Even when you’re searching, it’s been estimated to surpass desktop-search ad revenue in the next 4 years and will take on the top Search and social media portion of mobile ad revenue.
Over the next 5 years mobile will increase ad spending on display, video, search, and social. Display and video are estimated to grow substantially faster than other aspects of mobile in the next few years. What makes mobile so important in todays economy is that it play’s a crucial role in the consumer purchasing journey.
So what’s an ad agency to do? The trick is simple, don’t act like an ad. Don’t impose yourself with intrusive ads but instead find a more eye-catching ad that makes the user WANT to learn more. The user experience cannot go ignored, it must be respected. EFK’s stray’s away from interruptive advertising and instead aims to strategically position our advertisements in order to stand out and not be obtrusive. EFK examines human behavior for our clients target audience, and we tailor our ads accordingly.
While we continue to grow and develop new technologies through our digital and strategy departments, what are you doing to deal with the ad-block war? Do you still use pesky pop-up ads to develop leads? What about digital banners on the sides of web pages? Do you still strategize like it’s 2002? Or are you ready to respond to the user experience and build a new campaign, built with Adblock in mind? Lots of questions but EFK has the answers.