Indirect advertising has evolved a great deal from billboards and telemarketing. Customers can now tune out, skip, or block annoying ads thanks to ad blockers.
Unfortunately, while the digital marketing industry has changed, many marketers are still stuck with old methods. They expend efforts spamming display ads and popups in the face of today’s impatient web surfers.
With consumers now proactively avoiding ads, how do you create popups they won’t find annoying. Is there a win-win scenario when it comes to popups?
This post covers how ad blockers can affect your marketing strategies and ways to with or against them if needed.
What Are Ad Blockers Anyway?
An ad blocker is a digital program that filters through content and eliminates or alters third-party marketing materials on a page. Ad blockers are often the culprit when some sections of your target market aren’t seeing your ads. They often exist as browser extensions, but they sometimes come prepackaged with the browser (Chrome since 2018).
How Do Ad Blockers Work?
Ad blockers work like gatekeepers that prevent unwanted elements from loading on the page you’re viewing. Essentially, ad blocker programs interrupt the interaction between ads and website visitors.
Ad blockers compare a website’s script with those specified in its database as ads and block anyone with ad similarities.
Some ad blockers feature advanced programs that differentiate acceptable ads from intrusive ones. Acceptable ads are marketing contents that the Acceptable Ads Committee placed on the ‘whitelist.’ But most common ad blockers are non-discriminatory, and they’ll restrict all ads equally.
Acceptable or not, a few popup creator tools can help you circumvent ad blockers. For instance, Popup Maker has a tool that can try to bypass ad-blocking tools when your popup goes live.
How Many People Use Ad Blockers?
Statista reported that around 25.8% of people on the internet blocked ads on their digital devices. Blockthrough’s 2021 Adblock Report further indicates about 40% of internet users in the US have ad blockers on their devices. These percentages translate to millions of people when you consider the population of the areas under study.
How Ad Blockers Affect Marketing
Ad conversion rates are bearing the brunt of the blockers’ effects. Since your audience can’t see your ads, it’s impossible to generate leads that convert.
However, ad blockers can have a positive impact on advertising. They can be seen as a challenge to your marketing team, encouraging them to produce ads that more strictly adhere to good practices.
By creating ads that follow the correct procedures for images, content, and, size your ads will be better received and less likely to be at the whim of an ad blocker.
Ensure every ad you create meets industry standards and contains clear, concise copy that doesn’t mislead viewers. You want to ensure you don’t overuse punctuation, symbols, and generic words. Your ads need to be unique to your products and services.
You should avoid using rich media ads like Flash or Shockwave and overlay ads and ads with automated video and sound. Take a look at the other advice laid out by the Acceptable Ads Standard.
If you view ad blockers as a challenge rather than an obstacle, you could find that you produce ads of a much higher quality than more people see and help drive conversions your way.
What’s the Future for Ad Blocking?
Ad blockers are thriving, especially against ads on general web pages. However, there are wide expectations for the status quo to change soon – which is good news for marketers.
Recently, popular YouTube ad blocking SaaS provider YouTube Vanced announced the closure of its operations. The news came after Google issued a cease and desist order to the company for their activities. Not wanting to embroil themselves in a drawn-out legal battle with the web giants, the app makers decided to pull the plug.
The move by Google has effectively knocked off a major ad blocker facility. However, they may not be able to enjoy such success with other related app providers. Nonetheless, some marketers believe ad blockers have reached their peak, and the only way forward is down for these facilities.
Overall, ad blockers will still be around in the short term. However, what’ll happen in the medium and long run is still up for discussion.
5 Innovative Ways To Reach Audience With Your Message
Below are alternative marketing solutions to scale up your sales.
- Influencer Marketing
One of the biggest reasons people use ad blockers is that most ads they see are irrelevant. You’re not particularly doing anything wrong. However, the customers don’t want a boring advertisement distracting them from their skits or tutorial videos.
One excellent alternative is influencer marketing. This strategy is as simple as getting endorsements or recommendations from internet public figures. You’ll get influencers to feature and advertise your products in their posts and interactions with their followers.
As followers have already subscribed to an influencer’s account, they are automatically more open to any products they promote and will be more likely to spend time viewing your ad.
- Social Ads
Most ad blockers are browser extensions, so they’re only effective in the browsers. Therefore, social media ads are an excellent way to bypass ad blockers if you intend to stick with your pre-set marketing strategies.
Make sure you take the time to identify who you want your ads to reach and choose the right platform for them. There’s no point in advertising on Facebook if you can find your target audience on Instagram.
Include high-quality images and stay true to your branding as you would with all your other types of marketing. By being cohesive across your advertising, you’ll be able to strengthen your image and increase brand recognition.
Continue to monitor the performance of your social media ads to help you get the best ROI. The number of views, clicks, and conversions are just a few of the things worth collecting data on.
- Traditional Advertising
While the world has shifted most digital marketing strategies to the internet, the old way remains faithful. Running commercials on TV stations and in print media still works, albeit the results are not as effective as before. Nonetheless, you’ll reach a group of audiences who’ll be less likely to tune out your ads.
TV, print, or radio audiences can’t choose to skip or block your ads. Instead, they can only change the station or flip the page. And that usually only happens when the viewer has no interest in the show on TV or radio.
- In-app Marketing
A few of the more popular ad blockers can still block social ads when you visit the platform from a web browser. However, they’re not as proficient at it with in-app ads. There’s a great margin for error, and you can leverage it by displaying ads on mobile apps.
Be selective about the apps you choose. They must be appropriate to the product/service you are advertising and the demographic you’re hoping to reach.
- Content Marketing
You can take two approaches to content marketing. The first involves curating blog posts, articles, and other content to drive SEO and increase customer interaction. This method also improves the chances of credible backlinks from sites that find your content relevant.
The other method involves using sponsored content to drive engagement with your offerings. As the name implies, you sponsor content by paying for its creation and posting on a particular platform. This method enables you to advertise your offerings on high-ranking websites, blogs, or news channels.
Other Channels To Explore for Your Campaign
Other options you can leverage include:
Email Campaigns
The thing about email marketing campaigns is they’re often neither intrusive nor unwanted. That’s unless you obtained the customer’s email address without their consent. However, in most cases, it’d be the customers that voluntarily signed up to receive messages from you.
Like operating a call center for small businesses, it’s a better marketing strategy for following up on leads interested in your offerings. In addition, it often works better than paid ads because you’ll be advertising to a group of people who already have a specific level of interest in your product.
Interactive Ads
Interactive ads are more effective in that they demand user engagement and interaction. They are less intrusive than generic popup ads and harness interactive media like videos, gifs, polls, and banners.
These can be a great way to interact with your audience but be careful to follow best practices regarding audio and video. As with all advertising, A/B testing can really be beneficial here to make sure your ads have the best possible impact.
Channels Your Audience Frequently Uses
If your ad is relevant to the social media pages, Telegram groups, YouTube shows, and other channels where your audience hangs out, they’re far less likely to block them.
You need to identify your audience first. Then, you can segment your ad campaigns so they’re more useful and relevant. Do your research and build a client persona. Some things to think about are age range, income, hobbies, and marital or family status.
By taking the time to really pin down who your target demographic, is you’ll be able to design an ad campaign that your potential clients will not only be able to see but will also want to engage with.
Don’t Put Your Marketing at the Mercy of Ad Blockers
Ad blockers are here, and they will be for the nearest future. But that doesn’t mean that your advertising needs to take a hit. You can continue to deliver valuable and informative advertising to your existing and potential clients despite ad blockers being in place.
Evaluate your current advertising campaigns and ensure that they are following all best practices to give your ads the best possible chance of being seen by your clients. Optimizing your advertising campaigns could make all the difference and could see you expanding your brand reach.
Take the time to really identify who your target audience is and explore other forms of advertising that’ll not only reach the right audience but which they’ll be willing to engage with. By advertising where your clients are, you’re sure to see an increase in conversions.
Check your website toolset. Maybe you’ve already got technology in place to help you avoid hurtful ad blocking. If you don’t, it’s time to do some research to see what’s out there.
Lastly, be upfront with your visitors. Let them know that their ad blocker can limit the rich value content on your site. They might be missing out!
You spent a lot of time designing fantastic ads to promote your product or service. It’s worthwhile going the extra mile to ensure your target audience gets to see them. Don’t let ad blockers get in the way of this happening.
This article’s featured image comes from Gerd Altmann on Pixabay
by Ahoy
