Poland is among top countries with the most number of Internet users that block ads. They use different software without any consequences. However, the situation begins to change. Polish publishers go to war with adblocks and restrict content for people who use them.
The power of AdBlock
Adblock is an plug installed on the browsers, which is intended to block ads view on pages. Besides to the well-known Internet users Adblock and Adblock Plus, there are other programs that prevent ads, including AdFender, uBlock, Ad Muncher. According to the Statista.com report, in 2015 Adblock was used by 198 million people around world. That’s about 41% compared to 2014.
In terms of number of AdBlock users, Polish internet dominate in statistics. In 2016, more than 42% of ads in Poland was blocked. The following places were: England almost 40%, Germany 31.63% and United States with 31.63%. According to the survey, the main reason why users choose to install adblock is the way in which the advertisements are displayed. Formats are intrusive, among others, layer ads with a difficult way to turn them off or minimize, as well as ads with default sound. The sites that are expose to adblock plug are pages from games, social media, technology and the internet, education, sports, finance and automotive category.
Who is losing on blocking?
The effects of the growing number of AdBlock users fall on publishers. Only in 2015 losses from blocking advertisements amounted almost 22 billion! Publishers largely depend on advertising income. Of this title publisher pay servers, editors and other additional costs of maintaining the site. If the number of users who blocks advertising surpasses those who do not, web pages are beginning to block the site content. It justified the action, when service offers a unique content not available on other sites.
For one of our partners from entertainment industry, we pursued similar campaign. The first step was to measure the level of blocking. Then, to users with an installed plug we send request for shutdown the AdBlock. When the action did not bring the desired effect, we made a more radical step – cut off from the content of the site. Then the number of pageviews from advertising increased by almost 40 percent, which increased revenues site.
The situation with AdBlock perfectly demonstrates that the advertising market requires changes. It is necessary to educate Internet users, who need to understand that advertising is the main source of livelihoods of most pages. For publishers it is a sign that some sites display too much ads or advertisements are too invasive. Both, publishers and users should respect each other. Maybe, at that time change can be made.
