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In an article by the New York Times , Facebook representatives was quoted as saying
ad blockers were “certainly bad for the publications who are robbed of half of the value exchange between users and publishers.”
From a publisher standpoint, the issue of lost revenue is a very valid one as the writers who compose for these sites are not to be expected to work for free and there is cost associated with hosting a Website.
The argument that Ad Blocking technology is a bad thing is very much valid, but then again so is the argument as to why users have turned to Ad Blocking software. Those arguments include, but are not limited to the following items
- Website Advertising slows down a site's load time
- Auto playing Video advertising is annoying
- Many Advertising platforms have become conduits for Malware
- Advertising is not relevant to the user even though it's considered "targeted"
So lets take a look at each of these and the possible solutions that could be put in place to address them.
First, Website Advertising slowing down a Site's load time. this is very much an issue. The issue, however is not only the speed of how fast a Site loads, but where it loads from. When a Website loads, it puts out calls to other servers in many cases due to content being hosted on a remote location. Remote location calls means that the Website has to pull information in from multiple sources and thus uses more data to request info and leads to a slow down on delivery.
The answer to this, at least on Websites where the infrastructure is in place so a company host on their own servers is to create a in house Advertising department. Advertising is hosted on the same server as the Website instead of being called on from else where.
In analog terms, think of it like this. Would you read a magazine that goes "Oh, hold on a second, I need to run to the newsstand on 4th avenue for that Ad even though your magazine is physically located on 24th avenue" ?
Next on the list of arguments is that Auto playing Video advertising is annoying. And it is! How many of us have been hit with a blasting full video ad for something not even related to the actual Website we have gone to? I'd be willing to bet that there is not a one of us who hasn't. Web Publishers have actually been on the ball in this aspect as many websites have taken to loading the video muted or suspended until clicked on.
Malware! This is a big one, but actually it can be handled for larger companies with the same solution as Website load time. Hire an in house marketing department which works hand in hand with your in house Social Media and Information Technologies departments to ensure that Advertising being served up to customers is free of potential Malware.
And finally, relevant adverting. Lets face it, We've all been there, We search for product on a retail site or go to a travel site etc looking for information and then for days/weeks/months that little cookie deposited by the Website reports back to the Advertising engine on multiple Websites and our search ends up following us around the Web in a annoyingly pestering manor of "Hey buy Me"
After seeing the same ad on 10 or more Websites a day, the end user gets annoyed and activates their blocking software. Was the ad targeted to the user based on something they were seeking out? yes, but here's the problem
SMART PLATFORM DUMB ADVERTISING
Let that sink in for a second. We are on a platform that is smart enough to know We went to Amazon and searched out, maybe even purchased, a widget. After that though the dumb advertising kicks in. Advertising served up after the search is not complimentary to the original search, instead it is simply "oh hey you searched this once so here's a reminder that it's out there"
Online advertising needs to be overhauled with an algorithm that works along the line of this
Customer A searches Item 1
|
Does Customer A Purchase?
|
YES-----------------------NO
| |
serve up complementary products serve up ad for searched item
Of course the problem with deploying this algorithm is that it gets affected by the issue of consumer privacy. So long as the information the advertising is using to target ads is the cookie that says Customer A searched Google for Item 1 advertising platforms can not offer up complementary products to a potential purchase without knowing that said purchase has been made.
In other words Amazon (or any other company) would have to understand that their ads for complementary products could only show on Websites where the user is logged in using their site ID and it would have to be disclosed to the user that their purchase history is being shared with the advertising platform.
So, there you have it readers, from My viewpoint the arms race between ads and ad blocking technology has actual ways to potentially evolve into something welcome for all parties involved, but the key is things need to evolve and that is going to take time for the companies serving ads to build enough trust with end users so that the end user feels safe and ok with the advertising they see.
