What do you do about Ad Blocking?

What do you do about Ad Blocking?
Ad-Blocking-stop-ad-tools-crakrevenue

Affiliate Marketing

Written by

Papa Whale

PUBLISHED ON

April 27, 2016

Category

Affiliate Marketing

CR_BLOG_605x300_WhatdoyoudoaboutAdBlocking

In 2015, a $22 billion net loss of revenue is believed to be attributed to AdBlock.  

Can it get worse than that?  You bet it can.

The number of users using AdBlock is constantly increasing.  Ad Blocking software and extensions are no longer restricted to the Desktop user; they have been spreading and making their way to Mobile devices for some time now.

With these trends in mind, it’s no wonder the Advertising industry has made AdBlockers its ultimate nemesis in 2016.

But no matter how big you think the state of the Advertising industry has become in the last decade—the major players in the AdBlocking world are from defenseless.

AdBlock Plus for instance—they just won yet another legal battle against a big-time German publisher.

So what’s an adult affiliate to do?  Well, there are a few avenues one can explore...

First, let’s understand why so many people are blocking ads

Not only can you not solve an issue until you acknowledge that there is one—one must really have a basic understanding of why AdBlock usage is so prevalent.

Among the most recurring reasons, a recent survey from Celtra tells us that consumers feel:

  • Ads lack relevance
  • Pages load slower due to advertising
  • Frustration due to poor & annoying ad placement
  • Their activity may be tracked

And most often, people feel that ads come at the expense of their overall user experience.

In other words, people with annoying, intrusive, non-targeted ads get the brunt of the blame for the rise of AdBlock in most cases.  

Measure AdBlock’s impact on your revenues

Even if you’re only displaying non-intrusive ads -- the truth is, that’s not going to change the fact that a large percentage of your visitors likely already have AdBlock enabled and won’t even notice.

Indeed, we at CrakRevenue have witnessed an average of 30-40% of all users using AdBlock while they navigate adult sites.  That’s a 30-40% loss of potential income for the average adult site owner!

Fortunately, there are some services out there that help you determine the exact percentage of site visitors who are using Ad Blocking extensions, like PageFair, for example.

Once you know how much of your traffic is not seeing your ads, it’s easier to estimate the cost Ad Blocking programs are having on your revenues based on your average conversion rate.

Depending on the height of the cost, you can then choose a passive or an aggressive solution.

Use passive solutions

This is the Gandhi-style way of fighting Ad Blocking programs: try to convert these visitors differently.

For example, the above mentioned PageFair program is proposing to display their own non-intrusive ads to your lost Ad-Blocking traffic. However this solution may not be the best fit for targeted adult traffic…

With this in mind, here are a few solutions we suggest you consider if you have a pacifist soul.

Collect their contact information

Instead of displaying your usual Advertisements, promote your own content.

In other words, ask your visitors if they’d like to subscribe to your newsletter (this can be done with a mail catcher) or give your visitors access to new content in exchange for their contact information.

If you have a wordpress site, you can alternate the content depending on the user thanks to this Ad-Blocking detector plugin.

These lists of leads may be really useful in the long run even if they don’t result in direct revenues right away.

Then there are other ways to collect data.

For example, Narcity Media asked their readers to login with Facebook to access their content Ad free. The data and demographics collected by way of Facebook is priceless when it comes to optimizing content, funnels, and, consequently - revenues.

Use ReviveAds

One additional, targeted solution to AdBlock-adult-traffic-monetization is to consider joining Traffic Haus’ “ReviveAds” program.

ReviveAds will help you maximize your revenue with a single-step implementation process that assures your ads make it through AdBlocking software undetected. 

Someone has AdBlock on and your advertisement is blocked? ReviveAds changes the advertisement that's blocked so it bypasses any filters and gets seen—and they take a percentage of the revenue earned with the new ad that has bypassed AdBlock.

Or, it might be time to get a little more aggressive

Have you tried the peaceful route and it simply isn’t cutting it anymore?  Well then, it might be time to consider these more aggressive solutions...

Like making your content unavailable

One way to make absolutely sure that all your ads will be seen is to deny access to visitors who are detected to have AdBlock enabled. You’re essentially giving them the ultimatum:  Disable AdBlock, or they can’t view your content like everyone else.

A recent study showed that more than half of all AdBlocker users would disable AdBlock to be able to read content.

While this approach can sound pretty appealing and efficient—the problem with this aggressive approach is you simply run the risk of the visitor leaving your website if they don’t care about your content as much as you thought they did.

Although it is strongly recommended to test this technique out on a small scale before implementing it because if 40% of your traffic doesn’t see your Ads because of AdBlock and you lose 50% of your visitors because of content access denial—it’s definitely not worth it.

The ol’ switcheroo (Domain Rotation)

One age-old trick to bypassing AdBlock domain blacklists is to routinely change the domain that’s being used to serve ads.

It’s a practice used by us and other networks worldwide; yep, we do it with the CrakRevenue link codes from time to time and you should too.

Sure, it may be one of the more aggressive approaches to combatting the domain blacklist issue -- but it’s also the most rewarding one.  

This solution isn’t the be-all and end-all, however.  

AdBlockers CAN and WILL still filter your other domains—especially if user-submissions are on point.  And when that happens, it won’t take long for those other URLs of yours to be flagged and blacklisted as the newest culprit.  

Using a unique URL

This approach allows you to bypass Ad Blockers by serving ads from a unique domain name -- separate from the website displaying the ads.  

This ensures that the domain name cannot be easily detected and therefore makes it more difficult for people wanting to add the URL to various block lists.

This approach doesn't cost anything to execute -- and best of all -- allows you to recoup some of the lost revenue from Ad Block users.

But as with all approaches, circumventing AdBlock can come with a risk.  

When ads continue to display, there are situations where a visitor may complain to the AdBlock maker. This can lead your site to greater scrutiny and additional, more specific and elaborate blocks.

Just something to be mindful of..

It’s WAR!

The war between publishers, Ad Blocking users and Ad Block makers is far from over since all sides are continually developing new strategies and weapons to combat this ever-changing landscape—and they all seem to be fighting each other at just about the same speed.

For example, while the BlockAdBlock program has entered its beta stage—people who LOVE using AdBlocker and are passionate about it have developed their own creation—the Anti-AdBlock Killer. Anti-AdBlock Killer uses all sorts of trickery to mask the fact that people really are in fact using AdBlocker extensions & addons.

In this battlefield, it’s imperative to make sure to choose the right level of defense to keep your revenues safe.

And - as you all know - war can actually be pretty profitable if you know how to make the most of it!

So therefore, make sure to choose the strategy that aligns with your needs. Once you do, get ready to recoup some of that lost revenue!

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