Adblock success: the ads blockers
The success of Adblocks cannot be considered as an epiphenomenon anymore. In 2015, they increased by 41 % and today, it is almost 200 million people who browses the Internet without seeing any advertising implemented by the brands. Whether it is good or bad is not the subject of today’s debate.
Nonetheless, this fact reveals a ground swell which had already been evoked: advertising is annoying and I understand why. When reading an online article, do you appreciate to be bothered by an ad which invades suddenly your screen and in most cases, that has no link with your personal interests? I don’t. That’s why I often recommend to avoid these intrusive formats. I interviewed several people using AdBlock and two points systematically come up in the collected answers. Don’t be fooled! These two points are not linked to a mistrust of the advertising system, an excessive tracking or Anti-consumerism. If they were, those softwares would not be as successful.
These two points are:
- ” After visiting a website I was fed up with seeing always the same pair of shoes… especially one that I already bought. “
- ” The ads I was seeing were ugly, stupid and not relevant…“
While hearing those various answers I realized that AdBlock makes a fantastic job of marketing cleansing.
Let’s focus on two points:
Retargeting is like salt
Retargeting is a fantastic tool, it enables to build-up the relationship between a brand and its customers but certain brands or agencies use it without dosing it. An absence of capping will make the brand intrusive instead of caring and you will eventually obtain the opposite of the intended effect. Think of cooking with salt : a pinch of salt will enhance the taste of a dish, thus you will remember it. On the other hand, too much salt and you will not be able to even guess what was in the plate, it will only leave a bitter memory.
If we put a maximum number of views and space out the moments of retargeting, the results will be much better, we know it. Of course, it requires a little more management time.
Advertising if you don’t have anything to say, just shut up!
An ad has to tell a story, offer a universe, be varied and convey a message. Thus, as you will have understood a sausage and its purchase price is not a message, it is an information.
When people will say “Did you see the latest ad? It is great!”, the one who installed Adblocker will begin to uninstall it. For that purpose, agencies and brands have to listen to the end-user, that is to say the web user. Saying that he/she is at the center, is only a pious hope if we don’t read datas that show what the user likes and dislikes.
What is Adblock?
They are easy to install softwares which disable ads display. These softwares kill the advertising income, which is often the only income of those who publish free content.
If advertisers proposed real content to the persons potentially interested in these subjects, the number of Adblock installations would not be as important. In the end, it is a good indicator of the advertisers’ work quality.