This week, Apple lifted the ban on ad blockers on Safari on the new iPhone. Mike Weston, CEO of data science consultancy Profusion, argues why this move threatens marketers, content producers and publishers.
On the face of it the lifting of limitations on ad blockers may seem like a minor change, however, it will have far reaching consequences for marketers and businesses that rely on advertising revenue.
The move could affect 25% of internet ads – an extraordinary number. Ad blockers have been growing at an extraordinary rate on desktops and other devices, one figure estimates that Google has already lost 10% of its revenue to ad blockers.
Now, with the current mobile advertising business model under threat, marketers and companies, particularly publishers, need to completely rethink their approach. Undoubtedly, the growth in ad blockers is driven by poorly targeted and intrusive advertising messages.
Better targeted, timed and thoughtful advertising may help slow the adoption of ad blockers, but in the end, the simple fact is that most people don’t like ads on their mobiles. One silver lining may be that marketing budgets will go a little further as people who are unresponsive to any form of advertising automatically opt-out with ad blockers.
The biggest casualty of this move is likely to be original content producers. Many producers only make a pittance from ad clicks and with this source of income squeezed further, it will inevitably lead to the end of a lot of free content online. This is not good news for internet users.