I did talk about Ad Blocking what it's about, and how it impacts publishers and advertisers.

1. Hi There…
Amanda Louw
Head of Publisher & Business Development
AdClick Africa Media Group
www.adclickafrica.com
amanda@adclickafrica.com
Amanda Louw
Happy_Ginger

2. So…What do you do?

3. Ads are what make the
World Wide Web go round.

4. In case you haven’t noticed (although I’m sure all of us in this room are well
aware of) Online ads are what make the WWW go round.
The internet wouldn’t be what it is today, without online advertising to fund it.
It funds everything from FB, Twitter, YouTube, News24, IOL as well as your
favourite blogs & apps.
Google gets 90% of its revenue from ads, and up to 75% of its mobile
advertising revenue comes from iOS!
Ads are what make the
WWW go round.

5. Ad Blocking

6. Today’s presentation is about Ad Blocking, the impact and effects it has
on publishers and advertisers.
Essentially, ad blocking is rife, because there’s a need for it.
Have any of you ever not felt irritated, annoyed by all the malware
infested and intrusive ads?
Ad Blocking.

7. Oh No She
Didn’t!

8. Ad Blocking is very much a controversial topic to discuss, particularly in
our industry.
It’s certainly not one of the most popular topics to discuss.
But sometimes we have to talk about the unpopular topics, as they can
be just as important (if not more so) than the popular ones.
Unpopular.

9. One of the most pressing problems that
publishers don’t like to talk about.
Ad blocking has gone from a fringe issue to a
mainstream concern that’s having an impact
on publishers’ bottom lines
It’s
Taboo
Ssh! We
don’t talk
about that!
Ad Blocking

10. Ad Blocking is very much regarded as a taboo topic to discuss in our industry.
When I told 1 of my publishers that I was giving a talk about ad blocking the first
thing he said to me was “Oh we don’t talk about that!”
Ask yourself:
When last did you talk about ad blocking? Have you given it much thought at all?
Who do you discuss it with?
Most of you probably answered: no, not much, not at all, or just since you got the
invite to this event.
I myself have never spoken or read up about this topic since I was asked just 2
weeks ago to give a talk on it!
(And I’ve been in digital ad business for several years!)
Taboo.

11. “Ad blockers are to the
Web what spam filters
were to e-mail, only now
the stakes are higher.”

12. Just look at the web search rankings over the past 10 years. It shows
a steady climb, especially between 2013-2014.
And the so are the downloads….

13. 21 million active users in 2010
To
144 million active users in 2014
Expected 236 million active
users by end of 2015
200
100
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

15. Probably the most popular Ad Blocking tool, is Ad Block Plus.
Ad Blocking has been around for over 10 years, but was mostly known to the “geeky” &
“techy” population.
Over the years, we can se it’s popularity has now sky rocketed. Mostly thanks to word of
mouth & the realization of how easy it is to use.
• ABP has over 144 mill users since last year .
• Over 200 mill downloads for Firefox browser .
• Recently approx. 50 mill mobile app downloads for Android.
• Just released their own browser for Android in May this year.
Mostly as a result of the increasingly annoying and malware infested ads we find on mobile.
It blocks everything from cookies, 3rd party tracking, FB ads, pop ups, noisy video ads that
auto starts and YouTube pre-rolls!
Ad Block Plus.

17. The Battle
Advertisers &
Publishers
Consumers
vs

18. What rights do publishers & advertisers have?
In what many people regard as a litmus test for the advertising industry, a
German court ruled against 2 major German publications that sued Ad Block
Plus for illegal & anti-competitive practice.
However, the court found in favour of the consumer, saying they have the
right to switch ads off if they want to.
The media industry argue that publishers & advertisers should have rights too,
and believe that ad blocking is akin to theft!
But what steps do we need to take now to address ad blocking?
The Battle

19. Most apps in the app stores are free. And their main source of income is either
advertising or in-app purchases.
A clear sign that consumers are not used to or necessarily willing to pay for apps.

21. iOS 9 . Apple’s content-blocking features for the next version of iOS are a big
deal.
Because they can do real damage not just to Google—its chief rival—but to
the commercial underpinnings of the Web.
Apple isn’t blocking ads itself. But they’ve done the next best (or worst) thing:
They’ve given developers easy-to-use tools to build better, faster and more
efficient ad blockers.
“I suspect there are going to hundreds if not thousands of ad blockers in the
App Store from day one”
“It’s going to be a massive rush, because they’re just so easy to make.”
iOS 9

22. And now?
So what can we do?
- Keep quiet, hoping it goes away, and doesn’t affect us?
- Beg & plead users / consumers to not bock ads…
- Perhaps we need to be more creative & work harder
towards enforcing and implementing all the best practices
for digital advertising & monetization

23. More visually engaging
than standard banners
Better CTRs
Less Intrusive
Be more contextual
Safe from Ad Blocking
(for now)
Native Advertising

25. Native Advertising Simplified

26. You can find out how many of your users are blocking ads by signing up to
pagefair.com

27. Thank You!
www.adclickafrica.com
amanda@adclickafrica.com
Amanda Louw
Happy_Ginger