I share some data about ad and analytics blocking from 2017, and then discuss emerging trends in the ad industry. I finish with how publishers can respond. This is a talk I gave at Future of Media and Publishing meetup in London on 13 March 2018.

1. Pierre Far
hello@blockmetry.com
Understanding and responding to
content blocking
Future of Media & Publishing Meetup
13 March 2018

2. Founder, advisor, ex-Googler,
product manager, biologist
● twitter.com/pierrefar
● linkedin.com/in/pierrefar
● pierrefar.com
Hello :)
Unblockable GDPR-ready
web analytics
blockmetry.com | @blockmetry
hello@blockmetry.com
Website product management
consulting
deliberatedigital.com | @delibdigital
pierre@deliberatedigital.com

3. Data, context and strategy

4. Data

5. Blockmetry's data
● Blockmetry measures:
○ Ad blocking
○ Analytics blocking
● 100s of millions of measurements
○ Since Feb 2016
○ All devices
○ Worldwide traffic

6. General trends don't apply
equally to individual sites.

7. Key findings
● Every website and site section is unique
● Blocking rates vary by country
● Device classes and browsers on same device class have different behaviors
● Time of request is important:
○ Different blocking rates throughout the day
○ Holiday vs workday effect
● Pagespeed is…
● JS disabled rates vary materially worldwide

8. Day of week effect
Half term
school holiday
Half term
school holiday
Christmas
Work week
Weekend
Analytics blocking rate in UK, % pageviews by day, all devices, October 2016 - March 2017

9. Analytics blocking in 2017
● Worldwide: 8.5% of pageviews
● Regional variation:
○ Germany: 20%
○ France: 16%
○ US: 12%
○ Spain: 9%
○ UK: 7.5%
● +JS disabled traffic
Data: % non-bot pageviews with JavaScript enabled that did not load analytics tag, aggregate Blockmetry
customer data, all 2017, all devices. NB: Highly seasonal, and varies by weekday, device, and website.

10. Content blocking may slow browsers
● Slower:
○ Mobile! Both iPhones and Android
○ IE Edge on desktop
● Faster:
○ All other desktop browsers
Measured as 50th percentile of loading time reported by browser.

11. Website sections and homepages
● Every site's section is unique
○ Sites in the same industry are different
○ Sections of the same site are different
○ Homepage is different from rest of site

12. Context

13. Context
Anything that alters the user experience of a website by
blocking the loading, or hiding, or modifying in-transit
of resources on a webpage.
Anything that tracks and profiles user behavior to enable
ad targeting.
ISP &
local
network
Browsers &
extensions
Publisher
& ads
& analytics

14. Browsers

15. The ISP wildcard

16. Regulations
GDPR and ePR will affect how
networks, ad networks, and browsers
behave.
We already have two competing
implementation consent frameworks.

17. Strategic response

18. Realization 1
Networks' incentives are not aligned
with publishers' and user's needs.
They behave like ad networks, which
users don't like.
Net neutrality & regulations.

19. Realization 2
Browsers care about their users and
their experience.
They can be nurtured into allies.

20. Realization 3
The only defensible relationship is
between the publisher and the user.

21. What does this all mean?
● Own the relationship with your audience
○ It's the only defensible asset in the whole chain! It's the value exchange.
● Own the monetization of your relationship
○ Don't outsource it for pennies on the pound via someone else.
● Watch the ISPs, browsers/extensions, and regulations
○ It's about to get very interesting later this year.
● Realize you're losing data, not just money
○ You need to also respond to analytics blocking - not just ad blocking.

22. Thank you!
Unblockable GDPR-ready
web analytics
blockmetry.com | @blockmetry
hello@blockmetry.com
Website product management
consulting
deliberatedigital.com | @delibdigital
pierre@deliberatedigital.com