A tech vendor has pegged the percentage of users who currently block news publishers’ ads on mobile devices at 8% to 15%.
Attention-grabbing headlines a few years ago claimed that ad blockers would destroy the internet by making advertising obsolete.
But as reported by Digiday, the idea of mobile ad blocking is no longer seen as such a giant threat. It’s instead seen as a fairly low-level nuisance – the big threats have never really come to fruition.
How come the problem has never fully arisen?
There are a few reasons. Firstly, publishers earn less money from ads on smaller screens.
Online ads are also now much more interesting and versatile than they once were, which has improved the user experience.
But perhaps most importantly, it’s because ad blockers are harder to install on mobile devices than they are on laptops and desktops:
A tech vendor has pegged the percentage of users who currently block news publishers’ ads on mobile devices at 8% to 15%. In 2019 separate studies by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Association of Online Publishers estimated mobile ad-block rates of 8% and 2.4%, respectively.
Surprisingly, ad-blocking rates on desktop sites sit at only around 20%, having previously been as high as 30%.
But even if users don’t manually install ad blockers on their mobile devices, browser changes and data protection policies can perform the same duties as ad blockers, preventing unwanted ads from appearing on users’ screens.
Are different platforms affected in different ways?
Yes. Gaming sites, for example, have many pop-ups, and therefore experience a higher rate of pop-up blocking. It’s also important to note that much of time spent on mobile devices is actually via interacting with apps, rather than using browsers.
It’s estimated that 57% of users’ time on mobile devices in spent in-app – and the most popular devices for ad-blocking software installations actually have the lowest amount of time spent with them.
How much more lucrative is desktop advertising compared to mobile advertising?
This is an important consideration:
The cost per thousand impressions for desktop ads could be £25 ($32.63), compared with £8 ($10.44) on mobile devices, said Adam Gilsenan, chief revenue officer for Rezonence.
Because of this disparity, marketers are more concerned with their impressions over desktop devices. That said, it’s estimated that UK publishers lost around $2.6 million each as a result of ad blocking on both mobile and desktop devices.
What does this mean for publishers and advertisers?
“This evolution of ad blocking means publishers need to implement strategies to ensure sustainable monetization is achievable, whether that’s through capturing identity, encouraging logged-in users, or finding ways to comply and protect user data while still delivering the best experience possible, personalized to individual preferences”
It’s therefore clear that publishers and advertisers – although the huge predicted crash hasn’t arrived – still need to keep rethinking and reinventing their advertising strategies across all platforms. Including on mobile devices.