Here we are, winning against the intrusive advertising game with the wonderful saviour of ad block.
We finally had one up as the consumer! I guess we all knew they’d find a way to try and make us eradicate it or ensure they earn their advertising revenue in a different form.
Recently I was browsing through different online stories and I clicked into an article published by Mirror, a UK online tabloid. I have ad block running constantly, and as you can see quite effectively. 13 ads blocked after visiting 3 websites.
Then this banner popped up at the bottom of my screen:
This is the first time I have seen such a stance taken against ad blockers. I have seen a few websites recognise that I am using it and kindly suggest for me to stop using it so I can experience all their content (yeah right!). But this stance of saying “un block us so we can make our money by providing you with ads” or “pay us money to access our content without ads” is quite new to me in the online article world.
Spotify have implemented a similar business model and have it working quite effectively for them. But they don’t have the enemy of ad block that internet websites are faced with. I can’t help but imagine how effective this new model would be for Mirror? I understand that they’re probably willing to try anything to ensure they receive that now missing revenue ($$$ are key after all). But I merely closed their website and went searching for what I was reading somewhere else. After all, they’re reporting on news stories – typically the same article can be found in multiple sources.
Perhaps other online article websites will be seeing this and implementing it into their digital marketing tactics, leaving us with no choice but to subscribe to a website to receive our content. Or this will just ensure their readership numbers plummet as everyone merely moves on to one of their competitor’s.
Have you guys experienced this before – were you like me and just switched website, or is it something you would consider signing up to? Do you have other suggestions about how online articles could make up for the revenue lost in ad blocking?
Mary's Marketing Magic 
Usually when I run into this roadblock, just like you, I just switch sites, but recently I’ve started seeing this on websites I really like and frequent. Guess there really is no winning in the war against ads.
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I don’t run adblock personally, but I don’t put up with obnoxious ads or paywalls. Chances are that whatever I want from a website can be found elsewhere, and that’s where I will find it if they choose to overstep boundaries.
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I think there are a lot of consumers like you. Marketers need to be aware about the line to cross with advertising. I understand they need revenue from some option, but at what point does their product or content stop getting across. How do you feel about ads on social media? Presuming you’re an active user on social media.
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Websites that were previously free – or offering information that can be found elsewhere for free – are feeling the brunt of adblock. In the case of a news websites, consumers have learned to expect that they will have ready access to the articles as that’s what it has always been like. Now that websites are putting up more effective paywall barriers consumer behavior is starting to change. Of course the real question is whether the subscriptions that they will be generating are sufficient to match up with what the ad dollars were previously.
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Absolutely agree with you, the world of news is a turmoil filled road at the moment. It will be interesting to see how it continues to survive…and in what format!
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