Dive Brief:
- In a debate that encompasses every player in digital advertising about ad blocking technology, publishers lose revenue with each blocked ads. They have now pointed out a source for the issue – ad agencies that are creating large ads filled with tracking devices that cause publishers’ webpages to load slowly.
- In a Wall Street Journal report, some publishers have even accused agencies of creating these oversized, non-user-friendly digital ads and delivering them with no time for publishers to take any action.
- The crux of the publishers’ argument, the Journal explains, is that slow loading webpages are a major reason why visitors are increasingly turning to ad blocking software.
Dive Insight:
Ad blocking hits publishers’ bottom lines immediately by simply removing their ad inventory from their visitors’ experience on the webpage. At the same time recent research from Pressboard on the top North American publishers found that only 3.2% – eight out the 250 – actively addressed ad block tech usage by their visitors.
About publishers pushing back against ad agencies, Tim Mahlman, AOL’s president of publisher platforms, told the Wall Street Journal. “We are at a crossroads. People are pointing the finger back at us, yet the advertisers are [always] wanting to push the envelope on creative. There has to be a common ground. Can we do killer ads not at the cost of turning people away?”
Even though the Interactive Advertising Bureau is still sorting out its stance on ad block tech, last October Scott Cunningham, senior VP-technology and ad operations at the IAB, may have hit on the core reason behind the software’s proliferation. "As technologist, tasked with delivering content and services to users, we lost track of the user experience,” he said, adding, "We messed up. Looking back now, our scraping of dimes may have cost us dollars in consumer loyalty."
