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Does Ad Blocking Affect Your Business?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the if-I-wanted-to-see-'em-I-wouldn't-block-'em dept.

yocto wonders: "From the individual's point of view we already know why you block adverts, but not from a business perspective. What is the impact on your business when your company's ads are blocked by using an ad blocker or a script blocker? How is your company's exposure or revenue affected by this? Is it still worth your effort to make use of online ads?"

7 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. I wouldn't worry by celardore · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, it is still useful for business to utilise online advertising. Take AdWords for instance, you pay only for clicks through to your site. Users that block ads aren't likely to be the ones clicking the advertisements, and you don't pay for them. I'd say it doesn't affect business, it's probably better actually - you don't pay for visitors that aren't going to be interested.

    Abandoning an online advertisement strategy because some people block them is like deciding against billboards because some people are blind.

    1. Re:I wouldn't worry by Fyre2012 · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I completely agree with you, and also find it interesting to notice the shift in paradigm with regard to people's attitudes towards online advertising.

      It's interesting to know that only a few short years ago, the usefullness of advertising, in a receptive sense for business, was non existant. There was only spam. People were clamoring how useless it is and how we must block it from corporate networks, etc.
      Here today we praise this technology.
      Now, with 'targeted' advertising, the exposure to an array of new possibilities is created which can potentially enhance the viewer's business strategy. Reaching niche markets is really possible thanks to this sort of technology. People are able to get the unique tools they need to achieve their business and personal goals, thanks to things that they may never have heard of otherwise.

      Jeez, i never thought in the early days of the Internet that i'd ever be thankful for, or could find a use for, any form of advertising.

      --
      This is not the greatest .sig in the world, no. This is just a tribute.
  2. forced ad serves? by fred+fleenblat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hate to put ideas in their heads but if companies really cared about making sure their ads are seen, I'm sure there is a way on the backend to check that a browser at least requests the ad from the server before delivering the content part of the page. I don't mean interstitials, I mean as the page is loading, the server checks that you've requested banner.gif before it gives you all the paragraphs in the article.

    With css or javascript/DOM you can even position the text/ads however you like regardsless of the order they are downloaded.

    Obviously, one could write a browser plug-in that faked a banner ad request, but you've at least taken away the download-speedup incentive part of the motivation for ad-blocking.

  3. Why not ask CowboyNeal? by Mistshadow2k4 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Most Slashdotters are knowledgable enough to use ad-blockers with a browser like Firefox. Have you heard anything about CowboyNeal going broke?

    --
    I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
  4. I wouldn't worry-discrimmination. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "I'd say it doesn't affect business, it's probably better actually - you don't pay for visitors that aren't going to be interested."

    Since ad blocking software isn't that discerning. One can't say that they're not interested in what one is offering. Only that one is not interested in ads from a given url. This is a similiar problem to what software like nannywatch face. What is acceptable and what isn't and getting it right 100% of the time.

    1. Re:I wouldn't worry-discrimmination. by fotbr · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The point is that people who go out of their way to avoid ads (ie, by using adblock or whatever) are the same people who wouldn't click on them ANYWAY.

      From a business point of view, its a non-issue since they weren't going to get that person anyway.

      From the consumer point of view, they're not blocking specific types of ads, they're blocking ALL adds (or at least as many as they can) -- thats their goal, and adblock and the like are pretty good at it.

  5. Re:It does not because almost nobody uses bugmenot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "I don't want something for nothing. I'm quite happy to pay for my purchases, thank you."

    Is that why BugMeNot is so unpopular on slashdot? Every NYT article is GUARENTEED to have a BugMeNot link posted.

    Uh, BugMeNot only provides login details for free websites. If they find any logins for paid accounts, they remove them.

    Hint: the NYT does not charge for its articles. It merely demands personal information.

    I have no objection to paying for things I buy. I do not see how not wanting to give (usually fake) personal details to a billion different websites counts as getting something for nothing. If they want me to pay, all they have to do is ask for money.