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Ad Blockers Devastating Websites Warns Ars Founder
In a recent blog post Ken Fisher of online tech website Ars Technica explained how ad blockers are devastating much loved websites by denying content hosts invaluable online advertising revenue.
The post has prompted significant online discussion, as experts weigh in on the issue of ad blockers and how best to monetise online content.
The argument form Mr Fisher is relatively straightforward: not all advertising revenue comes from a pay-per-click basis, developers who host adverts on their websites are often paid for each view an ad impression receives rather than how many times an advert is actually clicked on.
As Mr Fisher explained: “There is an oft-stated misconception that if a user never clicks on ads, then blocking them won’t hurt the site financially. This is wrong... If you have an ad blocker running, and you load 10 pages on the site, you consume resources from us (bandwidth being only one of them), but provide us with no revenue.”
In an analogy of a restaurant, Mr Fisher likened a user with ad blockers to a diner who ate but then refused to pay for their meal. The post has fuelled further debate about the nature of free content and online advertising.
Econsultancy blogger Patricio Roubles argued that the fact people were using ad blockers suggested sites like Ars Technica needed to rethink their online strategy and business model. “Instead of pleading with reader to turn off ad blockers so that Ars can get paid... perhaps Ars should be pushing its subscription offering harder.”
The problem with pushing subscriptions is that there is a real danger of also pushing away readers who can find their information elsewhere for free. Online music streaming service Spotify has the right idea by offering music for free with adverts every few minutes, whilst offering a subscription service for those users who want music without adverts.
Where Spotify triumphs but Ars fails is that ad blockers cannot prevent Spotify’s audio ads from interrupting music. Mr Fisher and co. are right to feel hard done by. If users wish to receive quality content for free, then they should accept the ads that come as a necessary part of that free content. By using ad blockers, users are unfairly having their cake and eating it.
Online Advertising news posted by Scott Tickner on 09 March 2010
