Tips For Dealing With AdBlock Users
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| Image by Joseph Mucira from Pixabay |
Users of such ad blockers, on the other hand, feel annoyed by too much advertising and generally find websites without advertising to be nicer and easier to read.
In this article, I will go into how many AdBlock users there are, whether they are a problem, and how they should be dealt with.
How Many Readers Use AdBlocker?
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| Tips For Dealing With AdBlock Users |
Quite a while ago I linked statistics showing the prevalence of ad blockers. At that time the numbers fluctuated quite strongly and values between 5 and 25% were measured. Occasionally even more.
In the past time, the number of AdBlock users has certainly not decreased, although that also depends heavily on the target group. There are user groups who are very active and like to install such plugins, while others are not even aware of such possibilities or who do not care.
Still, many website owners sweat when they think about how many of their readers may be using an ad blocker.
And this worry is not entirely unjustified. I can understand some of the Internet users. Unfortunately, many websites overdo it with advertising and, above all, annoy their readers.
Advertising pop-ups, glancing banners, banderole banners, expanding banners when you move over them, and much more generally create a distraction while reading and thus meet with rejection from the reader. In addition, there are often too many banners and the banner content often does not fit at all. If they at least fit thematically to the content of the website.
In the past, many website operators simply pushed it too far and prepared the ground for the widespread use of ad blockers.
On the other hand, it is sometimes very annoying that some Internet users don't care whether a website survives financially or has to shut down. After all, there are many hobby sites, but also very popular, professionally operated sites that depend on the income.
Here one would like a little more understanding that not everyone can work for free in their free time and provide free web content.
I don't want to go into the AdBlock Plus topic in any more detail at this point, but you can see very clearly that this is also about money and not about a good deed.
Is AdBlockers A Problem?
To find out how many AdBlock users are on your website, you can use a WordPress plugin, for example. It's called Blockalyzer and it's pretty simple to use.
After activation, all website visits are analyzed and a count is made of how many of them were carried out with activated AdBlocker.
In the evaluation of the tool, you will then see a percentage that indicates the proportion of AdBlocker users. There are also comparative values (overall and in your industry) that show whether you are doing better or worse than the average.
If you let the plugin collect data for a while, you get a very good feeling about whether AdBlockers are a problem. Incidentally, the tool's “general benchmark” shows that 18% of all website visitors have activated an ad blocker.
But are the users of such ad blockers a problem?
Well, at least in part, but not as much as some claim.
As I described in my article Why you have 50% more traffic than you think, such AdBlockers partially block the statistical recording and therefore do not appear in website statistics at all.
This means that, for example, 20% of AdBlock users need not mean that 20% of the visitors to a website recorded according to Google Analytics also use such a blocker. This is because not all AdBlock users are included in the visitor numbers recorded.
These traffic figures, which you give to your advertisers, for example, have already been partially adjusted for the AdBlock users, even if not all of them, of course.
However, it is a problem that the loading of the VGword counting pixels is partially prevented. This is not a disturbing advertisement because these tracking pixels cannot be seen at all. As an author from VGWort, you only get money for an article that has received a certain number of hits in a calendar year, blocking the tracking pixel results in lost income.
The bottom line is that some AdBlock users have a negative attitude towards advertising, even if it is appropriate and rather unobtrusive advertising on reputable websites. These users would not click on the advertisement even if it were visible. So these are not a loss.
The bottom line is that website operators have lost revenue through the use of ad blockers. But I don't think that these are as high as is repeatedly suggested.
Measures Against AdBlock Users
If you still want to do something, you have various options.
Block Out AdBlock Users
A drastic possibility would be the general lockout of AdBlock users. With the help of plugins or manual solutions on the code, you can ensure that users can only see the website after deactivating AdBlock Plus and Co.
Everyone has to decide for themselves whether this variant is so good. Denying access to readers in general if they do not deactivate the blocker results in less traffic and certainly scares off users who set a link or, for example, share their article on the social web.
Just because a reader does not want to be shown any advertising does not mean that they are unimportant.
Request Deactivation
The variant of asking your readers to deactivate the blocking is much more humane. With AdBlock Plus and other tools of this kind, you can do this for individual pages, for example.
So many news websites ask the AdBlocker for your site readers off. With some of the readers, this will certainly also be fruitful if you find the right arguments.
But it will only work for some of the users.
Replace Banner Advertising
Some plugins replace blocked advertising with other advertising content, e.g. affiliate links. For example, there are services specially optimized for AdSense that replace blocked AdSense blocks with their advertisements.
A very good variant in my opinion. It would of course be nicer if there were even more alternatives.
Change Of The Banner URLs
A short-term solution is to regularly change the URL to your banners.
The current blocking list can be found on adblockplus.org. There you can also see what exactly is being blocked.
As a rule, there are certain terms such as “advertising”, “banners” and the like. On the other hand, specific subdirectories of certain websites.
When naming your banners you should get creative and change the banner folder now and then.
WordPress plugins and Co. against AdBlocker
As I said before, many WordPress plugins help with the measures against AdBlock users.
- Adblock Blocker
The plugin shows a customizable notice when someone uses an AdBlocker. So you could, for example, ask to deactivate the AdBlocker. - Better Stop Adblock
This plugin offers a few more options. This means that the website in question is not even loaded and you can make the note even clearer with a picture, for example. - dSero Anti AdBlock For Google AdSense
- A special plugin that replaces blocked AdSense blocks with affiliate links.
Alternatively, you can have a code generated on stopadblock.org, for example, which can be built into your site and ensures that the user is either blocked entirely or only informed.
In addition, instructions on how to deactivate AdBlock Plus for a website can be linked here.
On the one hand, you can measure how many are using an AdBlocker and you can also inform AdBlock users that they should please deactivate them.
However, this service is not entirely free.
This explains how you can recognize AdBlocker and gives ideas about what you could do then.
Should You Block AdBlock Users?
Finally, I would like to reiterate whether it is a good idea to completely block AdBlock users.
I'm against it for the following reasons:
- AdBlock users are also human readers who leave comments, set links, and, if necessary, share content on social networks.
- Many AdBlock users do not even know that they can deactivate the blocking of advertising for individual websites. A quick hint might help here.
- In addition to banner advertising, there are many other ways to make money. And AdBlock users can click on affiliate links or buy a product.
Just because someone uses an ad blocker does not mean it is unimportant.
Conclusion
As a website/blog operator who lives from his pages, it is of course annoying for me too when individual readers think that I don't need to earn any money.
Nevertheless, I consider it important to be respectful. In addition, there will always be people who will not allow you the money and you do not need to try to convert them somehow.
If you run an Internet project that offers readers added value and a positive user experience, the number of blockers will be limited.
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