If you’ve been on the net for some time, you may have heard of Adblock, a browser add on that allows you to protect yourself or rid your browsing experience of advertisements. No doubt that for many producers both large and small, advertisement revenue can be a very profitable revenue stream in addition to helping consumers find new content that they otherwise may not have considered. Here’s the issue at hand, you have to work off the assumption that Adblock was created as a countermeasure to invasive, intrusive and outright unsafe (queue viruses and malware) advertisements that were clogging the end user experience. You also have to work off the assumption that there is so much bandwidth a computer can take and certain advertisements can destroy one’s browsing experience. I’ve seen it time and time again visiting websites that will push an advertisement in your face, which in some aspects insults the end user. As an Industry we must strive to do better. So the simple question we should be asking ourselves is how can we come up with content that is pleasing to the end user while delivering quality content and/or raising awareness about products/services that may be of use to them, thus the end user engaging said advertisement(s)? The answer really isn’t so complicated, less is more. Traditional methods of ad communication can be just as effective without the intrusiveness (banner ads, small affiliate ads, the occasional wallpaper ad, etc.) The key to bypassing Adblock is building trust with your readers through clean attractive content that won’t sneak a Trojan onto their computer. Massive video and/or intensive ads plopping up on the screen as soon as the end user opens the site does nothing for anyone and only increases the reader’s aversion to your product(s) and the third party hosting them. Continuing to press the issue with louder and more obnoxious advertisements will only hinder the effectiveness of your content no matter how well crafted the message may be. Ultimately we should strive to deliver value to our readers and end users, not forcing it on them and a medium where the advertiser, the third party and the end user co-exists in a healthy environment. |
Frank Sheppard
NOTE: all opinions/views represented here are my own and do not reflect on any third party that I am affiliated with. Archives
May 2016
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