How Ad Blocking Affects Search Marketing

Ad blocking software identifies and prevents annoying advertisements, popups and spam from displaying on your browser when you visit websites. Because the removal is seamless, you see a coherent web page with no indication that ads have been removed.

At first glance, ad blocking programs seem like the perfect solution for intrusive ads that muck up your browsing experience. Internet advertising gets more intense by the day, and ad blocking programs are becoming increasingly common. The downside is that webmasters and companies that have relied on these ads to generate revenue are losing a substantial market share.

By some estimates, up to 25 percent of web surfers are now equipped with ad blocking software. That means up to 25 percent of website visitors no longer see the ads displayed there. Meanwhile, Google searches about ad blocking have doubled, suggesting that the use of ad blocking software is on the rise.

Because ad blocking programs are a breeze to install and free for the taking, analysts predict that by 2018 they will be the rule rather than the exception. According to data from BI Intelligence, at least five percent of Internet users worldwide were using ad blocking programs in the second quarter of 2014, and two-thirds of them used Chrome or Firefox browsers.

The most popular version of ad blocking software is Adblock Plus. It debuted in 2002 and is now the most downloaded Internet browser extension in history. Adblock Plus is available for all major browsers from Safari to Opera. Firefox and Chrome users are most likely to block ads, whereas Internet Explorer users are the least likely. Ad blocking is also catching on in mobile browsers, and this trend is expected to continue.

Although users believe ad blocking improves their browsing experience, most do not realize that the income generated by the blocked ads is what allows publishers to provide free content for visitors. Blocking ads can mean a substantial loss of valuable content.

Content providers fund themselves primarily with revenue obtained from online advertising. If that advertising revenue is removed, content producers might stop providing free content altogether. Meanwhile, Internet users are so accustomed to free content like articles, news and music that if they're suddenly asked to pay for it, they probably won't want to. This, in turn, further decreases the amount of content that companies can afford to provide.

Ad blocking also forces advertisers to create more intrusive ads. Although this has no effect on anyone using ad blocking technology, the more aggressive ads are annoying those without ad blocking to the point where they, too, are signing on for the software.

Online businesses rely on Internet advertising to generate a significant share their income. As ad blocking becomes more common, these revenues are expected to drop. According to a recent news report in the Financial Times, tech companies like Microsoft and Google are now paying Adblock Plus 30 percent of the income they could earn if their ads were unblocked. In return for payment, Adblock Plus agrees to not block ads that meet certain criteria.

Although mega-companies like Microsoft and Google can afford to pay off Adblock Plus to get their ads back online, smaller companies cannot afford to do this. Regardless of what transpires, webmasters will be forced to generate new marketing strategies and to implement innovative procedures that make up for what they're losing due to ad blocking software. Meanwhile, government regulators will be left to puzzle over how all of it is going to play out.