Ad blockers: what planners should actually do

Ad blockers are not a fringe phenomenon. Depending on survey, device and audience, use in Western Europe runs between 20 and 45 per cent. For planning, the average figure is largely useless.

Who blocks and who does not

The distribution is heavily uneven.

For a software company trying to reach developers that means more than half the audience is unreachable through display. For a supplier of stairlifts the topic is almost irrelevant.

What is blocked and what is not

Blockers work from filter lists that recognise known ad delivery. Display, sales-house scripts and measurement tools are affected most.

Largely untouched: search ads in results, because they are part of the page; advertising inside social apps, because it comes from the same source as the content; email, because it does not run through ad delivery; audio advertising in podcasts, where it is baked into the recording; every form outside the web, so print, outdoor, radio, television; and influenced search results and editorial mentions.

The consequence for measurement

Blockers hit not only ads but measurement tools. Your statistics systematically undercount, and precisely the groups most likely to block.

Gaps of 15 to 30 per cent between server-measured page views and a browser-based tool are commonly observed. Rely on the latter alone and you will think technical audiences are smaller than they are and steer budget the wrong way.

What follows for planning

1. Choose the channel mix by audience. With high blocking rates, less display and more search, podcast, trade media and events.
2. Add server-side measurement. Not to circumvent blockers but to understand your own numbers.
3. Strengthen your own channels. A newsletter and a direct relationship are blocker-proof and belong to nobody but you.
4. Book environments directly with publishers. Advertising that sits as an image in the editorial flow is filtered less often than embedded ad slots.

What not to do

There are technical routes around blockers, such as serving from your own domain. They work for a while and have three drawbacks: they may breach platform terms, they need continual patching, and they act against a deliberate decision by people you want as customers.

The commercially better answer is to pick channels where your audience accepts advertising because it funds the medium.