Is it viable to provide from internet content without the supporting ads? Could publishers promise lighter ad content if the site is whitelisted? Instead consumers can buy subscription based content. All these methods are not sure shot fixers. Ad blockers are being widely used by 6 per cent of the internet using universe. and by 15 per cent in the US. ( Adobe report ). Ad blockers ( apps ) developed by third party are available on Google Play Store. The mobile is widely used for internet content consumption, and so ad blocking is going to spread. Apps are available free and revenue is generated only through ads.

Basically, ads are blocked not because consumers are interested in seeing them. They block to get better online experience, faster surfing of internet on mobile and less data charges. Informative, relevant and contextual ads are welcome. They are actionable inputs. Users love the ads that are of interest to them, of value to them. Consumers want to assert their right to say no to ads. It is a tug of war between the publisher whose app has ads and the consumer who would like ad free experience.

The online news platforms are highly affected. Most of their revenue is derived from ads. Mobile ads have lower rates and less space for banner ads. As compared to web, publishers make less money on the mobile. With ad blockers, the revenue from mobile ads goes down even further.

As the fields in online ads are low and advertisers demand  more and more space publisher find it difficult to negotiate. Publishers carry obtrusive ads under pressure Banner ads are blocked, and so this hits the publishers.

Some publishers avoid ad blocking by blocking the content for the user of an ad blocker.

On gaming apps, there are two kinds of ads — interstitial ads or full screen ads and reward videos. Reward videos are a part of core app design and cannot be blocked by ad blockers. Interstitial ads get blocked.

Per se advertising is not blocked but its format. If the experience is not pleasant there is going to be blocking. Native advertising blends with the content and lends itself to many formats depending on the surrounding content. It could be text, video or image. As compared  to display ads, native ads are more effective. Publishers thus are driven to content marketing. Native ads, however, are not scalable unless it is in-stream ad. The same branded content cannot be replicated across multiple publishers.

Apart from content marketing, we have adopted social media marketing and in-app advertising as it is non-intrusive. These are not subjected to blocking at present. Publishers are in search of other monetisation models.