Nine in ten (90%) UK publishers will not pay fees to ad-blocking solution providers to have their ads ‘whitelisted’, according to results from a study out today (February 17).
A report from content monetisation platform Sourcepoint shares the above stat following a survey of 150 publishers around the world.
With ad blocking becoming all the more prevalent, some tools have turned to offering ad networks and websites the chance to pay to allow their inventory to pass through their filters. AdBlock Plus, which is used by over 300 million people worldwide, is one of the companies to have been subjected to such claims.
But such an approach does not look to be going down well among British publishers, who are looking at other ways of combatting the impact of ad blocking on their bottom line.
The options
The survey revealed a “number of solutions” to addressing issues with ad-blocking software, which can prevent a publisher from earning on the basis of an advert not being displayed.
Among those was ‘circumvention’; a technique where publishers can adjust the page source to have ads displayed even when the user is running an ad-blocking browser or extension. Popularity of this varied across regions, with publishers in mainland Europe (59%) more likely than to explore this those in the UK (48%).
Locking certain bits of content from ad-blocker users was another option touted by the survey. For this, over half of respondents in the UK and mainland Europe (52% and 56% respectively) were in favour, but there was a less than glowing reception given to paywalls.
In an effort to monetise their online arms, publishers like the Times have turned to asking users to pay for what they see. This approach was generally disregarded by the study group, with 78% of publishers in the UK and 77% of those in mainland Europe opting against the measure.
Ben Barokas, founder and CEO of Sourcepoint, said it was “clear” that publishers were looking at a range of solutions to combat their issues with ad blocking.
“Publishers accept there are a number of reasons why users install ad blocking technology and therefore different solutions are available to reach key audiences,” he concluded.