Apple’s iOS 9 launched to much fanfare last week, and whilst it provides new streamlined services for its tens of millions of users, businesses have been left stunned by the arrival of unnerving new apps–ad blockers.
In what’s being considered a watershed moment for digital marketing, Apple’s minor update to its Safari browser has led to an influx in ad blocking software, immediately triggering controversy and international strife regarding the future effectiveness of online advertising. The industry is now left to wait and see whether the humble ad blocker will trigger sweeping changes across the industry.
The Rise of Ad Blockers
The Internet has seen the rise of highly-targeted marketing, a personalised and intricate form of advertising once found in the realms of science fiction, where authors such as Philip K. Dick once ruminated over how invasive advertising could become.
In 2015 consumers have become used to targeted advertising, with PPC campaigns able to perform remarkable feats such as display remarketing (the ads which follow users around online), along with other granular features which marketers have used to target specific demographics, right down to age, gender, location, and interests.
Whilst consumers may be used to this, many aren’t happy with it. On desktop computers, ad blockers have been around for a while, with the likes of Adblock (which has been downloaded by 200 million people) providing a reliable way to force increasingly invasive adverts out of browsing activities.
These blockers don’t simply remove annoyances, as they do provide additional security; increasingly, ransomware viruses (where a person’s computer is locked and held to ransom) are invading computers. Often hidden in ads, blockers fend off these destructive viruses and other troublesome malware.
iOS 9
Concerns began when iOS 9 launched with the option for iPhone and iPad owners to download apps which block ads in Safari (Apple’s browser). Unsurprisingly, this immediately sent ad blocking apps surging to the top of iTunes’ download rankings.
Their names clearly highlight the frustration Internet users have with online ads: Purify, Peace, AdMop, Blockr, and Crystal (presumably inferring crystal clear) name but a few. What’s evident is increasingly savvy consumers are annoyed by businesses and their advertising campaigns; the solution is to block them out of their lives.
What has been immediately apparent is the effectiveness of these apps, which don’t simply block intrusive ads from clumsy advertisers with small budgets, but also big brand ads with expensive budgets and high expectations. Wherever the ads are–YouTube, Facebook, tracking ads, banners, pop-ups, and video ads–a blocker will do its job.
Exacerbating the situation, and seemingly with clinical timing, iOS 9 has arrived just as the long awaited Instagram’s ad solutions service launches. This finally allows large and small businesses across the world to promote ads to the social media service’s 300 million users, which could be dampened once ad blockers are updated to block sponsored messages.
As Sourcepoint highlights, the rise of ad blocking is “on track to hit 50% penetration in EU in 2017, US in 2017.” The State of Ad Blocking provides detailed analysis for concerned businesses eager to understand what’s happening.
The Media Fuels the Panic
With ad blockers forced into the limelight as never before, it’s led to a wave of dramatic headlines from the world’s media. Some are more panic stricken than others:
- “Can publishers stop the ad blocking wave?” (The Guardian)
- “Does ad blocking herald the end of the free internet?” (BBC)
- “What if those ads you’re blocking were actually useful?” (Fortune)
- “Let the iOS ad block wars begin!” (Fortune)
- “Will Ad Blocking Be Google’s Kryptonite?” (Seeking Alpha)
- “Ad Blockers Could Be Travel Media’s Next Crisis” (Skift)
- “Ad blocking is really part of Apple’s war with Google–and publishers are collateral damage” (Tech Insider)
Speculation continues to be rife, and there is a certain element of glee from the media (along with consumers) at the chance to finally raise the issue of online advertising to a mainstream level.
Give Peace a Chance
Philip Elmer-DeWiit reported in an article in Fortune: “The last relatively uncluttered real estate on the Internet—the smartphone screen—is about to get plastered with billboards, pop-ups, and pre-rolls … which is why the content-blocking features Apple has added to the next version of iOS are such a big deal. They could do real damage not just to Google—its chief rival—but to the commercial underpinnings of the Web.”
Such a situation doesn’t arrive without bitter enmity, and into this tense market has arrived a horde of ad blockers eager (for a princely sum of around $5 or less) to make Internet users’ lives less irritating.
There has been controversy straight away, barely a week after iOS 9 launched, in the form of the ironically titled Peace. Developed by Marco Arment, the man behind popular apps Instapaper and Overcast, the app went straight to the top of the download charts.
Shortly afterwards, on September 18, Arment stated on his official blog in a post titled “Just doesn’t feel good,” that he’d removed Peace from the App Store. This led pessimistic critics to suggest he’d been bribed to remove the app by businesses eager to have their latest ads seen.
Three days later, Arment clarified the situation in another post: “Apple notified me this afternoon that they’ll be proactively refunding all purchases of Peace… As far as I know, this effectively never happens. When I decided to pull the app, I asked some Apple friends if this was even possible, and we all thought the same thing: iTunes billing works the way it works, period, and no special cases can be made.”
Despite the disappearance of Peace, however, there are myriad replacements ready and waiting for users. Some are free, others require a minor fee, but all hint at a growing dilemma for the marketing world.
Can a Crisis Be Averted?
Digital marketing is a sophisticated industry and there’s always a new avenue to take, with practices such as lead generation proving effective for some businesses. In the meantime, the likes of PPC and social media-led digital marketing are facing a rather traumatic end to 2015. This could be particularly devastating for businesses as the crisis is taking place on smartphones, where more and more consumers are performing their surfing, shopping, and (seemingly erstwhile) ad viewing.
Increasingly savvy consumers are now in a position of power, and effectively have the ability to bypass a large proportion of marketing. People are annoyed, and they’re blocking ad campaigns as a result. Critics are suggesting it’s payback time, the inevitable consequence for bombarding the Internet and its users.
There are, however, far reaching implications. The BBC hypothesised it could be the end of the free Internet, with businesses charging a small fee to access content in the future. The idea may seem positively barbaric, but this is one of the more dramatic postulations. Tech experts Digiday had a more revealing revelation on September 22, with the news companies such as PageFair are creating technology which overcomes ad blockers.
Naturally, ad blocker companies will become aware of these efforts and no doubt attempt to overcome them, creating an evolutionary technological advertising battle, the result of which is impossible to determine. Of course, a simple solution for now could be to restrain advertising output, keep SEO efforts finely tuned, and for what is placed into the complex world of the Internet, make sure it’s creative and engaging (i.e., fun and highly useful). In the meantime, everyone will have to await the full extent of the ad blocking crisis.
The post Apple’s iOS 9 Creates a Digital Marketing Crisis in the Wake of Ad Blocker Success appeared first on AllBusiness.com.
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