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How Websites Struggle Against Ad Blockers in Russia?

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Software which block banner ads on websites are recently becoming a growing problem both for single sites and for the advertising market as a whole. Their increasing distribution makes websites search for various means to deliver ad messages to users. Read in the RMAA Group blog post how Russian websites struggle against ad blockers.

 

 

Ad blocker popularity is recently increasing steadily worldwide. According to Adobe and Pagefair report, the number of ad blocking users reached 198 million people throughout the world, at this the usage of such ad blockers grew by 41% in 2015. Furthermore, such software are now getting widespread not only on desktop computers, but in mobile browsers as well. Russia is no exception here: all trends related to the spread of ad blockers and struggle against them are similar in Russia and abroad. According to Yandex data, about 10% of users use ad blocking software in Russia these days.

Several strategies can be distinguished for struggling against ad blockers. The first one is linked to the attempts to advertise in such a way as to avoid blocking. This is not advertising as a banner, but as an element of the website itself, for example on the base of a website as a background for the rest of the content. Also there can be different technical tricks used enabling to bypass ad blockers but the blockers are improving as well that's why cheating them for a long time technically is not possible.

Another strategy of struggling against ad blocking is to place such types of advertisements which, in principle, couldn't be blocked because they are related to the website content. We are talking about native ad and affiliate materials. Many mass media in Russia have already mastered these formats for sure.

The movie ad on the website base which is not blocked by AdBlock

The third strategy is to appeal to users with the request to disable AdBlock. This request is usually made as a bright banner, on which it is hard not to pay attention. On some websites it can be used switching-over a website into the black-and-white mode or sepia coverage as it was on site sports.ru at one time.

Finally, the fourth strategy is to limit access to the site content for the users which are using ad blocking. For example, the site cnews.ru fully blocked the content for the users with AdBlock. Another illustrative example: Channel One recently said that it will forcefully reduce quality of broadcast video on the Internet for those users who installed ad blocking software. Channel One representative announced that the channel is losing up to 25% of video ad revenues due to ad blocking. Note that earlier Rutube video hosting took the same actions.

Banners with the request to disable AdBlock

The spread of ad blocking is certainly a significant trend nowadays, both in Russia and throughout the world. Websites in Russia as in other countries are searching ways how to bypass advertising blockers which are technical avoidance of banners, native advertising and sponsor content as well as a direct appeal to the users with the request or demand to disable AdBlock.RMAA Group experts will tell you how to minimize damage caused by ad blocking to your advertising campaign.

 

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About the Author

Digital Strategist. Head of one of the project groups at RMAA. Maria started her journey in digital marketing in 2009. 

Author Maria Romanenko

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