If you are an internet marketer and you have never heard of AdBlock Plus, get ready to pick your jaw up off the floor. AdBlock Plus is a free web browser extension for Firefox and Google Chrome that removes a variety of ads from websites. If you are a marketer who spends money on online advertising, you need to be aware of AdBlock Plus; Mozilla boasts over 14 million users, while Chrome has over 1 million. Here is a partial list of ad types that it is capable of blocking: most types of image or Flash-based banner ads, YouTube pre-roll and in-video ads, and last but not least, Facebook ads! It will not block more sophisticated types of pre-roll ads, like Hulu’s ads.
If you are an internet marketer and you have never heard of AdBlock Plus, get ready to pick your jaw up off the floor. AdBlock Plus is a free web browser extension for Firefox and Google Chrome that removes a variety of ads from websites. If you are a marketer who spends money on online advertising, you need to be aware of AdBlock Plus; Mozilla boasts over 14 million users, while Chrome has over 1 million. Here is a partial list of ad types that it is capable of blocking: most types of image or Flash-based banner ads, YouTube pre-roll and in-video ads, and last but not least, Facebook ads! It will not block more sophisticated types of pre-roll ads, like Hulu’s ads.
As a gamer, AdBlock benefits me the most when I watch YouTube videos. Most gaming videos are ad-enabled, and although you can skip most pre-roll ads in 5 seconds, occasionally you are forced to watch a 15-30 second advertisement. I actually enabled Facebook ads on my browser because as a social media manager, it is always good to keep tabs on what everyone else is doing.
There are huge implications here for internet marketers; your advertisements are potentially missing millions of internet users. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do to prevent this unless you are someone like Hulu, who built their own ad platform. My best suggestion would be to not put all of your advertising dollars into one basket. For example, actively seek out other methods of advertisement, like blogger outreach. If you can afford it, don’t eschew traditional forms of advertising. You should also be aware of the demographic of individuals using AdBlock Plus. I do not have statistics available to me, but I would hazard to guess that users skew towards a younger, tech-savvy crowd.
Were you aware of AdBlock Plus before reading this, and will it affect the internet marketing efforts of your organization? Let me know in the comments!
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