Now is not the time for the industry to reach for a stiff drink and look short sightedly at ways to enter an arms race against ad blocking software
Ad blockers are ramping up their attack on the online ad industry. Just recently it’s been mobile’s turn to be hit hard. Apple has announced the launch of an in-app ad blocker that even removes their ads and new ad blocking technology via an iOS 9 update. Also AdBlock Plus has announced their technology is now available on Apple and Android mobile devices.
Already over 198 million people globally use ad blockers, wiping out nearly £50 billion of global advertising. Now this technology is on mobile these figures will get worse. This is bad news for advertisers and also publishers struggling to monetise.
Yet now is not the time for the industry to reach for a stiff drink and look short sightedly at ways to enter an arms race against ad blocking software. This is a race they will lose.
It’s time for the online ad sector to be open-minded and take a look at emerging technology that’s set to encourage the industry to embrace a new form of digital advertising - one where issues related to ad blocking as well as ad fraud and viewability are not applicable. Because the root cause of all these issues has been driven by the buying of traditional CPM inventory, due to its many inefficiencies.
What advertisers need to find is technology that enables them to assess and pay for inventory on a cost per human (CPH) basis
What advertisers need to find is technology that enables them to assess and pay for inventory on a cost per human (CPH) basis.
This is the only way to buy the guaranteed attention of a human being with regards to a brand message, and better yet, to only buy the guaranteed understanding of a human being of a brand message.
What’s set to drive this is advertisers being able to buy formats on a cost per engagement (CPE) basis. Effective engagement with consumers has been validated by cognitive and neurological research to help deliver greater understanding and memorability of campaigns. Then if you layer the ability to engage individuals, only as often as required to ensure understanding, CPE becomes CPH. Once you have successfully engaged with a consumer with one message, you don’t need to keep up a constant stream of the same messaging.
The digital industry desperately needs to mature and demonstrate it can deliver, especially from a branding perspective, as it continues to grow at around 20% a year. It has to move away from the wasteful buying of impressions on a CPM basis to buying meaningful engagements. This is the route to getting to a true CPH figure, which is what really matters.
Advertisers need to change their mindset, recognise the issues with traditional online buying approaches like CPM in the current digital environment and embrace what CPH can deliver.