How can publishers survive in the era of ad-blockers?

“We messed up.” That was the revealing claim from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). They were referring to the pop-ups and intrusive ads that have quite frankly spoilt the Quality of Experience (QoE) for internet users. It is a mess. 

For mobile users, the ads have not only blemished their QoE, ads have also been eating into subscriber’s data plans. Unsurprisingly millions are downloading ad-blocking apps and software. It is estimated that nearly half of 18-24 year olds have ad-blockers. Recently Apple introduced iOS 9 with ad-blocking extensions to work in Safari. Three announced that it would be the first major European operator to introduce ad-blocking across its UK and Italian networks.

Quality is Everything

The operator was candid about the reasons why it wanted to introduce this service. Three felt that its ‘customers shouldn't pay data charges to receive adverts’, ‘customers should not have their data experience in mobile degraded’ and ‘ads must not extract and exploit customer information’.  Operators care about their subscriber QoE and it is no surprise that EE and O2 are alsocontemplating network-level ad blocking. Ad-blocking is going mainstream and publishers are feeling the ill-effects from this fall out.

Some content owners and publishers are fighting back by blocking the ad blockers. However, that still impacts QoE and it is not a viable long term solution. Some publishers have considered introducing a subscription service with a blanket paywall. But, do people want to pay for an ongoing subscription to a publication they read only off-and-on? Given how even the UK’s popular Sun newspaper had to drop its paywall – an ongoing subscription is not the answer.

Publishers: Yes we can!

There is another way. And some forward looking media owners are already conducting trials. Rather than an ongoing subscription, publishers can introduce a nominal fee for visitors to pay-as-you-read so each article is available ad-free. The charge could be around 10¢ - 50¢. It is a win-win. Publishers secure a revenue stream for their content and visitors to the site have an ad-free experience – rather than being blocked out or asked to pay a monthly subscription fee.

However, charging this nominal fee via a credit card does not make commercial sense owing to transaction fees. And asking visitors to use an online payment portal such as PayPal might be too cumbersome for many. It is estimated that half of us at some time or another have been unable to complete a transaction because of an incorrect username or password. We are human after all.

Here’s where innovation in the telecoms industry can make a difference.

Mobile to the rescue

Publishers should form partnerships with mobile network providers. Why? Network operators know subscriber’s identity and have a billing relationship with them and with use of Openwave Mobility’s Subscriber Data Management (SDM) technology, they are empowered to offer robust ID verification and seamless payment for transactions. Even micro payments. A visitor to a publisher’s site can have access to ad-free content and have their payment added to their mobile phone bill - via a few clicks and swipes. It is as simple as that because authentication via mobile is a much faster process. Usernames and passwords now feel archaic!

What’s in for the mobile operator? Delivering outstanding QoE and securing additional revenue streams. In the past, mobile operators have struggled to access their subscriber data as they have been spread across various databases and locations. Not anymore. A number of carriers have turned to Openwave Mobility to deploy SDM solutions that can interface silos and monetize their subscriber information. There are plenty of use cases. What’s more Smart Identity Manager can also deliver personalized content to users based on their preferences. This allows publishers – and content providers - to take their businesses to the next level and build closer relationships with their customers.

And that could not come fast enough. Research has shown that publishers are set to lose over 10 – 20 percent of revenues because of ad-blocking and that’s projected to cost $22 billion. It is time to think outside of the proverbial content box. Fast.

Update (8/20/2016): As per PageFair 2016 report, Mobile AdBlocking browsers are mainstream technology now. Approximately 420 smartphone users started blocking ads, i.e. 1 out of every 5. Smartphone users in China, India, Indonesia lead when it comes to use of ad-blockers. Top publishers in India have started denying access to their websites to users who use ad-blockers - I feel this is desperate and unfriendly approach to regain control of ad revenues. Our SmartIdM solution provides better choices to help operators monetize their content. 

Originally published at http://owmobility.com/blog/how-can-publishers-survive-in-era-of-ad-blockers