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Blocked! How To Handle New Browser Updates Like a Champ

Written on . Posted in Blog.

If you run display ads for your business, there are changes you need to know about.

Google Chrome: Blocking Disruptive Ads

What’s the news? Developers of major web browsers like Google Chrome are making the move toward blocking offensive ads. Where did they get this idea? They belong to a consortium called the Coalition for Better Ads.

The Coalition sees its mission, in part, as follows:

“The Coalition?s research identifies the ad experiences that rank lowest across a range of user experience factors, and that are most highly correlated with an increased propensity for consumers to adopt ad blockers.”

At this time, members like Google Chrome are taking notice of the Coalition’s findings. They are going to start giving users the opportunity to block ads that “disrupt” user experience. They define as disruptive the following ad types:

Desktop:

  • Auto-playing Video Ads with Sound
  • Large Sticky Ads
  • Pop-up Ads
  • Prestitial Ads with Countdown


Mobile:

  • Ad Density Higher Than 30%
  • Auto-playing Video Ads with Sound
  • Flashing Animated Ads
  • Full-screen Scrollover Ads
  • Large Sticky Ads
  • Pop-up Ads
  • Postitial Ads with Countdown
  • Prestitial Ads


The impact: heavy – but only if you use the above techniques in your ad campaigns. Otherwise: impact will be little-to-none. And, the silver lining: better ad experience could lead to more purchases and happier web surfers.

Safari: Limiting Ad Retargeting

Meanwhile, in September of last year, Safari disappointed many advertisers by announcing sweeping changes to its Safari 11 browser, including “Intelligent Tracking Prevention.” Namely: with this new browser, they are placing a limit of 24 hours on retargeting ads following a user around and serving up ads. Retargeting is also sometimes called “cross-site tracking via third-party cookies.”

In case you are not familiar with retargeting: this common practice involves placing a cookie (a bit of code) on a website visitor’s browser when that user lands on a site. The cookie then signals other websites whenever that user is visiting them, thereby prompting some of them to show the original site’s ads on the new site.

The impact: this move will reduce the “list size” that retargeting advertisers can build on recent site visitors. However, there are two silver linings: 1. Keeping only “fresher” retargeting visitors COULD increase conversion rates for those users who do click on the banner ads, and 2. Safari only constitutes 30% of the browser market share. The bottom line is, there will still be plenty of retargeting traffic available for advertisers for years to come.

For more information, contact MindEcology today.

Digital, digital marketing, retargeting, retargeting ads