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Adblock Plus Agrees With Hubspot Survey On How To Solve The Ad Blocking Dilemma

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 10:04 PST, Jul 17, 2016

Adblock Plus announced a survey that they conducted with marketing site Hubspot. The survey revealed how internet surfers want to handle ad blocking in the future.

Business Wire reported that Adblock Plus teamed with Hubspot to conduct the survey that was released as a 31-page report. The results of the survey explained how internet surfers wanted to handle ads using ad blocking software on their computers and mobile devices.

Respondents in the survey included 1,055 respondents from the U. S., United Kingdom, and Germany. About 70 percent of the users who participated in the survey used an ad blocker of some kind, including those who also used Adblock Plus.

The results of the survey showed that 51 percent of those who used ad blockers wanted control of their web surfing experience. About 83 percent of respondents said that they wanted to completely block obnoxious ads, while 77 percent of the respondents said they simply wanted to filter ads so they could decide which ads showed.

For those who didn’t use an ad blocker, 63 percent said that ad blocking allowed users to have a more positive experience as a consumer while 57 percent said that ads created a more positive search engine experience. Of the U. S. respondents who participated in the survey, 45 percent had paid for web content.

As previously reported in TheInquisitr, Adblock Plus offered its first viewing of its micropayment system. Although few details of the system were given, the goal was to create a system that allows content to be monetized. Adblock Plus also showed how they whitelist ads. Publishers have complained about having ads blocked, especially when it is their primary source of revenue.

Till Faida, co-founder of Adblock Plus, said the result could help in determining how to monetize those users who used ad blockers.

“It’s pretty clear from the survey results that we have two different ecosystems of online consumers – those who block ads and those who don’t – and solving the dilemma of how to successfully monetize the hundreds of millions of ad blockers means reaching them on their own terms. Those terms are already codified in our Acceptable Ads guidelines, which were developed and vetted by ad-blocking users.”

Mobile Marketing Magazine reported that 83 percent of respondents who used adblockers wanted to block intrusive ads. The ability to block intrusive ads, or what respondents termed as “obnoxious” ads, may give marketers a way to move forward in monetizing content. The number of users who are using ad blockers is continuing to increase, creating a dilemma for content creators.

Adblock Plus, which introduced a policy in 2011 that created an acceptable ads policy, allowed well-meaning websites and content creators to continue to display their ads. About 90 percent of Adblock Plus users elected to allow the ads approved by the company to show.

Kipp Bodnar, chief marketing officer of HubSpot, said that the survey was telling because it revealed what users really want.

“People may be sick and tired of adds, but it’s only because they don’t find them impactful or valuable enough to interact with.”

IAB president and CEO Randall Rothenburg criticized Adblock Plus because he said that their policy was unclear on what constituted an acceptable ad. Adblock Plus is currently used by about 100 million users worldwide and has been criticized for the lack of transparency in their ad blocking policy.

[Photo via YouTube]

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