A new forecast from Optim.al, an analytics firm, predicts that by 2020 as much as 20% of all ads online will be blocked, which will result in a loss of about $12 Billion for publishers. According to recent data publishers are losing about $3.8 billion per year due to ad blockers.
The major growth over the next four years is largely due to the fact that more and more people are learning about the possibility of ad blocking, especially on mobile devices. In addition, some experts believe that more people will start using ad blocking software because they are learning about it from publishers trying to solve the problem.
As more and more publishers are putting up ‘front ends’ that tell users that they can’t access certain content if they are using an ad blocking program it will also alert people to the existence of these types of programs. Since most ad blocking software is free to use, many people will be willing to try it.
While there are many methods ‘on the table’ that publishers are considering with regards to how to combat ad blocking, there is no single standard yet. Many people believe that simply using unobtrusive ads is the ideal solution because it will minimize the number of people who want to go through the hassle of installing a blocker. Of course, this relies on getting most publishers online to adopt friendly ad standards, which is extremely difficult.
Whatever happens in the future, this type of prediction is very concerning for all publishers online who rely on ad revenue to pay the bills.
