Ad Block Plus Mobile Launch A Success
What’s Up: Over 200,000 people downloaded Ad Block Plus’ new mobile edition within 24 hours of its launch last Wednesday. Like the popular desktop version, Ad Block Plus Mobile removes advertisements from online platforms. Popups and video units as well as Facebook and Twitter ads will not appear on Ad Block Plus Mobile user’s phones. The 200,000 figure from the first day of availability is expected to skyrocket. Sean Blatchfield, co founder of Page Fair, a company that monitors the ad block industry’s growth for publishers estimates that over 215 million people will have some kind of ad blocking software on their desktop and many of those users, particularly in the 18-25 year old demographic will download the mobile version as well. Blatchfield says the new software could be “devastating” for mobile publishers. Ad Blocker Plus Mobile’s launch is being considered a success due to the high volume of initial downloads, no apparent issues with functionality, and generally positive feedback from users. As of today the app is only available on Android devices.
What Does It Mean: The takeaway here is that there is significant demand for ad blocking in the mobile space. This will not have a direct affect on SEOs in the short term. As Blachfield said, publishers have the most to lose. He explained that “An ad block user is trying to solve a real problem and is accidentally hurting all the websites they love the most”. Ads are generally websites’ main revenue source and any disruption is obviously bad for them. Blatchfield implies that users are justified in wanting to browse the web without intrusive advertisements. Justified or not, the important thing for SEOs is that users do not respond to intrusive content. They never have. They will not tolerate it on their phones just as they did not on their desktops. It’s too soon to know if Ad Block Plus will take over the market. For long term strategy, the company making the ad blocking app is irrelevant. SEOs should note that mobile users like desktop users do not respond to content, whether it’s an advertisement or not, if they find it annoying. When it comes to link building, the possibility of mobile ad blocking should fall in line with Google’s emphasis on user experience. SEOs should look to partner with or create content of substance. Users won’t tolerate spam in their browser just like Google will not accept it as a link. Some good news for SEOs in the long term, when ad blocking does become wide spread in mobile browsing page rankings and a website’s visibility through search engines will be even more important to companies in the absence of advertisements to drive traffic.
This story is also interesting from Google’s point of view. The company monetizes Android’s open source OS with ppc revenue, mobile ads, and Google play purchases. To support this strategy Google encourages users to browse through Chrome instead of websites’ own mobile apps by allowing companies to deliver app-esq push notifications through the browser and is rumored to be working on a “buy” button to link mobile Chrome ads to company stores. Page Fair estimates that ad blocking on desktops cost Google $887 million in potential revenue in 2012. That figure was less than 3% of Google’s total for the year but enough for them to persuade Eyeo, the company that develops Ad Blocker and Ad Blocker Plus, to “whitelist” certain ad options. Google’s responds ad blocking in mobile search could have further implications for SEO.
