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Are B2B publishers about to get slammed by internet forces beyond our control? If you follow the breadcrumbs of recent news reports and announcements, it looks like there is a tsunami coming that will affect everyone’s online advertising sales.
The underlying story is well documented: Online advertising fraud is rampant to the tune of $6-7 billion per year. Ad blockers threaten publishers’ ability to deliver ads, though ad block usage seems to have leveled off at 26% of desktop users.
Some estimates put that about ten points lower for B2B, about 15%. Mobile ad blocking continues to grow apace with 94% of mobile ad blocking occurring in the Asia Pacific region. If that trend ever moves to North America it could be devastating to an ad-dependent industry. Debates and disputes about ad viewability have become a major issue. How much of each ad is seen and for how long?
Added to this massive uncertainty is the dominance of the Facebook-Google “Duopoly.” You have probably read the statistic that these two big data monopolies earn nearly 100% of all new advertising revenue. It’s not that other sellers, hopefully you, cannot increase your ad sales. It is just that statistically they are vacuuming up so much ad money you might as well be standing still. All these issues are precursors to profound industry developments.
Coming in 2018
- Procter & Gamble, the biggest advertiser in the world, is threatening to withhold most or all of its $2.4 billion annual spend in 2018 until the industry polices waste better. Other giant advertisers who share P&G’s position include Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, and Bank of America.
- Google announced that Chrome, the dominant web browser with 60% of mobile and desktop internet delivery, will begin ad “filtering.”This will prevent display of “ads from appearing on websites that are deemed to provide a bad advertising experience for users,” according to the Wall Street Journal.