Among the medley of concerns plaguing publishers in the new media landscape, none have been as prominent recently as fear of the ad blockers. The technology is hurting news organizations, which are trying to survive in the new digital landscape, by blocking advertisements that play before or around the online content.
Global experts believe media institutions have lost tens of billions of dollars to ad blocking just in the past few months.
Naturally, as the ad blockers rise to power, new ventures arise to neutralize their effects. Israeli startup UntouchableAds is among them. The company is based in Tel Aviv and was founded in 2015 by Idan Katalan, Tomer Gafni, and Nadav Branstater - founder of WebPick and the controlling shareholder in the new company, into which he has injected more than a million dollars.
The technology developed by the startup alerts site managers that a visitor used an ad blocker and provides them a toolbox to deal with the problem.
Speaking to “Globes”, Katalan confirmed fear of ad blockers pervaded the atmosphere at both official sessions and informal gatherings during Advertising Week in New York last fall. “There are influential people in the industry that want to enter the sector; a former Google executive recently raised $10 million to develop technology to provide a similar solution,” he says, “Our technology is now in the pilot phase, which is currently a success, with hundreds of sites - both news and other interests - in Israel and abroad.”
“Rolling back the lost revenue”
Almost all the leading Israeli sites rely on advertising as their only or most important revenue stream. About 20% of readers use ad blockers in Israel, enough to present a real danger to the websites. In the past year alone, there has been a 69% increase in ad blocker usage according to PageFair, a company that tracks ad blockers and has promised advertisers they will get back the revenue lost because of their use.
“Our pilot proves that we can successfully help the sites we work with get back 90% of the profits they lost; there is $22 billion being lost every year.”
You say that you fight the ad blockers but do not completely neutralize them.
“There are sites with a 100% success rate and those with 80%. We offer the solution and we understand the site manager does not have the ability to handle the phenomenon independently. We do not just provide the anti-blocker but also a set of tools to deal with a visitor that uses the technology. For example, if the system identifies a user that arrived on a page with an ad blocker, it will ask them to turn off the blocker to watch a video or read the article. Another option is to completely neutralize the ad blocker.”
Does the system neutralize the ad blocker immediately or does it offer the user a chance to decide to leave the site?
“The site manager can decide whether to notify the user or not.”
What do you recommend to site managers you work with?
“It depends on the location of the user. In Israel, it is best to notify the user, but you don’t need to do it each time they enter the site. Abroad, it is better to be consistent with the messaging, with the reminder the site does not allow surfing with an enabled ad blocker - and that’s when you see people turn off the blocker. Our aim is to restore the lost revenues.”
“Saving sites from shutting down”
“Contrary to what is widely believed,” says Katalan, “ad blockers are mainly on desktops - 30% of such users have the technology, compared with only 2% of mobile surfers.”
Can a company like yours save journalism?
“A company like ours can strengthen the foundations of the journalistic enterprise and restore the prestige it has lost. We must remember that media organizations operating in the digital realm are forced to look for new revenue streams - it makes them more vulnerable and more easily influenced by financial factors. We can help make quality content more accessible without adding stress and thus save sites from shutting down.
“What sets our solution apart is the ability for the site to use its original advertising database and restore the profits lost from ongoing campaigns. We also provide site managers with analytics and reports. We allow publishers to use the advertising channels they are familiar with. We interface with ad management platforms like DoubleClick.”
What is your market forecast for the upcoming year?
“We expect site managers to understand during 2016 that a solution to ad blockers exists, and we see the impact of the phenomenon waning.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 1, 2016
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