Barry Levine says, “Of all the hot topics broached at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Ad Operations Summit on Monday, one cast a longer shadow than the others.

Ad blocking was the first topic addressed in an open discussion among the several hundred participants, and it kept reappearing throughout the day. The reason is obvious: It is gaining new attention since Apple’s support for ad blockers in iOS 9, and there are indications it is gaining traction.

By a show of hands, only a few of the publishers in the conference hall indicated they were “materially affected” by ad blockers. Nevertheless, an August 2015 report by anti-ad blocking firm PageFair found that 16 percent of online Americans have installed ad-blockiing software. Tech sites report 25 to 30 percent of their visitors use blockers, gaming sites as much as 50 percent, and other kinds of sites ten to 20 percent.

In response to the threat of ad blockers, a variety of speakers and audience members recommended that sites — apps are mostly spared from ad blockers at the moment — and advertisers need to clean up their act with more engaging and fewer ads. One speaker described ad blockers as “the world’s largest petition ever seen,” in protest over the online ad barrage“.

At IAB’s Ad Ops Conference, Ad Blocking & Header Bidding Rule

Marketing Land

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