The most important thing you can do to avoid Chrome’s native ad blocker when it arrives is just to make sure that your ads are not examples of the types of ads that Chrome will block. For example, Google has made it clear that it doesn’t like pop-ups, auto-playing ads, and ads that count down before their content is visible. Google and industry ad groups have identified these ads as the most bothersome to a majority of users, so if you create these types of ads, you’ll just have to modify your strategy so that they are not blocked.
The problem is that Google owns Chrome, and Chrome has a large market share, so it’s in Google’s self-interest to make the experience of using Chrome as seamless and hassle-free as possible. People already use ad blockers, and this is just going to be a on much larger scale.
The good news is that Google won’t leave you hanging out to dry, but will actually let companies know which of their ads are likely to be blocked once the Chrome ad blocker goes live. Google has an Ad Experience Report tool that sets the standards for the type of ads that it finds acceptable. And even ads that are run or served by Google will be targeted, so Google is at least trying to make it an even ad playing field for everyone.
But it’s clear that one of the tangential effects of the Chrome ad blocker is that it gives Google more power to control the types of ads it finds relevant and useful. While that may or may not be a positive thing – your mileage may vary – it is a direct challenge to marketers and agencies to elevate their ad game with ads that are targeted, valuable and relevant to a user’s needs.
If brands wants their target audience to stop using ad blockers, then their ads have to become much more attuned to what users want to see when they are browsing a website. There is no chicken and the egg here, ad blockers were created because too many businesses put out ads that weren’t well-conceived, targeted and valuable.
Ultimately, the arrival of the Chrome ad blocker may just serve as a way to get rid of spammy ads that cheapen the whole notion of grabbing a user’s attention.
