AdBlock Plus Creates an Ad Network

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Eyeo GmbH, the company that operates the most popular ad blocker called Adblock Plus announced today that it will essentially be launching it’s own ad network by partnering with ComboTag. An ad blocking company becoming an ad network sounds hypocritical, right? Well, it’s really happening and the product will be called the acceptable ads platform.

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According to the press release:

The Acceptable Ads Platform contains ad placements that abide by Acceptable Ads criteria for size and labeling; and it allows ads to be positioned only in spots deemed appropriate by the Acceptable Ads rules for ad placement. An intuitive drag-and-drop editor gives publishers the ability to place readymade ads directly onto their site in realtime, and be instantly viewable to millions of Adblock Plus users who have agreed to allow non-intrusive ads to support their favorite websites.

How successful will this be? Time will only tell. Publishers using their new platform will only need to implement a simple tag on to their page and pre-approved demand sources will start buying their inventory. Essentially, the Acceptable Ads Platform will act as both an SSP and ad exchange and the beta is open today for both publishers and advertisers. How will this differentiate from other monetization platforms publishers already use?

[Update]: Just a few hours ago AppNexus severed ties with Adblock Plus and ComboTag! and will not be participating in the program. Now that AppNexus has chimed in.. I wonder who’s next (Google?)

According to the Wall Street Journal: The only person at AppNexus who had any knowledge of the plan was a junior account executive, the AppNexus spokesperson said, who did not have the authority to green light it. Only a few impressions were transacted through AppNexus’s exchange.

Till Faida from Eyeo explains:“There are two ecosystems of online consumers out there right now: the one composed of people who block intrusive ads and the other where people do not. The Acceptable Ads Platform lets publishers reach the former group without changing anything about how they’re reaching the latter.“We’ve been waiting years for the ad-tech industry to do something consumer-friendly like this, so finally we got tired of waiting and decided to just do it ourselves.”

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Source: eMarketer

Why do ad blockers even exist? Many consumers ignore the fact that advertising is what keeps the internet free and created a demand for ad blockers in the first place. While it’s not a huge problem and only affects a small % of publisher revenue, Consumers download ad blockers for several reasons like intrusive formats, targeting that is way too personal, data mining, data leakage and a general disdain for advertising in general.

Adtech savvy publishers that understand ad blocking could eventually snowball into a huge problem have found creative ways to deal with and even educate users who block ads such as serving PSA’s saying this is how we pay our writers and give you free content or not allowing users to see content when they have their ad blockers enabled.

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