Facebook goes to WAR with Adblock Plus

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

Barely a few days have passed since Facebook declared war on clickbait, and with that war well in progress, they have launched a fresh attack on ad blocking software.

Posting in the newsroom once again, the company bemoans the rise of ad blocking software that is hurting free online services like themselves. They wrote, “Facebook is one of those free services, and ads support our mission of giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”

They go on to highlight the malpractice of some ad blockers in particular that - in the words of former British culture secretary John Whittingdale - run a “modern-day protection racket” by exchanging money for advert visibility.

Artists’ impression of said protection racket

In an effort to combat the mighty ad blocker family, Facebook will make everything on the site appear as an ad, so ad blockers won’t know what to block and what to let through. In other words, Facebook will block the blockers.

It is worth noting that these proposals will only affect the desktop version of its site, so mobile users will still be able to scroll through all those highly engaging clickbait articles completely ad-free.

Facebook’s rather sudden decision to block the ad blockers on the desktop site only has many perplexed.

As Figures from Wired reveal, Facebook makes the overwhelming amount of it’s income through its mobile app - 84% according to the most recent earnings report - so why risk irritating and alienating your whole user base to improve profitability on an ever declining platform? 90% of users access the site via mobile and that figure will only increase inline with current trends.

Ad Block has spoken out, calling Facebook “anti-user” by highlighting data commissioned by Facebook themselves that showed 69% of users blocked ads due to excessive disruption, with 58% installing the software to improve their computers performance.

While the new internet landscape of blocked ads is indeed hurting publishers, forcing users to disable their ad blocking software before accessing content is not the greatest user experience. Nevertheless, Facebook is continually focused on maintaining growth, even though there critics maintain that sooner rather than later, the company will hit the ceiling of its success.

However, by going after the ad blockers so aggressively, it is a sure fire way to escalate the situation to another level that, in the long run, will only hurt online publishers even more.

As Ben Williams of Adblock Plus points out, ad blockers have a strong following in the open source community and can develop new workarounds even more effective than previous versions.

The online advertising landscape is ever-changing, and marketers need to ensure that their strategy doesn’t go out of date. Of course if you’re concerned about your ad performance on Facebook or any other channel, get in touch and we’ll provide some swift advice.

As Facebook (and Twitter) continue to evolve to retain customers, increase engagement and maximise revenue, there will be more new developments. Interesting times are ahead!