Despite the fact that more people are accessing publishers’ sites via mobile devices, publishers aren’t wringing their hands about the rising number of ad blockers on them.
This is partly because publishers earn less revenue from ads on these smaller screens - no shit Sherlock!.
I don't know about you but I use my phone constantly, I'm aware of how much I use it because each week it lets me know what my usage has been.
Now that's a great feature, along with the 'Block this Caller' function, and as a result I'm more conscious around how much time I spend looking at 'things' on my phone.
So when I see a clearly 'biased' piece of research on behalf of the intrusive ad industry (link below) around 'mobile ad blockers' and how the research has looked at how we use our phones in order to better understand how to 'intrude' I do wonder whether or not the people who commission these 'insights' ever think, "hang on, I have a phone and intrusive ads really piss me off".
The whole advertising experience on mobile is quite frankly shit, I use my phone like most other people I know to stay connected with business and family activities. Combine that with the growing use of free to use communication tools like 'Messenger, Whatsapp' etc and the fact we're making even less of those calls via the paid celluar network, and its not going away - if you want to know how to get something for free go and speak to Generation Z.
Now I know that phone screens have become larger over the years, there's even phones coming onto the market that you can fold?
But, I don't know any of them that come with an enlarged thumb to help you get rid of that intrusive advert with the close here 'X' that's so small when you try and get rid of the advert you inadvertently open the damn thing up!!!
I'm pretty sure that all those 'mistakes' get counted as part of the number of 'clicks' the advert achieved so - Mr/Miss Brand please pay up.
We all are addicted to our phones, I'm not sure how healthy it is, not for me to say, but take a look at photographs from the days before the 'mobile' was widely available and you would see pictures of people on the morning and evening commute reading a paper, primarily for the news and entertaining stories, but also to help fill in the journey time.
All those newspapers carried their 'advertisers' message, which they hoped would subliminally encourage us to buy the headache tablets, new tracksuit, investment package, insurance, or luxury holiday to 'Wales'.
That's how the model worked, its how they tell you how they subsidise the cost of the newspaper, and with print media in significant decline what have they done?.
The same advertising mentality has now carried itself across every single device we use today, but without really accounting for change in consumer behaviour, and in this example 'user experience'.
Social media has changed how we all consume stories and news today, fake or not. Twitter has been used to topple dictators and regimes, and if you believe the hype FaceBook has been used to influence the outcome of presidential elections.
We use the mobile phone to access this information, and more, all the time, it's become our 'de facto' newspaper or favourite magazine, but it's also become the place where we can now check out what our friends and other people think about that story, your products and company.
It sure as shit isn't the place to be intruded with your spammy non relevant, fraud ridden adverts.
the industry as a whole has made great strides in improving the online ad experience overall. Plus, ad blockers on mobile devices are harder to install, and because of this, they are less prevalent.