What a Rise in Ad Blocking Means for Your Content Efforts

By Kyle Gunby

For some time, advertisers have employed Greek battle tactics in engaging their target markets. Pop-up and display ads, like the Trojan horse before them, may have worked in the Internet’s Bronze Age, but breaching the Internet can’t be done in the same manner as it was Troy. A stronger, more insidious technology has proven itself conqueror of our browsers: the ad blocker.

Horrifying, I know.

Ad blockers (and how marketers adjust to them) will be a major content marketing trend in 2016, and with Apple’s decision to allow ad blockers onto its operating platform and Safari browser, the publishing world is left with its mouth agape. Pop-up ads were one thing, but taking away the rest of small publishers’ revenue streams? How will they survive?

Certain large-scale publishers, like The Washington Post and The Guardian, don’t have much need to fret. Rather, these media monoliths have already devised creative ways to confront blockers. But, their readership is relatively guaranteed. It’s smaller publishers who will feel the financial fallout from this and ultimately have to adjust.

Marketers were confronted with a similar problem in a different arena not too long ago. Over the years, Google’s large-scale alterations to its algorithm have changed the SEO game. Smaller websites that used the black-hat tactic of keyword stuffing boosted themselves in search results above larger, more credible sites and publishers.

Like the low-quality advertising that populates many smaller sites, keyword stuffing obstructed readership and the creation of high-quality content. Thanks to Google, there are no longer any shortcuts.

When all else fails, there is one tried-and-true way to ensure your site’s success: craft solid, well-targeted content. To help you do so, we’ve pooled five great tips:

1. Tell Stories About Your Users and Their Experiences

Consumers often know what utility your product offers them. Rather than rehash it, Wade Foster, CEO of Zapier, insists that having a “journalistic, interview-type quality” is key to creating the content that will reach your audience on a more engaging level. Your blog is a place to educate and engage your unique readers; it shouldn’t be your company’s promotional feed.

2. Drop That Sales Pitch

“If the first paragraph of your article sounds more like a press release than engaging content, you’re doing it wrong.” These words belong to our CEO, Kelsey Meyer, and speak to the limiting effect that shameless promotion can have on your content efforts. Not only do you lose potential buyers at the top of your sales funnel, but you also limit the places where your content can be redistributed. Don't sell; educate.

3. Include Credible Research

Tailor your content to the holy trinity: relevance, value, and credibility. Relevance addresses timely information, value tells your readers something they may not know, and credibility is outside information that reinforces your point or stance. On average, employees spend 9.3 hours a week researching material for their respective fields. It’s paramount that you organize and disseminate this information, lest it goes to waste.

4. Take a Stance

We’re exposed to 15.5 hours of media a day, and we’ve become numb to like-minded messages and motifs. Taking a stance on issues that are important to your industry and your readers will help you effectively stand out and engage them.

5. Take Notes From Industry Leaders

It never hurts to look for inspiration outside of your industry. Whether the campaigns come from Red Bull, Stanford University, or Verizon, we discovered (and agree) that content efforts by industry leaders speak “to a few marketing truths: Interactions are important, social shares fuel virality, and surprises sell.”

While a rise in ad blocking will alter the efforts of many small publishers, it doesn’t have to mean the end of your content creation and distribution. Follow these tips, and your content will sell your site — without you selling your soul to ad networks.