If you are regular visitor of my site then you know very well that I pick up a most relevant query from Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) of my users on regular basis. One of my site visitors asked me to show advertisements in his website in case where the AdSense Ads are blocked by Ad Blocking software installed in browsers.
Accordingly, I will today discuss a very hot topic with all of you which may boost your monthly earnings from your websites without affecting user experience and violating AdSense policy.
What is Ad Blocking Software or Browser Extension?
Ad blocking software/ extensions are used to hide or disable automatically all types of advertisements on every web pages including Blogger/ WordPress blogs, YouTube, Facebook and others. Some of most popular ad blocker blocks malware domains, social media buttons and even the tracking system of websites and as companies. Thus, AdBlock makes all commercial communication disappear from webpages.
Well known Ad blocking Google Chrome browser (world’s most widely used) extensions are AdBlock, AdBlock Plus, AdBlock Pro and uBlock Origin etc. Additionally, an increasing trend of blocking ads on High-end mobile devices like Android have also been seen on Firefox and chrome which leads 90% of mobile space and if you are using iOS 9 you will find an option to block ads.
Did you know? Visitors to Gaming, Social Media, Tech/Internet and Education websites are significantly more likely to block Ads in compare to other niche websites like government.
Who are Ad Blockers? Why they block online advertisements?
Visitors of any site who block ads by using different means like VPNs or DNS solutions or Ad blocking plugins are ad blockers. I think the main reason behind hiding or removing advertisements is to protect personal data from being accessed/ misused by websites/ third parties.
Apart from securing private information, an increase in the number of online ads also play a big role behind blocking such annoying text/reach media ads. In other words, people are fed up with lots of advertisements on their screen.
Some ads may be downright dangerous for PC and may slow down the web browsers and therefore people are smart enough to block those ads in front of their face. And moreover, you can’t ignore the fact that most of ads are not relevant to the topics for which the users actually visited the particular blog/site either through organic search results, social media or even directly. Accordingly, they don’t click on that type of digital advertisements.
Loss of Revenue by Website Publishers due to Blocked Advertising
If you are running a blog/website and earning money through online contents on your sites you may losing a significant revenue due to blocked advertisements. As per recent ad blocking report on “The cost of ad blocking” published by PageFair in partnership with Adobe, there are currently 98+ million active adblock users around the world and the global cost of ad blocking is expected to be $41.4 billion by 2016.
Google AdSense.com and ByeSellAds.com are two top and the leading advertising companies on this digital planet and therefore most of website publishers belongs to these companies.
How to see actual Revenue Loss due to Ads blocked on your Sites
It is very difficult to see the actual loss due to ad block users visiting on your websites. However, you may estimate the same through different means and methods. I am giant lover of all products of Google and therefore using Google Analytics to monitor and analyze traffics to my all websites in real time. If you are an AdSense publisher then you may also estimate the revenue loss due to AdBlock users of your site by comparing page views with and without AdSense impressions:
A) Total Pageviews: Google Analytics displayed the total number of pages viewed by all visitors of your site. Note that repeated views of a single page are also counted which is really important for us.
Reporting » Audience » Overview
B) AdSense Publisher Monetized Pageviews: In Google Analytics you easily see the total number of monetized pageviews i.e. webpages where ads from your linked AdSense publisher account is displayed. Note that a single page can have multiple ad units. You will notice that AdSense ads viewed pages are significant less than the total page views.
Reporting » Behavior » Publisher » Overview
C) AdSense Publisher Revenue from Monetized Pageviews: You will also see your AdSense earnings from the monetized pageviews on the same page as stated above.
Hence, you may now calculate pageviews without showing AdSense ads and the estimated loss of earnings as well for any particular period.
Earnings per page view = C/B
Pageviews without AdSense Earnings = A-B
Estimated Loss of AdSense Revenue = Pageviews without AdSense Earnings × Earnings per page view.
I analyzed the data of one of my clients and you don’t believe that he was losing an estimated 37% of his revenue due to ad block users of his WordPress blog. I know it hardly matters for those who does not depends on online incomes but if you blog for living or the only source of income is ad revenue from your sites, you can’t tolerate it right! In fact no one provide you anything for free without any intension behind in this commercial minded world.
What should be strategy for online Earners with respect to Ad Blockers?
Well this is a totally personal decision of each web publisher. Generally, there are mainly five options in front of you as webmaster:
A) Redirect Ad Blockers: Well! Some web publishers believe in redirecting elsewhere to all people who uses ad blocking extensions in their browsers. In other words, you may restrict ad block users to see your online contents with the help of jQuery and JavaScript codes.
In my opinion this is the worst approach followed by website publishers which may affects user experience and decrease traffics to your site. You are showing that your site has been built for advertisements only. Moreover search engine see your pages as it appears for the general people and therefore you may lose organic traffics as well.
B) Ask visitors to whitelist: You may ask your site users politely to whitelist your website. In other words, you may alert your visitors by notification and ask them to disable ad blocking apps for your site. This approach is not so much effective as because who cares about anyone and moreover the first time visitors may leave your site immediately.
C) Demand some dollars: This is another approach where webmasters demand some amount from users to view website without any ads for a particular period or lifetime. However, it may not work for most of publishers as there are many more websites who provide similar contents like your blog/site.
D) Do nothing: In this approach webmasters leave the ad blocked webpages as it is. Oh! You are thinking that any action shall not generate much revenue for them. But, think in a positive way that if ad block users finds your site contents reliable and interesting they may share it on social media and with their friends which results more traffic to your site and it is very possible that you may get a new user who does not use ad blocking software or plugins.
However, some webmasters treat this approach as running a restaurant where say 25% of customers eat amazing costly foods in accordance with their choice but pay nothing.
E) Show Alternate Contents: In today’s scenario this is the most effective approach for website owners. This is because they display alternative contents in the same slot/place of ads which has been blocked by AdBlocking plugins or apps.
How to display Alternative Contents for Ad Block Users?
As I already told that this is most effective ways to deal with ad block users. But, one thing you should not forget that ad blockers actually not willing to see advertisements in your sites. If you are AdSense publisher then you must comply the AdSense policy. Therefore, you should care both advertisers as well as your users while monetizing your online contents on ad blocked webpages.
Moreover, you may find many online tutorials which provides code to display alternate contents for ad block users in the same slot where Google AdSense ads appears. But, you should think twice before using any code to show different ads in place of Google AdSense as most of cases webmasters directly or indirectly modify the AdSense codes which is against the AdSense program policy.
Accordingly, I have written this code after taking into account the interest of both users of website publishers as well as Google AdSense program policy. Following are some unique features of this code:
1) This code will wait for 5 seconds after loading all elements of your webpage and thereafter it start functioning to check whether any Ad blocking software installed by users or not.
2) It will not change or modify your AdSense Ad Unit code in any manner and therefore you will fully adhere to the AdSense programme policies.
3) You are free to show either text messages, image banners, affiliate ads, relevant tutorials/posts from any blog/site and anything you like including social media and videos to be appear in your ad container.
4) You have freedom to display these ad banners at any place in accordance with your own choice by placing just a simple div tag.
5) You can place as many as you like the different ad banners or relevant contents which will be shown randomly basis on each ad blocked webpage.
Follow these simple steps to display random alternate contents for ad block users:
Step-1: Copy and paste these JavaScript codes before the closing </body> tag of your website.
<script>
window.onload = function(){setTimeout(function(){var swt = document.querySelector("ins.adsbygoogle");if (swt && swt.innerHTML.replace(/\s/g, "").length == 0) {var RandomAdBanners = [
'YourDirectAd1',
'YourDirectAd2',
'YourDirectAd3',
'YourDirectAd4',
'YourDirectAd5'
];
document.getElementById("AdBanner1").innerHTML = RandomAdBanners[Math.floor(RandomAdBanners.length * Math.random())];
document.getElementById("AdBanner2").innerHTML = RandomAdBanners[Math.floor(RandomAdBanners.length * Math.random())];
document.getElementById("AdBanner3").innerHTML = RandomAdBanners[Math.floor(RandomAdBanners.length * Math.random())];
}}, 5000);};
</script>
Step-2: Replace YourDirectAd1 to YourDirectAd5 (line number 4 to 8) with your own text message or/and ad banner/affiliate links: Following examples may help you to understand you better for showing alternate contents for your Ad Block users.
Example-1: For Simple Text Message.
Hey! Show your love. Please whitelist superwebtricks.com or disable AdBloker Plugin/extension for our site.
Example-2: For Affiliate Ads or Direct advertisements
<a href="http://www.superwebtricks.com/connect/infolinks" title="Earn Money from your Online contents"><img src="http://img.superwebtricks.com/files/infolinks.jpg" alt="Earn Money Online" width="468" height="90" /></a>Example-3: Display relevant posts from any webpage including your own site.
<a href="http://www.superwebtricks.com/blogger-beginner-guide/facebook-page-wordpress-plugin/" title="Install Showeblogin Facebook Page Plugin widget in WordPress"><img src="http://img.superwebtricks.com/files/Activate-Showeblogin-Facebook-Page-Plugin.png" alt="Earn Money Online" width="300px" height="250px" /></a>Example-4: For embeding YouTube videos for Ad Block Users
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mo8FMRZgH5I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Example-5: For asking donation or demanding/ charging money from live ad blockers.
I have only given the option to place upto 5 alternative contents/ affiliate ads but you may increase/decrease the number of such direct advertising banners as per your preference. However, if you have not any affiliate or direct advertisement, I strongly recommend you to show posts from your won site as it may reduce bounce rate and increase user experience.
How to Display non-random direct Ads for AdBlock
One of our user asked me through comment that whether it is possible to display non-random ads. Yes! You may show fixed direct Ads. Accordingly, if you want to display non-random or fixed alternative contents to ad blockers in any one or all ad spaces/slots you have to replace the codes which represent the particular ad slot where you want to display non-random affiliate/direct ads.
Suppose you want to display non-random alternative content in only FIRST Ad Slot (AdBanner1) then replace the following codes (line 11)
document.getElementById("AdBanner1").innerHTML = RandomAdBanners[Math.floor(RandomAdBanners.length * Math.random())];with the following codes
document.getElementById("AdBanner1").innerHTML = "NonRandomAds";
Now, replace the term NonRandomAds with your own alternative contents or direct ads as depicted in the examples given above. Similarly, you may show fixed affiliate or direct ads to all of your ad spaces. If you face any problem then feel free to ask the same through comments below.
Step-3: Finally, you have to place the following div tags where you want to display the direct/affiliate ads:
First Ad Slot: Place <div id="AdBanner1"></div> in the 1st ad space where you want to show your direct ads.
Second Ad Slot: Place <div id="AdBanner2"></div> in the 2nd ad space where you want to show your direct ads.
Third Ad Slot: Place <div id="AdBanner3"></div> in the 3rd ad space where you want to show your direct ads.
Please note that I have limited the Ad Banners up to 3 which is the maximum (Ad limit per page) allowed AdSense for content units on each page.