Goggle’s New Chrome Ad Blocking Rules And What This Means For Your Business
Just finished memorizing Google’s ad policies for your online business? Well, a few days ago, they gave you more reading material. So here’s what you should know about Google’s new Chrome ad-blocking rules and how it could affect your business.
The Silicon Valley search giant wants to save mankind from pesky ads. That doesn’t sound too bad, right? Well, on the surface it’s not. But keep sniffing the money trail. Google figures that “if users don’t have to deal with intrusive ad experiences, they may be less likely to download third-party ad blockers. Ad blockers crush revenue opportunities for websites that rely on ads to make money while also affecting the bottom line of ad providers like Google, which pays a fee to whitelist its ads in popular services like Adblock Plus.” — according to CNBC.com.
FORGET BIG BROTHER, CALL GOOGLE THE “INTERNET DADDY”
Image Courtesy of Google, Inc.
Google possibly may be planning to exert internet dominance as to whether a business ad is instructive or not, without our consent. I used the word “possibly” because all terms are subject to change without notice, as you already know. However, one week after the new rule roll-out, Chrome will determine 12 ad types that will trigger its blocking system based on standards set by the Coalition for Better Ads. It’s worthy to note that this an industry group where Google is a board member.
The Wall Street Journal reports that several members of the Coalition of Better Ads mentioned how they felt that “Google had undue influence over the committees actions, because it spearheaded the research used to determine the intrusive ad types.” Johnny Ryan, the head of ecosystem at PageFair, told CNBC “Though Chrome’s adblocker is a welcome improvement for users, it is not surprising that website owners are aghast that ads are being cleaned up on their sites, while Google’s own formats go unharmed.” Google plans to test video ad formants in the future.
NOTHING IS BLACK AND WHITE, ESPECIALLY THE INTERNET
It seems impossible that Google can implement these new ad-blocking rules in a completely transparent and absolute manner. Why? Because the goal post of the internet moves every day due to intended algorithm manipulation by those who abhor the new standard.
But Google should be held accountable to the same rules that they’ve deployed. What happens should Google offend with regards to the rules. Meaning, what’s the penalty against the information mammoth if you and I find their collection of ads to be selectively intrusive and offensive? The Coalition Board has asked Google for a detailed appeals process to enable sites that get flagged to explain their situation, especially in the case that they’ve feel that they have been wrongfully flagged. The Coalition has yet to hear back.
This will be the first time that Google will automatically block some ads in Chrome. The deployment of the new rules may not even be noticeable to most users. Please note that not all ads are being blocked, just those that don’t conform to the Coalition for Better Ads guidelines.
HOW THIS AFFECTS ONLINE PROFITS
Suppose you arrive to a website where Chrome is blocking ads, you’ll get a Chrome pop up notification blocking the pop up ad. This alert will give you the option to sidestep Google’s ad blocker, and allow the ads on that specific site to be made visible. Should this site be in violation, ads from AdSense and DoubleClick will also be blocked. The upside is that you may see a performance boost to sites where the ads are blocked because the plugin and/or code as been disabled, thus allowing the site to process input and feedback much quicker.
So let’s get to it. Here’s are the various kinds of adds that will trigger Google’s new ad-blocker in Chrome:
Image Courtesy of TechCrunch
After taking a good look at the info graph of different types of ads that could be blocked on both desktop and mobile devices, this could be concerning to many online companies who generate a substantial portion of their revenue from internet ad marketing. If you own and/or run a company or sole proprietorship that pays for ads, your wallet could be in Google’s cross hairs in terms of getting your ads blocked.
Unfortunately, much of the internet traffic of frequented sites are from paid traffic. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s something to definitely plan against in order to financially shore up your business just in case the unexpected occurs. In respect to Google’s new ad-blocking rules, organic traffic is optimal. Yes, it is the long play, but the sure play in the end. Those looking to generate quick revenue maybe be left holding the bag soon.
Even YouTube has taken a similar stance on ad revenue with its users. While they’re not outright blocking ads on the video platform, they are preventing those from earning ad dollars that have less than a total watch time of 4,000 hours in the past 12 months and a minimum of 1,000 subscribers. The reason given by YouTube is to root out weak content. This could be considered plausible, and is to some degree. But as I mentioned earlier in this post, sniff out the money. With the recent ad blocking and revenue changes to both Chrome and Youtube, Google has the most leverage to pocket marketing dollars, as well as improve the quality of it’s hosted content.
CONCLUSION
Every business should protect themselves by widening their margins, and lowering overhead, even if you’re Google. But the question comes into mind about the method in which any for-profit business choses to make money, and whether it be ethical or not by allowing consumer freedom and not just the perceived. As a small e-commerce business owner, you’ll have to take money-making matters into your own hands by getting creative about how your business will profit outside of ads. Selling products and content online via a self-hosted website seems ideal, including monetized blogging. My concern is for YouTubers and other content creators who wholly rely upon social media platforms to financially support their business.
Whichever manner that you chose to financially take your business, make sure that it’s one where you widely control your own destiny, which should be the grass-roots way. There’s still no more powerful marketing than word-of-mouth. Regardless of monetary rule changes to online services, problem solving products and content will survive. So put the work in now to find out that success formula should this whole internet marketing thing change in unexpected ways.
