Just 13% of South African consumers use ad-blocking technology. That’s the news from a new research report by Effective Measure, Ad-Blocking in South Africa 2017.
“Because the ad-blocking numbers are relatively low compared to other countries, this gives South African publishers and advertisers a head-start to proactively tackle ad-blocking,” notes Greg Mason, Effective Measure’s Sub Saharan Africa managing director in a statement.
Between December 2016 and January 2017, 2987 respondents were surveyed in South Africa. The report reveals that the top reasons why ad-blockers are used by consumers are because of the disruptive, annoying and overwhelming number of advertisements. Security and speed were also common concerns.
Despite this, the research is positive for publishers and advertisers, with over 75% of South Africans citing that they’ve never used or don’t know what an ad-blocker is and 18% stating that they will click on an ad if it seems interesting.
“There are so many opportunities for our industry to keep these numbers from increasing. The data shows it’s not that consumers don’t like ads, it’s the content and delivery that is directly affecting their decision to turn on ad-blocking,” says Mason.
“Ad-blocking is an issue experienced worldwide and we already have solutions backed by data that we can adopt that will help ease the situation. It’s time the advertising and publishing industry tackled this seriously.”
In a blog, Mason said South Africa’s 13% doubles in the U.S. at 26% and 27% in Australia. “It’s likely the local figure will trend upwards like it has done with developed markets,” he warns.
Effective Measure delivered advice to South Africa’s publishers and digital advertisers.
For publishers:
- Try to not have more than three ads showing on a page as you scroll. On longer pages don’t bunch all your ad units in the first two screen scrolls. Keep it clean!
- Don’t have floating ads or ads layered over content.
- Make sure your ads fit the screen or ad slot. Especially page wallpapers. Make sure these fit the screen and don’t have critical text cut off.
- Appeal to your readers to turn off their ad-blockers. Run some house ads on your own site on your unsold inventory requesting that your users turn off their ad-blockers as ad revenue is what funds your free content.
- Be strict on the ads you run. Don’t run dodgy campaigns. Even if the money is good.
For advertisers:
- Never let video or sound autoplay. This must always be user-initiated.
- Tweak your banner copy to the environment it is running on. Have multiple versions of the same banner that are relevant to different environments.
- Make sure the user knows your brand and what you are offering in the very first frame of your banner ad.
- Also make sure your full message is told in the first three frames of your banner ad. Longer than that and you have lost their attention.
- The shorter and punchier the copy, the better.
