New ad platform turns tables, lets publishers programmatically offer nonintrusive ads
Adblock Plus, the #1 most popular browser extension for blocking annoying online advertisements, running on more than 100 million active devices, today launched the beta version of an ad-tech platform for publishers. Adblock Plus teamed with publisher platform-provider ComboTag to build what will be known as the Acceptable Ads Platform, an interactive platform that lets publishers and bloggers choose from a marketplace of pre-whitelisted ads that they can drag and drop onto their sites.
The Acceptable Ads Platform contains ad placements that abide by Acceptable Ads criteria for size and labeling; and it allows ads to be positioned only in spots deemed appropriate by the Acceptable Ads rules for ad placement. An intuitive drag-and-drop editor gives publishers the ability to place readymade ads directly onto their site in real-time, and be instantly viewable to millions of Adblock Plus users who have agreed to allow non-intrusive ads to support their favorite websites.
Publishers need to integrate only a single tag into their page, and they can immediately start using the new ad-tech platform. By whitelisting the infrastructure instead of individual ads, Acceptable Ads can be now served by several demand sources; these DSPs and demand partners can then plug in and acquire impressions from participating publishers. In this way, the Acceptable Ads Platform functions as both SSP and an ad exchange. The beta is open today for publishers and advertisers who would like to test it, and it will fully launch in the fall.
“The Acceptable Ads Platform helps publishers who want to show an alternative, nonintrusive ad experience to users with ad blockers by providing them with a tool that lets them implement Acceptable Ads themselves,” said Till Faida, co-founder of Adblock Plus.
Adblock Plus will still block all non-compliant ads, and users can still turn off the Acceptable Ads feature completely if they choose. But publishers and websites that pull from the platform are essentially choosing “pre-approved” ads, so the whitelisting process moves faster and can scale. Whitelisting ads used to take weeks sometimes – now it takes only seconds. On the other hand, users without an ad blocker installed will see the regular ads that the publisher has running on their site.
“There are two ecosystems of online consumers out there right now: the one composed of people who block intrusive ads and the other where people do not. The Acceptable Ads Platform lets publishers reach the former group without changing anything about how they’re reaching the latter,” continued Faida. “We’ve been waiting years for the ad-tech industry to do something consumer-friendly like this, so finally we got tired of waiting and decided to just do it ourselves.”
Adblock Plus introduced its Acceptable Ads guidelines in 2011 as a way to allow well-meaning websites and content creators to continue to receive vital ad revenue. More than 90 percent of Adblock Plus’s 100 million users choose to allow these respectful and useful ads to display on their favorite websites.
Links:
– Learn more about the Acceptable Ads Platform at https://AcceptableAds.com/P
– Follow Adblock Plus on Twitter at @AdblockPlus
– Read and subscribe to our blog at adblockplus.org/blog/
– Media press kit with FAQ, images and company statistics is available at eyeo.com/en/press
– Visit adblockplus.org
– Download Adblock Browser for iOS in the Apple App Store
– Download Adblock Browser for Android in the Google Play Store
About Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus is an open source project that aims to rid the Internet of annoying and intrusive online advertising. Its free web browser extensions (add-ons) put users in control by letting them block or filter which ads they want to see. Users across the world have downloaded Adblock Plus over 500 million times, and it has remained the most downloaded and the most used extension almost continuously since November 2006. PC Magazine named the extension as one of the best free Google Chrome extensions, and it received About.com readers’ choice award for best privacy/security add-on.
Adblock Plus is a free browser add-on for Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Maxthon and Opera for desktop users, and offers a free browser for mobile users on iOS and Android.
About ComboTag
ComboTag is the world’s leading “one-tag solution,” allowing web and mobile publishers to add and control all of their ad placements using a single ad tag and a drag and drop editor. In addition, ComboTag’s solutions let agencies and trading desks take complete control of where their ads are shown and buy exclusive ad assets for their brands. ComboTag’s mission is to enable digital publishers to display fewer ads – but critically, to allow them to do so with ads that are perceived as nonintrusive yet generate higher yields than their regular advertising mix. This unique approach has proven successful time and time again with a myriad of digital publishers across the globe.
