Fractl and Moz reported this week that around 63% of millennials employ ad blockers.

I use it on Chrome, as do most of my friends, and now mobile ad blockers are becoming increasingly popular.

Marketers are pretty afraid of adblocking. Some websites and brands try to prevent this by using content that needs adblocker disabled before it can be used.

[Marketers feel] the need to ensure that their ads are actually viewable instead of hidden in corners of websites. – Wall Street Journal

Personally, I feel that if people want to block your ads, then you’re not providing them with the right stuff. Whether you need to target better, or just provide better content; it’s your job to be innovative, compelling and interesting. It’s certainly not the consumer’s job to look at your ad if they don’t want to.

This is an opportunity for growth in marketing and advertising. Digital has given people an opportunity to really connect with consumers, and still some brands insist on doing a ‘direct mail dump’ of whatever they want to show their audience.

This isn’t how it works. Instead of trying to get people to unblock adverts, stop providing them with adverts and start providing them with content they want to see.

Digital-ad spending is expected to grow 17% this year to $58.1 billion, according to eMarketer.

Further Reading:

Marketing Week – ‘Stop advertising on mobile, you’re missing the bigger picture’

Wall Street Journal – ad blocking

Digital Marketing Stats for this week