Not if You Are Paying to be Invisible!
Great content requires distribution and marketing. Organic content distribution i.e. that which grows on its own because of seemingly unrelated work or free marketing activities can be slow and arduous. It is often tempting simply to pay for exposure or pay to advertise rather than struggle to grow the number of friends or followers, build your community, or develop an email list over time.
However, there is a problem with this approach of parting with money for marketing, and it is a problem which in 2015 is worsening. Ads of many types, from Pay per Click, to banners, to paid features or advertorials on popular websites are being increasingly targeted by Ad Blockers. This type of software is designed to suppress any ads from being shown in the user’s browser, a.k.a., your potential customer.
Typically, a Google SERP page can look like this when Ad Blockers are used:
Note the lack of the top 3 paid positions and the hole where PPC ads normally occur on the right side? Imagine if you are funding a PPC budget and a substantial number of your target audience is running Ad Blockers in their browsers? Your ads are, literally, invisible! Worse still, as far as the seller of advertising space is concerned, your ad is still being served and you are going to be charged per impression anyway. So, are you paying for invisibility? You may as well give up your domain and close down your site!
The content marketing industry needs to accept the rise of Ad Blockers and work around this problem, fast. Mobile Internet usage is growing exponentially with many of your prospective customers probably viewing your website and your content on a mobile device. While the common mantra may indeed be that ads fund free content, consumers are fed up with ads. Admit it, you are too.
The big players in the supply chain of mobile devices, such as Apple, rate user experience before the importance of other companies to sell products or find readers for content. For example, iOS9 will see an upsurge in the creation and take-up of Ad Blockers. It is important that you consider whether your content marketing strategy has been or may be impacted by this technology. Think about how to work around this issue and do it now.
Are you throwing your content marketing budget into a black hole? Are paid ads draining your resources instead of delivering quality leads? Plant the seeds of high quality, meaningful and relevant content today. Nurture your content calendar to reap the fruits of organic search ranking.
Talk to us at MintCopy. Call us at 888-646-8003 or send us an email.
Sheetal Pinto is the founder of MintCopy, a content agency that has been helping businesses communicate effectively since 2008. With a passion for words and a knack for SEO, she’s worked with companies around the world to craft copy that not only engages but ranks. Whether it’s blog posts, website content, or social media updates, Sheetal has a talent for turning complex ideas into compelling stories. When she’s not optimizing content or editing for clarity, she’s probably daydreaming about the perfect headline or debating the Oxford comma. With over 16 years in the business, she’s seen the digital marketing and SEO content landscape evolve and grow. Sheetal’s mantra? Fresh copy, refreshing results!
