3 ms·

I run a media site on the low end of popularity (about 200k MAU). In 2015, we were able to make 36k a month with merely 2 banner ads per page, and one sponsored

I run a media site on the low end of popularity (about 200k MAU). In 2015, we were able to make 36k a month with merely 2 banner ads per page, and one sponsored link. Now, we make 7k. Adblock usage has always been high on desktop, but the problem now is that users are using Adblock on their mobile devices as well, and our mobile site has feature parity with our app so there’s no point in using the app. Our users trend young with more than 70% being under 25. Currently we are only able to survive because our older members joined the subscription service as they aged out of the sub 25 age range. If we were starting this site today, it would be impossible. In fact, most of our completion is people who are hosting for “free” on Cloudflare before their site dies when they get forced to pay bandwidth bills.

eek2121 3y ago
That revenue drop isn’t necessarily correlated with adblockers. Across my sites, adblockers have only been present in 20-30%. Ad engagement little changed. Only CPC/RPM has fallen. My data goes back to 2012 or so. Advertisers are paying less because ads are overvalued. Even if the user is not running an adblocker, any number of things could cause an ad to fail to load, load slowly, etc. Ad blindness is also a huge issue. That last part is why so many are turning to Amazon affiliate links. The best decision I ever made was implementing a low cost subscription. The subscription revenue pays 3X as much as ad revenue. I charge just a couple bucks a month. The subscription removes ads, enhances privacy, and gives early access to content. I don’t woory about adblockers at all. I tried fighting them years ago and the 5% of additional revenue did not pay for the time invested. I don’t even pop up an anti adblocker popup.

3 ms·

I run a media site on the low end of popularity (about 200k MAU). In 2015, we were able to make 36k a month with merely 2 banner ads per page, and one sponsored

by true_religion 3y ago

eek2121 3y ago
That revenue drop isn’t necessarily correlated with adblockers. Across my sites, adblockers have only been present in 20-30%. Ad engagement little changed. Only CPC/RPM has fallen. My data goes back to 2012 or so. Advertisers are paying less because ads are overvalued. Even if the user is not running an adblocker, any number of things could cause an ad to fail to load, load slowly, etc. Ad blindness is also a huge issue. That last part is why so many are turning to Amazon affiliate links. The best decision I ever made was implementing a low cost subscription. The subscription revenue pays 3X as much as ad revenue. I charge just a couple bucks a month. The subscription removes ads, enhances privacy, and gives early access to content. I don’t woory about adblockers at all. I tried fighting them years ago and the 5% of additional revenue did not pay for the time invested. I don’t even pop up an anti adblocker popup.