Ad blocking software is increasingly becoming an issue for the advertising industry as it directly impacts the ability for advertisements to reach target audiences. Here are our five tips for advertisers to proactively combat ad blocking.

Ad-blocking software has been around for some time now. Its purpose is to stop online advertisements from appearing. It has become increasingly popular because consumers are finding ads increasingly distracting and overwhelming. 

Here are our top tips for keeping ad blocking numbers low.

1. Never let video or sound autoplay.
   This must always be user-initiated.

2. Tweak your banner copy to the environment it is running on.
   Have multiple versions of the same banner that are relevant to different environments.

3. Make sure the user knows your brand and what you are offering in the very first frame of your banner ad.

4. 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.

5. The shorter and punchier the copy, the better. 

Interested in how South Africans approach ad blocking? Download our latest Ad-Blocking in South Africa Report to get the best overview of this issue, including why South Africans install ad-blockers and what they think of online advertisements.

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Greg Mason has over nine years of digital marketing experience in display, search, mobile and social media marketing. He has worked closely with large international publishers like MSN, BBC, CBS Interactive, Sky News, Sky Sports, Daily Mail, TeamTalk Media, Times Live, Career Junction and various other leading local South African publishers. He is the Regional Lead for Narratiive in Sub-Saharan Africa.