Ad-blockers typically target the “peskier” ads, such as pop-up ads, banner ads or tracking ads (which use remarketing to follow users from site to site). They can also be set up to block tracking codes, which provide websites with the activity information from a site visitor, such as the number and type of pages visited or time spent on site.

However, software like AdBlockPlus have made a compromise as they understand “not all ads are equally annoying”, and will still display ads deemed “acceptable” by a set of strict criteria:

1. Placement: Ads must not disrupt the user’s natural reading flow. Such ads must be placed on top, side or below the Primary Content
2. Distinction: Ads should always be recognizable as ads, and distinguishable from all other content (e.g. are not hiding the label, are not misleading users into thinking an ad is part of the primary content). Ads should be clearly marked with the word “advertisement” or its equivalent.
3. Size: Individual ad-size requirements depend on the placement of the ad:
   • When placed above the primary content, the maximum height of an ad should be 200px.
   • When placed on the side of the primary content, the maximum width of an ad should be 350px.
   • When placed below the primary content, the maximum height of an ad should be 400px.

   Ads must always leave sufficient space for the Primary Content on the common screen size of 1366×768 for desktop, 360×640 for mobile devices and 768×1024 for tablets.

   All ads that are placed above the fold (the portion of the web page visible in the browser window when the page first loads under the common screen size), must not occupy in total more than 15 percent of the visible portion of the web page. If placed below the fold, ads must not occupy in total more than 25 percent of the visible portion of the webpage.

Ads following these criterion will be ‘whitelisted’ and the blocking software, if enabled properly, will still allow these acceptable ads to run and be visible to users. In addition, larger corporations (like Google Adwords, who have more than 10 million ad impressions per month) can also pay a fee to ensure their ads are whitelisted, but they must also still remain compliant to the criteria.

So how can you understand how ad-blocking might affect your website and your ads?

While seen as a benefit to most consumers, ad-blocker software has unfortuantely impacted website owners in a number of negative ways: besides obviously blocking ads from being displayed on website pages, the blocker apps have also been known to disrupt the way the pages are rendered, skewing their content and design. They also have a block trackers setting which basically blocks analytics tags from downloading and firing when a page loads in Safari or Chrome where these extensions or iOS systems are being used – meaning visits to your website from these browsers will not be tracked in your analytics system. However, there is some html coding that you can do to get around this, and our post on ad-blockers and analytics can help you get sorted.

In the meantime, HubSpot has posted a really great, in-depth article on the pros and cons of ad-blocking, and what it means for marketers and their advertising strategy. Make sure you read the full post, as it will be very useful for you to understand the impacts of ad-blocking, and how you can create better ad experiences for your website visitors.

To read more about HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2016, download a free copy of the report by clicking below: