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More Developments By Google Against Aggressive Ads (23)

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This has been in the air for a while in one way or another...

"Most ad networks don't have any kind of manual review process, making this behavior difficult to pinpoint, and the ad's code can even be obfuscated to hide the malicious behavior. Google is now trying something different - blocking the behavior at the browser level."

http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/11...directing-ads/

As far as I know, many affiliates will be affected. Nail in the coffin for pops now?

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Yeah, that's going to hit pretty hard.

Still plenty of people not on Chrome (Chrome at 54% market share at present) but still, this will have a significant impact, and might encourage more people to switch.

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I guess there will always way to go around things, but it becomes harder and less fun...

Feels like if you want to build something sustainable - you will have to start lean more to white-hat stuff, sooner or later.

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If this will work, then the impact will be massive, as Google/Chrome has a massive market share both in Mobile as in Desktop.
It's not only destroying the traffic source for pops affiliates, but will also affect the pops traffic sources themselves, plus to a certain degree ad networks and site owners relying on pops for monetization of traffic.

So I'm wondering what do the large pops traffic sources do about it? Will they have a solution?
It's already possible to enable the feature in Chrome 62, so there's time for them to test the effectiveness of the change...

And what should we pops affiliates do?
1) stay paralyzed and hope it will work some more months (or years if there are workarounds)
2) give full throttle as long as the party it lasts
3) move into new traffic sources like FB, Adwords, Banner / Native already now?

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I'm really looking forward to the result of this initiative ... it's the 3d or 4th attempt at taking POPs down, ever since I started to use this traffic type. So far, nobody was successful at it, so I'm quite positive, that those who cash in on POPs, will find a way for the game to go on.

One way or another, it's wise to explore other traffic types too, POPs are annoying so the presure to block them for good will always be present.

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I personally went with 3, and chose FB. That one seems to be a good option if you want to do some white hat campaigns and try to build for the long term.

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As none of the pop TS themselves have posted an opinion in this thread (and in the older one from about 1-2 months ago), here's what I've heard.

Two major pop sources said what Matuoo stated:
1) "we have always found a way to make it work"
2) "our tech department has a solution for that"

But another source (that probably uses the same technology as one of the two mentioned above) said that "it doesn't look good".

So I guess for myself, I'll have to stop Chrome + Chrome Mobile aka 60% of my traffic plus find a new traffic source.

I guess native is the most similar traffic source compared to pops, as it seems pretty similar (just one additional layer of optimization [banner/native ad])?

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Long live porn! Long live pops!

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They can't admit that there is a problem coming, cause they don't want to start losing business until the change is here for real ... but yes, in the past, someone always found a way to bypass any blocker. I see it 50/50 now... but just to be safe, definitely look at some other options before it's to late.

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im no lawyer, but is it possible for all those ad networks to take legal action somehow, since google owns the largest % of the market and they are using that leverage to eliminate competition from other ad networks. Google themselves acted as judge, jury, and executioner to decide what is ok or not and eliminate all their competitors from the market ( anti-trust kind of lawsuits are based on things like this)

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Wouldn't be the first time - I remember both Google and FB have lost lawsuits in the EU regarding things like this.

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They plan to block behavior that is deemed risky, so it's just a feature of the browser ... I think if they make it possible to turn it of, there is not much to sue for.

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A few more days before the party will/might be over.

https://www.chromium.org/developers/calendar

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Don't think only about pops, banners are also affected.

When a website is classified by Google as not following their standards, all way of ads from that website are also blocked and not only pops.

I have already tested the beta version of Chrome in the major adult and torrent sites, and they become totally ad free.

Of course that would mean the death of online porn and free content sites as we know it, and that is not going to happen. Either a way is found to avoid it, or the websites will block the content for the users using Chrome with ad blocker enabled as it happens already with other ad blockers and some content sites (newspapers etc).

Then users will have two options, either navigate the adult and torrent sites with another browser other than Chrome (a big loss of users for Google) or they will have to manually disable the blocker if they want to enjoy the free content.

Let's see, I'm worried short term yes, scared long term no.

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As ivancy said, it is not just pops but other form of ads too.
Here is a tool that will check what publishers will be completely blocked to show any ads on Chrome after February

https://www.dontblockmyads.org/

I don't think any of these big pubs are going to take this lying down because their revenues are going to be severely impacted. It will be very interesting to watch on how this evolves. I personally hate Google having so much control on the ad industry and the standards it can set.

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Its not just pops and banners either.

"Google confirmed that Chrome will soon not show ads, including those served by Google, on websites not in compliance with the Better Ads Standards. The change will take effect in "early 2018."

Here are the Better Ads Standards: https://www.betterads.org/standards

On desktop there will be a big effect on:
- Pops
- Video ads with sound
- Interstitial ads with countdown timer
- Large sticky ads

On mobile there will be a big effect on:
- Pops
- Interstitial ads
- Ad densitiy higher than 30% (of the screen size)
- Flashing animated ads
- Video ads
- Interstitial ads with countdown timer
- Full screen scrollover ads
- Large stick ads

So the impact will be huge given there's a lot of ad models/creatives/sizes that will not be shown anymore - unless a workaround is found - on all chrome browsers (+50% market share).

A workaround can always be found, after all its a cat and mouse game between affiliates/media buyers and Google/FB, but the workaround is never 100% meaning that not all ad networks or end users will adapt or use the workaround.

What can be the impact of all of this, if implemented entirely?
- Media will become way more expensive. Site owners will want to make the same money with less available impressions and ad models to monetize
- Advertisers will be forced to go more white hat and will want to compensate for the lost revenues with other media buyers that comply with the Better Ads Standards
- Black hat advertisers like shady sweepstake and 1click iframe mobile content companies are going to suffer a lot. White hat advertisers like booking.com won't have to worry that much.
- The big players either adapt this Better Ads Standards and go whitehat, developing new business models OR don't adapt and go black hat/use workarounds
- Ad networks like adcash, propeller, etc and hence also affiliate networks and big pop media buyers will see their revenues decline

I don't see too much of a positive impact from implementing the standard entirely, even not for the user as a lot of content that is now free will disappear and become paying content.
Of course it remains to be seen how strict these guidelines will be implemented and what kind of innovative tricks and workarounds will be in the making.

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An interesting side-effect from all this: if it becomes a lot harder to make money from tube sites, that may signal an opportunity for paid porn sites to make a resurgence.

Given that paid porn sites almost all run affiliate programs, that's interesting for us.

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Go to spankbang, I think you can see the google pop-up blocker in action now. It will say pop-up blocked with a copyright from Google. Is this the end for pops? Hopefully not.

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Seeing them as well, when you click on them you are shown a search bar from Google which if you use opens a pop up to the Google search page.

The irony of it..


I did notice that some ads did work as I was able to see a popup for Follamigos.

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Yeah, have talked to all the biggest pop networks. Most say they have at least a temporary solution for this, some just seem to surrender. Go figure!

Other ad formats could make a comeback to replace the demand, sites could start blocking users with Chrome etc. Time will tell and will be watching closely.

Like attitude of some companies like Adcash - fighting back

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Adcash is doing a great job fighting back but it will take more than one stone to take down such a big elephant.

CEO's of native ad networks are the ones rubbing their hands. They'll be there to welcome both the demand and supply side when Chrome starts implementing the Better Ads Standards.

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Not gonna happen yet, as long as the limited income is still higher than the operational costs, tubes are not gonna close down ... and that's what would be needed for a resurgence of paid porn sites. As long as free adult tubes exist, paid porn model will continue to suffer.

This could drive some free sites out of business though, once again, twice the amount of traffic will be needed to make the same ad-revenue. This could mean less traffic available in the traffic networks, or maybe it will shift to those that survive.

I still hope there will be some workaround in place shortly after the blocker comes live.

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From article linked in the original post, (http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/11...directing-ads/)

I'm assuming that this is talking about pop-unders?

If so, does that mean that if I use pop-unders on my landing pages when my buttons are clicked they will also be blocked? Or only if they link to malicious pages?

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