Google seems to have upped its game of cracking Ad-blocker users by designing a tool that will help publishers charge site visitors who use Ad-blockers.
The new tool is called “Funding Choices” and it gives publishers a tool to embed into their website.
The feature is specially designed to help publishers avoid decreased Ad revenue.
Once the feature is enabled, funding choices will allow publishers to set a price per page view for accessing site content using Ad-blockers.
This way, users with Ad-blockers will either have the choice to pay to have the Ads removed or disable the Ad-blocker in order to access site content.
Should a user choose neither of these options, they cannot view site content.
Google will monitor the number of pages that people view and charge them through their updated version of Google Contributor service.
Google is picky, and this only means that this new feature is not for every Tom, Dick, and Harry: Funding Choices will only be available to sites that adhere to set practices such as generating good advertising experiences for site visitors.
Annoying and Intrusive Ads
Some advertisements, especially pop-ups, can be annoying to site visitors and this explains why some opt for Ad-blockers.
It is common to visit a site and music starts playing unexpectedly or you are forced to wait 5 seconds before you can skip to the site content.
This has prompted Google to design its own version of ad-blocker to punish websites that fail to meet standards set by the Coalition for Better Ads.
On one hand, Google understands that consumers install Ad-blockers because of bad experiences, but on the other, they see the need to ensure that credible site owners earn their money through Ads.
Funding Choices is thus a sort of reward to publishers that adopt good adverting practices making the online environment favorable for users.
The Ad Experience Report
Google has even gone a step further to provide resources that can guide site owners on how to create Ads that meet set standards.
The Ad Experience Report is specially designed to help website owners to identify experiences that go against good Ad standards.
These are Ad experiences that annoy, mislead, or are abusive.
This tool will help you identify Ad experiences that are not compliant with Better Ad Standards.
The next obvious step is fixing these issues. After this step is complete, a site review is important just to confirm that the site is now compliant with set standards.
Google Chrome browser will require publishers to adhere to the Better Ads Standards failure to which these standards will be imposed upon them (publishers).
Google will give publishers a 30-day warning before taking any action.
This is definitely a relief since conventional Ad-blockers remove the Ads immediately they are discovered.
The idea has been received well but as is always the case, there is always someone somewhere who is hard to impress.
Critics were less than impressed and questioned Google possible monopoly in Ad-blocking and the ethical issues surrounding the new feature.
Other went as far as to say that they would ditch Chrome for other browsers.
