5 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2016

Brands are always on the hunt for new ways to bolster web presence, which is why the demand for solid digital marketing strategies is so high among business owners. But keeping up online means more than implementing what’s already being done, it means staying ahead of the curve as well. Keeping tabs on emerging trends is the best way to keep your marketing campaigns successful, and your brand top of mind.

Here we take a look at some digital marketing trends you’ll want to keep an eye on as we approach 2016:

1. App development

You may have already seen apps appearing in mobile searches, and Google’s continuing search complexity will see apps garner significant visibility advantages for owners in 2016. Start to look for dedicated apps to replace mobile-optimized sites in the near future. An app serves all the same roles of a mobile site, but does so in a more intuitive and user centric way. Looking at some notable sites, such as EBay and Amazon, you’ll find that opting for a dedicated app is already becoming a standard. Look for others to start doing the same.

2. Wearable tech

As 2015 comes to a close, don’t be surprised to see even more people with smart tech adorning their body. 2016 could likely mark the shift from early adoption into mainstream for such devices, meaning a new channel of accessibility for digital marketers. From watches, hats, pants, shoes, and even shirts, everything we wear will soon be able to connect and communicate with the web. Local marketers will have a ton of possibilities as engagement options become only a matter of what’s touching your skin.

3. New and niche social platforms

Any savvy digital marketer knows that you need to be where your audience is, and right now that means the newest social platforms. With the old guard (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) already saturated, brands are starting to flock to upstarts such as Snapchat, Periscope, and Instagram for visibility. The promise of instant, real-time connections has made these platforms exciting for marketers as they search for new ways to keep audiences active. These more so niche platforms also offer audiences that are more engaged and passionate; traits marketers crave. Judging by Snapchat’s recent introduction of their brand-centric “Discover” section, these new channels will continue to be a focus going into 2016.

4. Predictive Analytics

Big data has been a talking point since late 2014, but digital marketers are now finding impressive ways to utilize all the data they collect from day to day engagement. By using data to highlight trends and patterns, marketers are able to setup campaigns based on probable outcome, a.k.a predictive analytics. This means marketers are now able to use data to engage with prospects in a way that’s relevant on an individual level (i.e. displaying ads for products you’ve already been researching). That means less risk and more reward. Expect to see brands invest more into their digital marketing campaigns as their leading strategy moving forward.

5. Interactive Content

If “content” is the word of the year for digital marketing, then “engagement” is certainly the runner up. Simply getting your audience to show up is half the battle in an increasingly noisy world of content. The key to creating a lasting impression now relies on content that engages, and interactive content has become a key tactic in that battle. Tools such as animated presentations or real-time polls are great ways to both entertain and encourage social sharing. Moving forward you can expect to see less traditional blog posts or press releases and more interactive quizzes or diagrams.

     

How location-based mobile marketing can boost your sales

By now, most understand that display ads typically target consumers based on their online behavior — websites visited, keywords searched or content read. But, with the number of mobile users growing rapidly – more than 17 million Canadians are using smartphones to go online – ad targeting is expected to shift.

One of the new, and as yet under-used, approaches is location-based mobile marketing, meaning inferring intent or motivation based on people’s location (as identified by the GPS in their smartphones), and serving them relevant ads and/or messages designed to get them to take action.

Whether searching for restaurant recommendations or getting directions, people rely on mobile devices as a vital source of information affecting purchase decisions. So having your messages appear on consumers’ mobile devices can be an effective marketing tool.

Whether referred to as geolocating, geofencing or proximity marketing, they all aim to target consumers and influence behaviour based on their location through an app.

Imagine setting up a ‘geo-fence’ to a specific proximity of your retail store, and every time a person who has your app on their phone enters that ‘geo-fence,’ they encounter a push notification with a promotion to a product or service in your store. MDG Advertising says 72 per cent of consumers say they will respond to calls-to-action in marketing messages they receive within sight of the retailer.

So how does location-based mobile marketing work? Most apps require location services to be turned on for them to function on your phone, which in turn transmits the co-ordinates of every place you go. (It’s the reason Instagram, for example, knows where you are when you want to tag a photo with your location.) That doesn’t mean someone is physically tracking your location, only that your location may automatically trigger a message being pushed to you.

Personalization Drives Email Marketing to New Heights

While the effectiveness of email marketing cannot be challenged – as it’s constantly voted the best marketing channel – personalization is also becoming an essential strategy that cannot be ignored. The folks at VentureBeat recently ran a really awesome study into the effects of personalization in email marketing. It surveyed as many as 200 email marketers and learned a lot about the direction of the highly effective email marketing tactic.

One of the most revealing findings in VentureBeat’s study was in regards to how personalization can affect open rates. About 95% of the marketers in the study shared that open rates improve when they personalize their emails. Furthermore, unsubscribe rates decrease when emails are personalized. Those two facts says enough about the effectiveness of personalization, but let’s venture onward into more of VentureBeat’s findings!

Here’s exactly how much personalization affected their email marketing efforts: 21.3% of the 200 marketers saw an open rate increase of 5-10%, and 20.8% of them saw a 15-20% increase. The third highest increase was in the 0-5% range, noticed by 17.8% of the marketers. While only 4.5% saw a total increase of 50-70+%, that’s a huge number, and it’s suggestive that it can only grow larger as personalization efforts improve over time. It’s also worth noting that 9.1% of marketers saw an increase in open rate of 20-30%, and 7.% saw an increase of 30-40%.

While addressing your recipients by name is only a small part of email personalization, it was found to be the most popular by marketers: 32% of marketers personalize by name, 29.4% do so by Social Profile, and demographics (age and gender) won third place at 27.4%. It’s worth noting that as automation services improve, it’s conceivable that other verticals like “previous interactions,” “call history,” and “web browsing history” could come to replace the top three. Check out the graphic below for more details :)

One of the more interesting findings by VentureBeat concerns how many segments marketers personalize email for. The highest percentage of segments was in the 2-5 range, which took 28%. 6-8 segments took second place at 20%, and 10-15 and 16-25 tied at 14% apiece. 100+ segments had only 3%, and individualized (segmented to an individual level) took 7%. See graphic below for more details.

Instagram's new marketing program paves way for more brands to spend

Instagram is bringing on dozens of new ad tech partners to help keep ads and marketing rolling on the platform.

Facebook’s image-sharing app announced the official launch of the Instagram Partner Program today, and it opens up more opportunities to inject commercials into people’s feeds, paid and non-paid. There are 40 ad tech companies plugging into the ecosystem as part of the program, including Nanigans, Adaptly, Hootsuite, Tongal and SocialCode.

“Our partners compliment Instagram’s marketing tools, simplifying and scaling success for businesses through their proprietary tools,” Instagram said in a blog post today. “We’re starting the program with 40 partners ready to power businesses around the globe.”

Instagram said these platforms were chosen for their expertise in ad tech, community management and content marketing. These types of partner programs are not new. For instance, Pinterest has a similar arrangement with technology players, and Facebook has its own program. But the partnerships are a way for social media sites to encourage more brand activity and spending.

Instagram is still a fairly new ad option for brands, and has only a fraction of Facebook’s 2.5 million advertisers. Still, it has benefitted from piggybacking on Facebook’s mature ad technology and sophisticated targeting tools.

Instagram already launched its ad API, which is a software platform that handles advertising orders from technology partners. The API rolled out this summer, and at the time Insatgram said the partner program was in the works, too. Both platform upgrades are meant to make it easier for advertisers to buy on Instagram and keep track of how campaigns perform.

In stats released today, Instagram cited a House of Blues campaign run by ad tech partner CitizenNet, which targeted people with similar musical tastes. The campaign ran in North Carolina and led to a 64 percent return on investment compared to how the venue’s campaigns typically perform, according to Instagram.

The eyewear brand Hawkers International, working with Smartly.io, claimed that Instagram campaigns led to 26 percent lower costs per click on ads than it typically pays and half the cost per action, which is the way brands measure direct response marketing that drives people to take an action like “learn more” or “shop now.”

These programs are important for boosting spending from advertisers that are used to planning campaigns through partners. For instance, SocialCode said 40 percent of its clients were now running some ads on Instagram.

Still, the ease of advertising could also lead to lower quality ads. There have been concerns that as Instagram becomes more commercial, the photo-sharing site could lose some of its artistic appeal. Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg responded to questions during the latest quarterly earnings call with analysts by saying it was a topic that the company was focusing on. “Instagram is about the quality,” she said.

Still, even Instagram concedes taht the best way to ensure satisfaction — besides more engaging ad formats — is developing the ad technology that targets people who will be most receptive to the ads.

 

 

Even if you're not using Facebook, Facebook is using you

The only things in the world more popular than Facebook are food, air and water.

The numbers say more than a billion people tap into Facebook every day and that popularity comes with a lot of power. As CBC technology columnist Jesse Hirsh argues, that power is being used in ways that Facebook users may not be entirely comfortable with. And, not being a Facebook user won't leave you free of Facebook's grasp. 

Q: What do these new results say about the company?

They have an incredible trajectory and continue to grow. At some point you would think they would reach saturation. Yet they continue to grow in revenues and in users which suggests the hold-outs are caving in or young people are joining as a coming of age ritual. It does speak to a very dominant company. I wouldn't even call it a social networking company. I wouldn't describe it as an advertising company. Rather, they are a data company. Their success at monetizing that data, leveraging that data into all sorts of new products revenue streams is phenomenal. 

As it stands, 78 percent of Facebook's revenue comes from mobile advertising. One of the more interesting numbers that came out of these quarterly results had to do with Facebook's pursuit of video. Facebook now has over 8 billion video views per day which is twice they number they had in just April of this year. That indicates their ability to move laterally and mobilize the attention they get from their users into new areas. 

They know so much about us that when it comes to video they know so much about which videos we are most likely to watch. That's why they are so successful in this new area.

How is Facebook using all this data it collects?

When they say 78 percent of their revenue comes from mobile advertising, what they're talking about is mobile re-targeted advertising. The mobile side is self-evident, it's mobile ads on your phone. Re-targeted advertising is kind of like stalker advertising. It's those ads that follow you everywhere you go on the web. Those ads are not limited to just Facebook. Facebook as an ad network has all sorts of other publishers who participate as part of the program. Those ads follow you in different places, whether on websites, in apps or in different media. Secondly, you don't have to click on those ads for Facebook to get paid. All you have to do is buy the product. 

Even if you bought that product in-store, Facebook still knows. It has third-party business partners and through them it can match spending and loyalty card information to its users and enables it to target people for advertisers. If you have Facebook Messenger installed, are using the app and give it permission, it knows your location. This creates a cumulative effect where Facebook knows when you are interested in something and they can create ads that follow you. They can tell when you bought that in-store and can turn around to the advertiser and charge a huge premium. That's a level of innovation when it comes to tracking and advertising that didn't exist before Facebook. 

Facebook, as a data broker, uses its data to sell to advertisers the ability to reach targeted consumer groups. There are all sorts of applications where Facebook data is being used to judge people, to analyze people. One of the more interesting areas is with regards to our credit score. The Financial Times did a study on the way in which credit agencies are using buying and leveraging Facebook data. They will quantify someone's credit score based on their friend's credit scores. Also, the CEO of one of the largest credit rating agencies has speculated on the potential ability of using someone's social media posts as a useful predictor of their credit worthiness in the future. The example Will Lansing of Fair Isaac used was whether measuring how many times someone used the word "wasted" would be useful in how likely that person was to repay his or her debt. There are all sorts of ways people can and are buying Facebook data to evaluate potential prospects.

What about all those people who have left Facebook or never joined? Are they free from Facebook's data mining?

This is the myth. Just because you're not using Facebook, doesn't mean Facebook is not using you. If you have a credit card Facebook, through its business partners, can make use of data about your spending. The same is true if you have a loyalty marketing card. If you surf the web Facebook has your data. Just because you are not using Facebook as a social network it does not mean Facebook is not actively profiling you and tracking your movements via your smart phone. Part of it is the way that "super cookies", cookies that go from website to website, can be installed by a media company that is partnered with Facebook. It becomes very difficult to protect your privacy. If you are a consumer, if you are a web user you fall within their grasp. It's important to note it is possible for users to opt out of many of these features through various settings on Facebook and smartphone apps and limiting use of location services on your phone. Many commenters suggest however, this is onerous and technically arduous. 

So, who is going to challenge Facebook on a corporate, commercial level? And, who is going to challenge Facebook on a regulatory level?

Should Facebook be regulated?

It's on the radar for privacy authorities and privacy regulators. It's on the low radar for Canada's competition bureau and the Federal Trade Commission in the United States. The European Union is looking at regulating Facebook and what that would entail. It's early days. None of these agencies have an idea of how they would do it. It's something we need to think about. Facebook's power may or may not be good for the users who are subject to it.

Understanding the Basics of Advertising on Social Media

An age-old advertising industry aphorism notes how ad spend follows eyeballs, and these days all eyeballs are on social media. According to data from eMarketer, Advertisers worldwide will spend $23.68 billion on paid media to reach consumers on social networks in 2015, a 33.5% increase from 2014. By 2017, social network ad spending will reach $35.98 billion, representing 16.0% of all digital ad spending globally.

Compelling stats and figures aside, it doesn’t take a marketing guru to realize that, with virtually everyone on the planet interacting on social networks, social media might not be such a bad place for your business to advertise. But how do you get started? If you’re like many, the very notion of advertising on social media is an overwhelming one. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone took the time to summarize the basics of advertising on social media, perhaps in a nice-and-tidy blog post full of actionable links? Don’t worry, dear reader, I’ve got you covered.

Before You Get Started

1. Set Your Goals (and Budget)

Much like going to the casino, it’s always a good idea to clarify what you are willing to spend (and potentially blow) before you dig into the nitty-gritty of setting up ad campaigns on social media. And you can’t set your budget until you’ve set your campaign goals, or defined what exactly you’re trying to accomplish with each specific social ad initiative. This is an important but often overlooked step.

If I had to pick a common theme to advertising on any of the major social channels these days, it would be simplicity. This was not always the case. A few years back, setting up ad campaigns on most social platforms tended to be a confusing and cumbersome process. Now, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube, they’ve all stripped down their processes, simplifying the user experience and making it astonishingly easy to set up ad campaigns on their platforms.

Just bear this in mind: as useful as a highly simplified user experience sounds, it can be a dangerous thing when setting up social ad campaigns if you’re not prepared ahead of time with a well-conceived marketing plan governed by clearly defined budget parameters. Very dangerous indeed.

2. Define Your Target Audience

For the modern-day digital marketer, the ancient Greek maxim “Know Thyself” can (and should) be translated to “Know Thy Audience.” Your audience is the Who you are targeting to—make sure you know who they are. Don’t skimp out on developing detailed buyer personas to help clarify.

3. Shape Your Message

The principle driver of any social media campaign—paid or otherwise—is solid marketing content that contains a relevant message targeted to a specific audience. Enough said.

4. Execute Your Campaign

Not much to say here. Hopefully this one is so obvious as to not require further elaboration. Hit the “Activate,” “Go,” “Initiate Campaign,” etc. button and then grab a cup of joe and hope for the best.

5. Measure Your Results, Refine, Scale

One of the great things about social advertising (and digital marketing generally) is the easy access to campaign performance data. Unfortunately, this is where the wheels tend to fall off the applecart in many a social advertising campaign.

Don’t let this happen to you. Take the time to understand the analytical tools at your disposal on whichever social platforms you advertise, and then use them on a consistent basis. After all, they’re there for a reason: to provide you with tangible campaign feedback, feedback that will shed light on what’s working and what isn’t and provide a roadmap to future campaign refinement.

Once you’ve reached the point where you know what is in fact working, don’t be afraid to scale your campaign by dedicating additional money/resources to it. Remember, success is the goal here. As I always say, if it ain’t broke, throw more money at it.

Now that we’ve reviewed the big picture process of advertising on social media, let’s take a quick spin through some of the high points of advertising on each of four major social networks—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Off we go…
Advertising on Facebook

The first step to advertising on Facebook is to create a Facebook Page for your business. If you haven’t done this already, you can learn how to set one up here.

Once your Facebook Page is up and running, you can create Facebook Ads to reach different audiences and meet specific business goals. As Facebook is more than happy to point out on its Facebook Ads homepage, over 1.4 billion people globally are on Facebook, with more than 900 million visiting the site every day. With such massive audience reach, Facebook is an attractive platform for all types of businesses, although it is generally regarded as primarily a business-to-consumer-focused (B2C) marketing channel. However, it should be noted that a number of business-to-business (B2B) companies have found success with Facebook advertising and marketing. Check out this post from Facebook to learn more.

Like AdWords and many other social advertising platforms, Facebook uses an auction system for determining which ads are placed when and where. Likewise, you maintain control of your campaign budget, which you can set on a daily, monthly, per-ad, or per-campaign basis.

A big advantage of advertising on Facebook is the vast array of micro-audience targeting options at your disposal. Businesses can target audiences based on location, demographics (age, gender, etc.), interests (activities, hobbies, etc.), online and offline buying habits, and more.

In terms of campaign objectives, Facebook offers many different ways to advertise on its platform, ranging from boosting the reach of individual posts to increasing conversions on your website or getting more installs of your mobile app.

For my money, though, one of the most interesting social advertising tools on Facebook is the Custom Audiences feature, which allows you to remarket to people who have already visited your website by retargeting them with a customized ad when they go on to use the social platform. Pretty cool.

If you want to learn more about advertising on Facebook, here’s a link to the Facebook Ads homepage.

Advertising on Twitter

Reflecting a common approach taken by many leading social networks, on its Business Solutions homepage Twitter highlights four popular campaign goals for businesses interested in social advertising: build an audience (in this case on the Twitter platform), generate more traffic, leads, and sales to your website; promote your mobile app; and raise brand awareness by promoting your content (again, on the Twitter platform).

Like the other social networks, Twitter offers robust targeting capabilities, a host of free analytics tools to measure campaign performance, and a raft of case studies highlighting how other businesses have used Twitter Ads to reach their campaign goals. That said, by far the most novel and potentially game-changing social advertising tool Twitter has to offer, in my humble opinion, is Twitter Cards.

Twitter Cards allow you to go beyond 140 characters by adding engaging media experiences to your Tweets. With Twitter Cards, you can attach photos, videos, and other rich media to create more engaging Tweets that drive traffic to your website. According to Twitter, all you have to do is simply add a few lines of HTML to your webpage, and users who Tweet links to your content will have a “Card” added to the Tweet that’s visible to all of their followers.

Here’s an example of a Twitter App Card, which features a “Download” call-to-action embed:

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/social-media/paid-advertising-101-understanding-basics-advertising-social-media-01373105#Zh8YLUf8Q9wXVk7u.99

Why Running Ads on Both Facebook and Instagram Is Likely to Be the New Normal

Advertisers have their best chance yet to double flank consumers on social media as Instagram continues to expand its advertising capabilities by building on what Facebook started long ago.

Instagram has said it plans to work with 100 companies around the world to better improve the quality of its still young ad operation. The first 41 companies, unveiled Tuesday, are working with the platform to bring in new advertising business. Initial focus areas include improved planning and buying processes as well as better consumer insights and faster content-creation tools.

Add in the fact that Instagram is now powered with Facebook's huge collection of interest-level user data, and the developments beg the question: Will well-budgeted campaigns now almost always include both Facebook and Instagram ads? 

New Instagram partners like Adobe, Salesforce, 4C, Spredfast, Hootsuite and AdParlor also often facilitate ads on Facebook. And since their platform-based allegiances are spread wide while also typically working with YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc., we thought it would be interesting to ask them if Facebook Inc. in essence could become a one-stop shop for social campaigns. 

"We anticipate growth with the extended reach into Instagram leveraging Facebook's powerful targeting options," said Monica Lay, senior product marketing manager, Adobe. "Many are still in test and learn phase, particularly around direct response, so it's hard to quantify and estimate at this early stage."

Eric Stahl, svp of product marketing, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, said, "Advertising on either Instagram or Facebook should not be thought of as part of a silo'd social-media budget, but as a core component of the advertising budget, especially as customers spend more and more of their time on mobile devices." 

Aaron Goldman, chief marketing officer, 4C, added, "Having a streamlined solution to adapt content from one platform to another will be essential for advertisers who will want to achieve the most value from their assets and manage campaigns at scale."

So the answer is, Yeah, you're going to see ads in concert from the same marketers on Instagram and Facebook a lot of the time.

And it's not terribly difficult to understand why—the amount of time mobile users spend on either Facebook or Instagram is staggering. According to Intsagram, one in five minutes spent on mobile devices is spent on either of the two platforms, a statistic that illustrates one of the reasons monthly and daily user counts continue to skyrocket.

"It's hard to say that democratizing access to Instagram ads to both developers and businesses will not grow ad spend," said Zaz Floreani, senior director of business development, Spredfast.

According to Hootsuite, the social advertising industry continues to steal budgets from traditional channels, especially as platforms like Instagram and Facebook are able to increase their ability to measure ROI for social promos. Because of that, large-scale growth should be expected.

"Instagram provides access to a very large, very engaged audience," a spokesperson told Adweek. "The fact that you can use the same rich Facebook targeting criteria on Instagram will make it massively effective for advertisers looking to get their products or services in front of exactly the right people at the right time."

Paul Van Winssen, director of operations and client services, AdParlor, said his clients are excited about the possibilities. He didn't name specific brands, but AdParlor works with everyone from Walmart to Molson Coors to MGM Resorts International. 

"Brands and agencies are still exploring where Instagram fits into their overall marketing mix, but we can say nearly everyone we've spoken to is interested to give it a test drive and see how it works for their business," he said. 

Facebook Ads Boost Biggest Social Network's Sales

 

Facebook ads bolstered Q3 earnings of the world's biggest social network.

 

Facebook ads helped registered the company's Q3 burgeoning 41 percent revenues year-over-year with 50 percent coming from every United States user as compared to last year.

 

Business Insider revealed Facebook's sales mostly came from Europe and North America. Although 65 percent of the company's monthly active users are from the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the globe, only about $ 1.1 billion or 25 percent were gained from those locations. The reason for that was the fact that the average Facebook ad revenue for every user in those areas was still minute, in comparison to that in the United States.

 

In addition, Facebook ad revenue were slowly climbing to the top. From last year's 17.6 percent in Asia Pacific and 10.9 percent throughout the rest of the world. As such, the largest social media network is looking for more tactics to make sure its ads become more valuable in other parts of the earth.

Last week, a new kind of Facebook ad format was launched to emerging markets like Africa and India, where consumers often lack the bandwidth to view real videos. The social media app said that the video-like experience, "Slideshow" ads would prove to draw more attention for Facebook users.

 

According to Bloomberg, Facebook Inc. managed to overcome third quarter revenue estimates after the company exhausted efforts for it mobile advertising.

 

Facebook's Q3 sales were $4.5 billion versus the average analyst valuation of $4.5 billion. In a statement released by the Menlo Park, California-based firm, there were 1.01 billion visitors daily sharing status updates and checking on other people. Monthly users rose to 1.55 billion or 14 percent.

 

Facebook putting more ads in the face of this huge and growing consumer has paid off as profit, not including some items was 57 cents a share compared with analysts' 52 cents prediction. Net income leaped from $806 million to $896 million.

Josh Olson, Edward Jones & Co. analyst said, “Their core mobile-advertising business is still very strong and has a lot of runway.”

 

Facebook now employs 12, 000 in its workforce after an additional 1,000 jobs last quarter.

Furthermore, Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, is targeting for the social network to have a vast impact in next year's United States elections — each member of Congress has a Facebook account.

 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “We had a good quarter and got a lot done. We’re focused on innovating and investing for the long term to serve our community and connect the entire world.”

 

Some business observers see more potential for his company's shares to rise. Aside from Facebook ads, some of its assets such as WhatsApp, a mobile messaging service bought by the social media giant in 2014 as well as the Oculus VR, a virtual reality hardware firm has yet to generate income, as per SFGate.

Read more: http://www.jobsnhire.com/articles/30773/20151109/facebook-ads-boost-biggest-social-networks-sales.htm#ixzz3r7A6qE00

Advertising industry challenged to create ads that people don’t want to block

Advertisers are very concerned about the popularity of mobile ad blocker apps, but may not be able to overcome the threat without making tough changes to their ads.

That was perhaps the big takeaway from a panel at the adtech conference on mobile ad blocking, which featured some key people involved in the debate.

The fear is that if consumers are blocking mobile ads, the publishers that run them won’t be paid and will no longer be able to survive.

“How do we balance the right of the publisher to get paid with the right of the consumer not to get stalked and hounded?”  Bob Knorpp of The CoolBeans Group asked, cutting right to the core issue of the ad blocking debate.

Panelist Pieter Mees of Zentrick pointed out that users will always want to block ads that suck. In many cases that means installing an ad blocker to rid themselves of intrusive ads that detract from the mobile browsing experience.

“As long as people control their own devices they are going to try to move their own objectives, and the only way to change that is to offer more value,” he said.

“As soon as ad blockers start blocking valuable content, people will stop installing them,” he added.

Most of the marketing and advertising people in the room agree with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) that viewing content while blocking the ads that come with it is tantamount to stealing.

Still, the IAB seems to want to work with consumers, not against them, to solve the problem.

” . . . we need to solve these problems with the consumer where they’re not seeing ads that are relevant to them,” said IAB COO Patrick Dolan.

For one thing, Dolan said, mobile users are informed when an ad is being blocked, so at least they have the choice of whether to view it or not.

The IAB has already begun setting down guidelines for how advertisers can make non-obtrusive, mobile friendly ad units. The ads, Dolan explained, should be light-weight, encrypted, should offer the user a choice of ad experiences, and should be non-intrusive to the user.

But figuring out how to make ads that have all those qualities, good creative, and broad reach may be a tough nut to crack. That’s because the more creative work you put into an ad to make it more appealing, the greater the cost to the advertiser. And the more data calls the ad unit makes to targeting databases to try to deliver more relevant ads, the slower the ad unit runs in the browser.

“It’s something we’re struggling with; honestly we are trying to figure it out but we haven’t figured it out,” said Drew Porter of the agency twofifteenmccann.

Today, 34 percent of web users have installed some sort of ad blocker. Eighteen percent of tablet users have installed one, and almost a quarter of all mobile phone users — 24 percent — have installed an ad blocker.