AdBlock Monetization: 11 Proven Ways to Turn Ad Block Traffic into Revenue

In this blog post, we will delve into the world of ad blockers, explaining how they operate, and suggest adblock monetization strategies while safeguarding your returns from diminishing.

To truly understand adblock monetization, it is essential to grasp their workings. Ad blockers are software that halts communication between ad servers and your browser itself. By doing so, they cloak the specific elements of a website that are intended to display advertisements.

Consequently, when ad blocker users access such sites, these designated areas appear devoid of content, resembling empty spaces to the unsuspecting eyes of the end users.

How Does AdBlock Affect Revenue?

The effect of adblock on revenue has never been positive, and will never be.

According to 2024 data, ad blocking had cost the advertising industry $54 billion. This represented around 8% of the total digital ad spend (Statista). 

Moreover, Admiral states that publishers tend to lose around 15-30% of their revenue to adblockers.

2025 won’t be any different. With 42.7% of internet users using ad blockers, compared to 32.8% in 2023, the revenue loss is bound to increase.

However, the industry has come up with several adblock monetization strategies to counter the revenue loss. In the next section, we will be covering these techniques.

How can Publishers Monetize AdBlock Traffic?

Your audience uses adblock not out of spite but out of necessity. They don’t want to see you out of business; they just want to have a better user experience.

However, a user using an ad block will directly hit your revenue. So, what do publishers do to fight this blockocalypse? Blocking ad blockers right back, asking for a whitelist, asking for a small payment in lieu of access, among a few things. Very few publishers actually have the wherewithal to look within and improve ad experience.

Let’s first discuss some actionable ways to recover your adblock lost revenue.

1. AdBlock Walls

One of the simplest and easy-to-implement adblock monetization tactics is an adblock wall. It is a digital barrier you create that denies website access to a user using ad block software. No matter how aggressive it may seem, this technique is utilized by many websites as well as anti-ad block software, such as Admiral.

Denying access to your content would necessitate the user to disable the ad blocker. However, for adblock walls to bear fruits, your website content should be like no other, i.e., it should be unique enough for users to stick to your website.

2. Request Whitelisting of your Website

Another approach to adblock monetization is by requesting users to whitelist your website. Here comes a question: Why would a user whitelist your website?

The answer is simple: For transparency and trust.

As a publisher, you can display a polite message entailing how advertising is the bread and butter of your website. Within the same message, you can also give out the details of how the user data is processed, i.e., showcasing compliance with privacy laws like CCPA and GDPR.

Otherwise, you can add a pinch of sarcasm to your message to tickle the users’ funny bones. For inspiration, this is how OKCupid pulled it off:

In many cases, publishers create a page within their website dedicated to how and what data is collected for advertising purposes. This instills trust in the user, hence making them more amicable towards whitelisting your website.

3. Acceptable Ads

Not all adblock monetization tactics are as plain as whitelisting. Polite requests may work with your viewers, but AdBlock software is a different game altogether. You can’t buy your way through getting whitelisted by ad blockers. Your ad layout requires you to be ‘Acceptable Ads Program’ compliant to get your domain white-listed.

However, you have to optimize the ad formats, sizes, and placements according to the program. On top of that, each served ad should carry an “advertisement” label to distinguish it from the surrounding content.

Then you have to watch out for following ads and creatives, which are NOT acceptable:

• Auto-refreshing
• Animated
• Autoplaying sound or video
• Expanding
• Oversized
• Interstitials
• Overlaid (display and in-video)
• Pop-ups and pop-unders
• Pre-roll video
• Rich media (e.g. Flash ads, Shockwave ads, etc.)

4. Use Blocked Ads to Extract Value

An optimist’s approach to ad blocking is not to see it as lost revenue but as an opportunity to sell products, capture emails, and gather data.

You know, when life gives you lemons…

A large number of publishers have adopted this approach for adblock monetization. For instance, Forbes detects when a reader is using ad block and asks him to sign in (i.e., capture data) or whitelist the site:

The Atlantic does something similar. You can whitelist the site or even buy a subscription to support Atlantic’s journalism without seeing any ads.

The philosophy behind this approach is clear: if you can’t make any money from ads, at least do whatever you can to extract value from the visitor.

Here are a few things you can do on blocked ad spaces:

• Capture emails by promoting your newsletter. You can later show ads/offers in emails without worrying about being blocked.
• Encourage users to sign up for a free account (if you have one).
• Encourage users to follow you on social media. This gives you an opportunity to reach users again without being blocked.
• Promote a paid account or product.

5. Server-side Ad Insertion (SSAI)

If you are a video publisher, SSAI can be an ideal adblock monetization option for you. In this, the ads are integrated or stitched into the videos at the server level. As the ads are added to the video before it is delivered to the viewer’s device, ad blockers are unable to detect or block them.

Such ads show a higher completion rate compared to client-side ad insertion. Moreover, this arrangement is equally favorable to users as the ads load without buffering.

6. Ad Recovery Softwares

Can you actually bypass ad-blocking software?

A number of companies have been doing that, including AdPushup’s AdRecover.

For the most part, these tools help you analyze how people use ad block on your site and find ways to circumvent it.

Ad Replacement

One of the ways is implementing the Acceptable Ads initiative, which comes under Ad Replacement. These programs aim to define criteria for non-intrusive, relevant, and respectful advertising that users might be more inclined to allow.

By adhering to these guidelines, publishers can reach a compromise between ad revenue and users’ preferences, striking a balance that benefits all parties involved.

AdBlock reviews each application manually and will block your site if you make any large changes post-approval.

It’s tough to get in for most publishers, but if you can, it can offset much of the damage from ad-blocking software.

Otherwise, you can simply pay to get in, though expect this to be very expensive since only a few hundred major advertisers have managed it so far (Google, eHow, etc.).

Ad Reinsertion

Ad reinsertion, on the other hand, is another way where alternate methods are applied to show the original ad to the user. This is generally done by:

• Making the code less detectable to the ad blockers (Obfuscation)
• Inserting the ad at the last moment when the ad blocker has attempted to block them (Dynamic Ad Insertion)
• Replying on URLs that the ad blocker has not blocked to deliver the ad (Alternative URLs)

Some users can find these methods intrusive if not implemented properly, especially ad reinsertion. In general, ad replacement (Acceptable Ads) is fairly more ethical for adblock monetization compared to ad reinsertion.

What Can Publishers Do In The Long Run?

Ad block revenue recovery doesn’t stop here. As we mentioned above, the user uses ad blocker only to improve their browsing experience. There are a few more adblock monetization techniques you can implement in the long-run to give a positive ad experience to the users.

7. Create More Native Content (Native Ads)

Native ads have long been held as the savior of publishers in the age of ad block. Business Research Insights states that the global native advertising market will reach $145.29 billion by 2025. It will grow at a CAGR of 14.24% to reach $421.47 billion by 2033.

Native ad content is usually created by the publisher itself and is focused on a topic that aligns with the advertiser’s and the reader’s interests.

Here’s an example from NYT. Note how it feels like a regular article, not an advert:

Native advertising can be wildly lucrative, but it also requires more effort to attract and scale. A few challenges you’ll face are:

• Traffic: Since native content is usually unique to a single publisher, you’ll have to have enough traffic to justify the spend for an advertiser.
• Content creation: Suffice it to say native advertising requires you to come up with the content. Which is why so many marquee publishers run their content studios.
• Reputation: Outside of some start-ups using it as a growth hacking tactic, native content is still dominated by large brands. These brands are usually reluctant to work with publishers without established reputations.
• Sales: Since native content is so decentralized, you’ll have to pound the pavement and get sales yourself. This might make it unfeasible for some publishers.

If you have traffic and/or a highly engaged audience, this is definitely a direction you should explore.

8. Optimize for Viewability

Ad revenue grows, so does the sound of digital success with each impression and click drives measurable growth. With the money flowing in, the long-term goals blur out, and so do the users’ woes. Be it stuffing ads above-the-fold or excessive ad frequency, all affect user experience.

To meet the requested viewable thresholds, many publishers tend to forego user experience and implement aggressive advertising layouts. However, by doing this, they tend to further alienate the users. 

As a general rule of thumb, highly viewable impressions can be sold at higher floor prices without disparaging competition, and above-the-fold placements are regarded as top-tier inventory. It’s the first thing users see when they land on a page; the space is irresistible to advertisers.

It’s also worth noting that without content to engage users above the fold, users learn to scroll down before your ads pass the MRC viewability criteria, or as is often the case before the creative even renders.

Optimizing for viewability will need engaging content, along with paying attention to site design, ad layout, latency, and ad ops. Take an inventory of your impressions and map out impressions you want to optimize for/offer up as highly viewable.

Identify the ad sizes and placements that are dragging down your average viewable impressions count. Then, begin optimizing with:

• Lazy loading ads, so they show up when they are on-screen. Share this signal with your demand partners in the bid request.
• Creative weight filters: Limit existing creative weight by implementing size limits on RTB calls. Charge more for heavy assets, reserve them for direct deals, or discard them. Offer site-serving to direct deal partners to cut the lag even further.
• Latency from ad render time has a direct impact on the viewability of an ad. Monitor this time diligently. Measure the timeouts you set against each demand partner’s bid response time and optimize accordingly.
• Continuously test and optimize all ad sizes and formats in conjunction with site design elements. Optimizing for site design or latency in isolation will not work to improve UX and viewability with a cluttered ad layout.

9. Avoid Page Bloating at all Costs

Too many ad requests made to the browser can slow down the ad delivery process, hence affecting the loading time. The logic is simple here: the more the ad requests, the more ad networks will be called upon, leading to a domino effect.

Programmatic ad networks are slowing down ad delivery, because of too many requests being made. Every programmatic ad that goes into an open auction communicates with ad networks that place bids — known as requests. Then pieces of code are introduced into the ad to track its performance and other reporting criteria. IAB sets a guideline of 15 network calls for each ad in an auction, but the average is closer to 60, according to the report.

via Adage India

However, optimizing for viewability and Acceptable Ads should negate this. But if the situation persists, then it’s better to partner with an ad block recovery platform to handle the situation on your behalf.

10. Thoughtful Ad Formats

Talking about playing the long game, there’s one major change that your users will love you for in the long run: implementing user-friendly ad formats.

The idea here is simple: use ad formats and sizes that don’t irritate your users. As a publisher, you should remember that users are fine watching the ads as long as they don’t obstruct the browsing experience.

What to do:

Desktops:

• Skyscraper ads on the sidebars
• Banner display ads above the fold
• Display ads within the content

Mobiles:

• Mobile banner ad above-the-fold
• Bottom sticky ads
• Mobile display ads within the content

What NOT to do:

Desktops:

• Auto-playing video ads with sound
• Pop-up ads
• Interstitial ads with countdown
• Large sticky ads

Mobiles:

• Pop-up ads
• Large sticky ads
• Flashing animated ads
• Auto-playing video ads with sound
• Ad density higher than 30%
• Fullscreen scroll over ads

11. Get Creative with Audio Ads

Adblock does a great job of removing ads from a page. But it can’t remove audio ads voiced directly by the speaker in a podcast.

Besides the “podcast revival,” this is one reason why major publishers are investing heavily in podcasting. As things stand, it is an “ad block proof” content format.

NYTimes has The Daily, Popcast, and Still Processing, among others. BBC has The Brexit Cast, Making History, Our Man in the Middle East, etc. Buzzfeed has a whole range of podcasts covering everything from culture to news.

If podcasts are not your genre, then you can simply incorporate an audio ad between the text-to-speech option for articles. This variation of audio ads aims to provide the user with an alternative listening experience of the content while retrieving the ad block revenue.

Key Takeaways on Adblock Monetization

• Publishers lost $54 billion in ad revenue in 2024. With 42.7% of internet users using ad blockers, this number is bound to increase in 2025.
• However, to safeguard their ad revenue, publishers can adopt several adblock monetization strategies like implementing adblock walls, server-side ad insertions, ad recovery softwares, or collect consented data from ad block users.
• But at the same time, publishers need to implement long-term solutions as well like implementing native ads or audio ads, enrolling in Acceptable Ads program, focus on Core Web Vitals and optimize to avoid page bloating.
• Also, Publishers should avoid displaying intrusive ads like auto-playing ads with audio enabled, interstitial ads with a countdown, and popunder ads.

Start monetizing your adblocked ad inventory with AdPushup Ad Block Recovery Solution. Start here.

FAQs on Adblock Monetization

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