Since the Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) recently released their primer on ad blocking, the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) launched an Ad Block Gauge, which allows websites to detect ad blockers.
The Ad Block Gauge comes in one of two versions, either a standalone edition, or as part of the Illinois-based organization’s new Site Certifier tool for website and app metrics.
According to Joe Hardin, Vice President of Product Leadership, the Gauge is free when included with the Certifier. But if users want to use the standalone version, there will be a fee. That fee will vary depending on the traffic of each site that utilizes the Gauge.
AAM has billed the Gauge as “the industry’s first ad blocking detection technology available from an independent, unbiased third party.” There is a free ad blocker detection script offered by IAB, along with other tools that are available from various ad tech companies and other sources.
Hardin said that the main difference is that this is a service by a neutral third-party source that isn’t selling advertising. In order to use it, a site only needs to add some JavaScript to pages on the site, which call the online service.
The Gauge will provide data in a custom data dashboard set up by AMM about percentage of page impressions blocked, as well as OS, geo-location and device type of the blocking visitor.
If no information on how many or what ads are blocked, or the specific URLS of pages that are blocked, the publisher can’t assess the financial impact. There isn’t any indication of which ad blocker software has been employed.
Early last week, the IAB released a “Publisher Ad Blocking Response Primer.” In this primer, there was a four-step strategy for publishers to fight ad blockers, under the acronym DEAL:
• Detect ad blocking, in order to initiate the conversation
• Explain the value exchange that advertising enables
• Ask for changed behavior in order to maintain an equitable exchange
• Lift and Levy restrictions in response to consumer choices
This was a “first step” by AAM to support the detect step in the IAB approach, according to Hardin, which is meant to help to “initiate the conversation.”