I have to come clean. I’m a digital marketer and I use an ad blocking plugin. I actively promote digital advertising for clients and partners while protecting myself from seeing those ads. That said, I fully stand behind digital advertising – specifically PPC, paid search and other programmatic options – as one of the most effective and profitable methods for driving real, measurable business results.
Why I Use An Ad Blocker
But before I get to that, let me explain my situation. On my personal computer I use Adblock Plus to hide as many ads as possible while I am browsing the web. Why? Because the user experience is better. It just is. Not only is it more enjoyable and less distracting to browse without ads, but pages load much faster. There is less data to be downloaded, which is especially significant for mobile devices as the major wireless carriers are increasingly monetizing the use of data. The importance of quick-loading pages for mobile is highlighted by what Google is doing with their Accelerated Mobile Pages project and Facebook is doing with Instant Articles. Clearly a lightweight mobile experience is what the end user wants.
Then why not block ads, right? Well, as a digital marketer, it’s not that easy…