The rise of ad-blocking on social media channels has reached “shocking” proportions, according to the founder of a digital agency.
Jamie Sergeant, founder and director of digital communications agency Crowd, told BusinessCloud that advertisers globally spent £24 billion on advertising on social channels last year.
He said this “puts into perspective the hundreds of thousands of pounds that each company and brand spend on social advertisements, only for them to be blocked by around a million desktop users” .
“For social managers like myself, this is a shocking number considering the amount of money being spent on these ads,” he said.
“It really makes you wonder exactly where all your money is going to and how accurate and worthwhile your engagement is.”
As a user, Sergeant says he finds ads are “starting to blend in” with other posts and says personalisation tools used by social networks mean users should not see anything they had not previously expressed a preference in.
“Another thing I like about ads, particularly on Facebook desktop, is the side ads that recommend items of clothing based on my past searches,” he said.
“I would even go as far as saying that I believe ads put a whole different spin on social channels, whether that is for the good or the bad is really up to the consumer to decide.”
While ad-blocking will continue, so too will the need for advertising to ensure social channels make money and remain free to use.
“Ads aren’t necessarily ruining social media, but they are completely changing the user’s experience and whether they choose to block these ads or not is completely in their power and very dependent on the type of consumer they are,” Sergeant added.
Crowd has offices in Bournemouth, London, San Francisco, Dubai and Detroit.