Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Google Allows End User Choice in Paying for Content

“Choice” is among the most-powerful words in marketing and advertising, along with “new” or “improved,” it is reasonable to argue. And “choice” is precisely the objective of Google’s new Funding Choices capability.

“With Funding Choices, now in beta, publishers can show a customized message to visitors using an ad blocker, inviting them to either enable ads on their site, or pay for a pass that removes all ads on that site through the new Google Contributor, says Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google SVP.

That is one reasonable response to the use of ad blockers, arguably used by many consumers because the number and kinds of advertising they encounter are objectionable. Funding Choices now offers a choice, though.

Consumers can accept the ads, with the content, the way much of the media historically has operated. Or they can opt to pay directly for the content.

Google likely hopes the new capability will reduce regulatory threats, improve end user experience and mollify ad-supported content partners, since ad blocking directly attacks the monetization mechanism for much online content.

Optimal.com has estimated that U.S. online display advertising, shown as the orange bars in this Optimal.com graph (figures in millions of dollars). The loss is estimated at about $12 billion in 2020.


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