According to CitizenNet, 60% of Millennials block online advertising for reasons such as:

• Generalized ads aren’t relevant to their needs and take up space on their screens.
• Millennials don’t want to be interrupted by irrelevant things.
• Online ads can slow down Internet browsing.
• Malware and viruses can be distributed through ads.
• Pop-ups, Pop-unders, videos that automatically start playing and other similar types of advertising are incredibly annoying.

It’s not hard to block ads either. In just a few clicks you can install a browser extension that blocks 99% of online advertising.

So what’s the solution for reaching people who have such a strong distaste for online advertising? Social advertising is the answer.

Why social advertising?

Surprisingly enough, a lot of Millennials don’t block advertising on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Because of the incredibly powerful targeting options advertisers have on social media sites these ads are much more relevant and helpful.

Relevant ads that introduce you to a product or service you’re interested in are a service, not a nuisance.

Think about a time that you were introduced to something like a restaurant or television show that you fell in love with. You should have this sort of mindset when it comes to social advertising.

For years traditional advertising was broadly targeted and dumbed-down to reach as many people as possible.

Ad blockers were developed as a result of companies bringing this style of advertising to the Internet.

Thanks to social media however, advertising is becoming much more relevant and personal.

A huge number of people are interacting with each other on social media. This creates an overwhelming amount of data that can be used to target advertising.

Furthermore Millennials find ads on social media sites to be much more relevant than paid search ads on platforms such as Google Adwords that target specific key phrases.

Another factor to consider is that 70% of advertising impressions from social media take place within apps. In an app environment ad blockers don’t work because the social media company has full control over the environment and user experience.

Some users may still try to block advertising when they visit social media sites using the web browser on their desktop computer.  However this is becoming an increasingly smaller number of people every day.

Social media sites and apps are also able to better manage the advertisements they display in ways that traditional advertisers can’t providing a much better user experience.

In conclusion

There’s nothing you can do about people who decide to use ad blockers and unfortunately more and more people are.

You can however, change your approach to advertising and focus on targeted, revenant and personal ads through social media. Your audience is there because almost everyone today is connected through social media.

When running social ads remember to keep them as relevant to your audience as possible.

Make sure your ads are optimized for mobile as well. According to Wireless Week, 97% of Millennials consume content on a mobile device and as much as 20% claim to only use mobile.

Millennials have much higher standards for the brands that they trust than previous generations and they don’t tolerate things like interruptions.

It’s important to keep all this in mind when you plan your online advertising campaigns to avoid being caught in the ad blockers.